A sharp reader offers the following hypothesis (which I have edited): Illinois is fundamentally bankrupt. It has less than $1 million in cash, pays vendors net 90, and owes its state university $450 million that it cannot pay. Oh, and it also has $60 billion in unfunded pension liabilities. Now that the Republicans have 41 [...]
Archive for January, 2010
Will Illinois Go Bankrupt Because of Scott Brown?
Posted in Budget, Politics, tagged Budget, Politics, States, Stimulus on January 30, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Inventories Boosted Growth in Q4 2009
Posted in Data, Economy, Macroeconomics, tagged GDP, Macroeconomics on January 29, 2010 | 4 Comments »
The economy grew briskly last quarter. According to the advance estimate by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, gross domestic product increased at a 5.7% pace in the fourth quarter of 2009, faster than many forecasters had expected. (Note: BEA will revise this figure next month and the month after that. Oh, and then BEA will revise [...]
The Debt Limit is a Tax on the Majority
Posted in Budget, Politics, tagged Budget, Debt, Politics on January 28, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Today the Senate voted 60-39 to increase the federal debt limit from $12.4 trillion to $14.3 trillion. No one is happy that we need to borrow another $1.9 trillion in the next year or two, but the alternative–default–is unthinkable. So let’s hope that the House follows suit when it votes next week. As expected, today’s [...]
A New Price Tag for Stimulus: $862 billion, not $787 billion
Posted in Budget, Macroeconomics, tagged Budget, CBO, Deficit, Stimulus on January 27, 2010 | 25 Comments »
Amongst its usual cracker jack budget projections yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office provided a few toy surprises for budget watchers. One is an updated estimate of the direct budget costs of the 2009 stimulus bill, officially known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). CBO originally estimated that ARRA would cost $787 billion from [...]
Deficits As Far as the Eye Can See
Posted in Budget, tagged Budget, CBO, Debt, Deficit on January 26, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Today the Congressional Budget Office released its much-anticipated projections for the budget. As usual, the headline figure is CBO’s estimate of the budget deficit, now projected to be $1.35 trillion for the fiscal year, about 9.2% of GDP. That’s slightly better than last year–when $1.4 trillion deficits amounted to 9.9% of GDP–but is still the [...]
Fear the Boom and Bust: The Keynes vs. Hayek Rap
Posted in Macroeconomics, tagged Humor, Macroeconomics on January 25, 2010 | 3 Comments »
(ht Alex Tabarrok)
Philanthropy and Innovation
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Philanthropy on January 25, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Earlier today, Bill Gates released his second annual letter as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The letter is well worth your time, particularly if you are interested in efforts to improve education and global health. One passage that caught my eye was his description of the foundation’s strategy: Melinda and I see [...]
Fewer Layoffs, Not Enough Hiring
Posted in Data, Economy, Macroeconomics, tagged Data, jobs, unemployment on January 22, 2010 | 4 Comments »
(This is a slightly edited version of a piece that appeared yesterday over at e21.) As policymakers ponder whether and how they might be able to do more to encourage job creation, they should keep in mind that the monthly payroll job figures [e.g., -85,000 in December] are the net result of literally millions of [...]
Goldman Really Did Overpay for Its TARP Warrants
Posted in Finance, tagged Finance, TARP, Warrants on January 21, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Yesterday, Treasury released a comprehensive report on the disposition of TARP warrants through 12/31/2009. It’s a font of fascinating information–at least for fellow TARP warrant aficionados. Treasury apparently did quite well when it negotiated with banks that wanted to repurchase their TARP warrants. I am still a fan of auctions, but you have to give [...]
Joining the “Announcement Effect Club”
Posted in Budget, tagged Budget, Debt on January 21, 2010 | 7 Comments »
Inspired by the popularity of Greg Mankiw’s Pigou Club, which favors using taxes (or auctioned permits) to address pollution problems, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has created its own: the “Announcement Effect Club.” To become a member, you need to endorse the idea that it would help the U.S. economy if our elected [...]
Most Requested
Twitter
Get Updates by Email
Get Updates by RSS
Share or Bookmark
-
Recent Posts
- How Much Does the United States Really Owe?
- Can One Professor Teach 500,000 Students At Once?
- Capital Gains Taxes Are Going Up
- The Natural Gas Glut is Reshaping Electricity Markets
- Oil and Natural Gas Prices Move Even Further Apart
- Getting Better But a Long Way to Go
- How Do Consumers Spend Engine Efficiency Advances? On Bigger, Faster Cars
- Lose an Election, Gain a Think Tank
- You Can’t Manage What You Don’t Measure Correctly, NYC Crime Edition
- Top Posts of 2011
- The Best Photograph of the Year
- Santa, Could You Please Give Me the Impossible?
- The Twelve Days of Christmas for Our Weak Economy
- The Most Important Economic Chart of the Year
- North Korea’s Economic Failure in a Second Picture
30-Second Economics
Tags
Categories
Archives
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
Translate this blog into
