Economics Roundtable

Calculated Risk

Read the Bill McBride interview.


Jobs

The best summary of the state of our economy is the graph (below) of employment as a fraction of population for people over 16 years old. The decrease is large, but the most troubling feature of the graph is the flat trend .


Click on the image to get a bigger version.


June Payroll Employment

The slowndown in employment growth over the past few months is starting to become more apparent in the graph below.

Click on the image to get a bigger version.


Focus on the Problem

U.S. payroll employment peaked at 132.5 million jobs in February 2001. For April 2012, U.S. payroll employment had reached 133.0 million jobs, marking the third month in a row above the February 2001 level.


Click on the image to get a bigger version.


Graph-of-the-Year Candidates

Donald Marron likes European interest rates. Click on the image to get a bigger version. Can you find three distinct subperiods?

Brad DeLong favors the U.S. gdp gap.

Finally, it's hard to argue against the payroll employment graph below (straight from FRED) and the comparison across recessions (courtesy of Calculated Risk).


Looking Up At 2001

In February 2001, U.S. payroll employment peaked at 132.5 million. The November 2011 figure of 131.7 million still falls 800,000 jobs short of the earlier peak.


Click on the chart for a larger version.


Remember M1?

Money Supply M1 growth is now over 20% per year over a 12 month lag. M1 growth has touched 20% before, but not with excess reserves of $1.6 trillion. Where is M1 headed?


Click on the chart for a larger version.


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MV = PQ (Tim Schilling)

"Ideas and discussions about economic and financial literacy issues. This blog is an outreach service of The Powell Center for Economic Literacy.”


January 9, 2013, 1:28 pm, 1043510
Economist James Buchanan has passed away.  Buchanan, along with Gordon Tullock, won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1986 and is known for his work on public choice theory.

You can read his Nobel Prize lecture here.

I had several opportunities to hear Dr. Buchanan speak ...


September 4, 2012, 9:27 am, 1002146
It's early in the semester and many of us who are teaching principles or survey courses are either just into choice or only recently moved on. Here's a great article from today's edition of The Wall Street Journal that sets up a choice that is sure to promote discussion.


June 1, 2012, 7:27 am, 969468
Courtesy of Wondermark.
http://wondermark.com/842/


May 2, 2012, 11:26 am, 963961
Our natural propensity to "truck and barter" as Adam Smith would say:
http://www.gocomics.com/frankandernest/2012/04
/30

(HT to Greg Mankiw)


March 20, 2012, 3:26 pm, 956290
This is not appropriate for use in high schools. However, those of you who teach at the college or university level may find this helpful.  Econgirl at EconomistsDoItWithModels has a great illustration of non-price determinants of demand with the help of "the most interesting man in the world."


March 7, 2012, 7:27 am, 953852
If you discuss the Chevy Volt with your students, you might want to use this. (HT to Carpe Diem.)


February 27, 2012, 9:27 am, 952176
Greg Mankiw posts a great piece from a colleague at the University of Chicago.


February 13, 2012, 9:26 pm, 949892

February 3, 2012, 9:26 pm, 948209


January 18, 2012, 9:26 am, 942883
Actor/writer Rick Moranis has a very amusing piece in the opinion section of today's edition of The Wall Street Journal. What struck me was how good it would be in setting up a discussion of opportunity cost. It really harkened back to Bastiat's "that which is seen and that ...