What we’re reading (6/24)

• “Fed Confronts A ‘New World’ Of Inflation” (New York Times). “[The Fed] is making those decisions [rate hikes and reducing its balance sheet] without much of an established game plan, given the surprising ways in which the economy is behaving. ‘We’ve spent a lot of time — as a committee, and I’ve spent a lot of time personally — looking at history,’ Patrick Harker, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, said in an interview on Wednesday. ‘Nothing quite fits this situation.’”

• “Ray Dalio Says Stagflation Is Coming” (Institutional Investor). “Says Dalio: ‘The only way to raise living standards over the long term is to raise productivity, and central banks don’t do that.’”

• “Another Recession Warning: Falling Copper Prices” (CNN Business). “Some investors look to copper prices as a bellwether for the global economy. If you’re one of them, you have good reason to be worried. What’s happening: Copper prices hit 16-month lows on Thursday as traders dumped the metal. They’ve dropped more than 11% in two weeks.”

• “The Strange Art Of Asking People How Much Inflation They Expect” (Wall Street Journal). “Inflation has become a national preoccupation, hitting levels not seen in 40 years. That’s sparked renewed interest in the Michigan survey because expected inflation is, in some sense, a self-fulfilling prophecy. If people expect it to continue, they might raise prices for their businesses or ask for raises at their jobs, fueling continuing price increases.”

• “Why Are Some Nations More Entrepreneurial Than Others? The Role Of National Culture In Organizational Founding Rates” (Assenova and Amit, working paper). “This study examines the cultural antecedents of cross-national variation in the rates of organizational founding. It argues that some nations became more entrepreneurial than others through their adaptive response to ecological adversity. Nations that historically faced low ecological adversity developed cultural systems that favored rule-breaking versus rule-following (cultural looseness versus tightness).”