Alex Williams

The Department of Treasury should be making use of the Exchange Stabilization Fund (ESF) to target accelerated supply-side responses and insure critical producers against downside risks.

Given the discretion afforded the Secretary in utilizing the ESF, and the strong correlation between commodity price volatility and exchange rate volatility, the Secretary has the authority to establish a Supply Insurance and Acceleration Program for key commodities.

Summary The Department of Energy (“DOE”) is about to engage in rulemaking to broaden the types of acquisitions it can engage in to help refill the reserve in a manner that is both cost-efficient and consistent with the broader goal of enhancing energy security. This rulemaking is a worthwhile opportunity

Repeated price crashes in a variety of industries led to a situation of underinvestment in productive capacity that created the conditions for the inflation we see today.

Since financial markets are complex and energy policy can be shrouded in legalese, it is worth taking a minute to translate some of the more abstruse language in the DOE’s announcement.

Tightening global financial conditions may serve to reinforce policy tightening, and the Fed should be cognizant of the risk that hikes may have a stronger-than-expected impact in this period of elevated uncertainty.

If we are trying to describe the nature of the real constraints that the economy has been facing over the past 6-12 months, we need a richer economic vocabulary than one that reduces every inflationary constraint to a domestic labor constraint.

A CPI pre-read, wherein we argue the Fed should be calibrating its tightening efforts to what current conditions are indicating.

The recently-announced SPR release is the first step in a broader program to address oil price volatility in today's geopolitical environment.