The holiday shopping season is now underway. According to the Wall Street Journal, consumers spent about $10.66 billion on Black Friday, a smidgen higher than last year. And what does that portend for the holiday season and the economy overall? Short answer: No one knows. As Karen Dynan notes in today’s Washington Post, the link [...]
Archive for November, 2009
Myths of Holiday Shopping
Posted in Economy, Macroeconomics, tagged Consumers, Macroeconomics on November 29, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Cupcake Economics
Posted in Microeconomics, Teaching, tagged Cupcakes, Microeconomics on November 28, 2009 | 8 Comments »
As the New York Times noted a few days ago, cupcakes are hot. I’ve seen shops sprouting around the DC area, and according to the article we are not alone: New York, Los Angeles, Denver, and other cities are also enjoying cupcake boomlets. I must admit that I don’t know what’s driving the rise of [...]
Reducing National Health Care Spending
Posted in Health, tagged Health on November 27, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Four researchers from RAND Health have an interesting article in the latest New England Journal of Medicine (ht Bruce Bartlett). Based on some detailed research in Massachusetts, they identified eight strategies that might help to reduce national health care spending: They conclude that the most promising option is to bundle payments: providers would receive a [...]
Q3 Growth Revised Down to 2.8%
Posted in Data, Macroeconomics, tagged Data, GDP, Macroeconomics on November 24, 2009 | 3 Comments »
As expected, the Bureau of Economic Analysis revised down its estimate of Q3 GDP growth. BEA’s second estimate pegs growth at a 2.8% annual pace in Q3, down from 3.5% in the advance estimate. The revision was driven by three main factors: consumer spending and business investment in structures were weaker than previously estimated, while [...]
Google and Me, Part II
Posted in Blog Admin, Internet, tagged Blogging, Google, Internet on November 22, 2009 | 5 Comments »
My existential crisis is over. As of last Thursday, Google is again including this blog in its search results. So, welcome to all the new readers who’ve come here after Googling information on the Eggo shortage and the debate about whether kids should get one H1N1 shot or two. This is probably of interest only [...]
For Health Bills, A Year Makes a Big Difference
Posted in Budget, Health, tagged Budget, CBO, Health on November 20, 2009 | 5 Comments »
The coverage provisions in the Senate health bill have a much lower ten-year cost that do the coverage provisions in the House bill. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the coverage provisions in the Senate bill will cost $848 billion from 2010 through 2019, while the corresponding costs for the House bill are $1.052 [...]
How Much Does the Senate Health Bill Cost?
Posted in Budget, Health, Politics, tagged Budget, CBO, Health, Politics on November 19, 2009 | 16 Comments »
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid unveiled his health bill yesterday. As everyone knows by now, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the bill would spend $848 billion to expand coverage over the next ten years, reducing the number of uninsured in 2019 by about 31 million. (The House bill would spend $1.05 trillion over the [...]
The Great Eggo Shortage
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Microeconomics on November 18, 2009 | 11 Comments »
Today’s microeconomics question, brought to you by the fine people at Kellogg’s: How will Americans respond to the great Eggo shortage? According to CNN Money.com (ht Michelle): Grocery stores will be experiencing a shortage of the waffles until mid-2010 due to problems at two bakeries, a Kellogg’s spokeswoman said on Wednesday. Flooding at an Atlanta [...]
The U.S. Budget Challenge in International Context
Posted in Budget, International, tagged Budget, IMF on November 18, 2009 | 8 Comments »
A few weeks ago, the International Monetary Fund released a report analyzing the fiscal situation of the world’s largest economies. As I discuss at greater length in a piece over at e21, the IMF finds that the United States is not alone in facing daunting fiscal challenges. For example, the IMF predicts that the United States [...]
Bill Belichick and John Maynard Keynes
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Sports on November 16, 2009 | 5 Comments »
Worldly wisdom teaches that it is better for the reputation to fail conventionally than to succeed unconventionally. –John Maynard Keynes Keynes’ insight has a natural corollary, which Bill Belichick, coach of the New England Patriots, learned painfully on Sunday: to fail unconventionally is really, really bad for your reputation. As described by Steve Levitt over at [...]
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