Economics Roundtable
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.
November Payroll Employment
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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e21
Economic Policies for the 21st Century
On Tuesday, January 31st, e21 held an event exploring the implications of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare), which was sold to the American people with the promise that “If you like what you have, you can keep it.” New academic research is clearly disproving this claim. The ...
On the heels of his State of the Union Address, President Obama’s Administration is planning to release a reform proposal for the corporate tax system. The plan is supposed to be released in early February, perhaps on the same day as his budget proposal for fiscal year 2013.
This is ...
The President’s State of the Union Address included discussion of the proper level of taxation for investment income. Specifically, the President suggested it was improper for investment income to be taxed at a much lower rate than labor income. This obscures the actual taxation rates faced by investors.
Capital gains are ...
There is little doubt policymakers both within the EU and without will make sure a Hellenic default is avoided. Perhaps the better question is what precedent will the deal set and how will its impact reverberate throughout global financial markets? Whether considering the first deal proposed in October 2011 or ...
There wasn’t much suspense in the run-up to last night’s state of the union address because President Barack Obama long ago signaled the kind of populist and heavily political speech he was going to deliver.
Last September, after a long hot summer of debt limit brinksmanship, he convened a joint session ...
For generations the assumption among market participants, policymakers, and the general population has been that increased homeownership is a positive for the U.S. economy. An essay out of the Richmond Fed from June 2011 poignantly questions this assumption and expands on the risks of subsidizing homeownership. Against ...
Recent data suggest that the mini revival in domestic economic fortunes is largely attributable to an increase in household outlays. This would be good news if the increase was due to household income growth. But, the increase is instead the result of households spending more out of the ...
In the Wall Street Journal, former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, argues that the real budgetary problems are (much further) down the road:
The deficit shot up in basically equal measure from taxes falling and spending rising. Spending rose to 25% of GDP from 20.5% in the ...
The interconnectedness of the global economy has substantially increased its rate of growth. However, that very interconnectedness can allow a local recession spread throughout the globe. A new article in the Financial Times titled “How the Globe Can Grind To a Halt” explains how real a danger we face. ...
The January 4th recess appointment of Richard Cordray as the director at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau prompted a substantial controversy because the Senate was not actually in recess. Given the important discussions of the substantive legal and political implications of the appointment, less attention has been paid ...