One of the themes of this blog is that economics is everywhere in daily life. Property rights, for example, are at the heart of everyday battles over overhead bins, shoveled-out parking spaces, and food in shared refrigerators. Continuing in that vein, a friend recently sent me a link to an amusing piece about sharing guacamole. [...]
Archive for February, 2010
The Tragedy of the Guacamole
Posted in Life, Microeconomics, Uncategorized, tagged Microeconomics, Property, Tragedy of the Commons on February 28, 2010 | 4 Comments »
The Key Driver of Q4 Growth? Inventories
Posted in Data, Economy, Macroeconomics, tagged GDP, Macroeconomics on February 26, 2010 | 4 Comments »
The economy grew briskly last quarter. According to the second estimate by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, gross domestic product increased at a 5.9% annual pace in the fourth quarter of 2009, a bit higher than BEA’s first 5.7% estimate. As usual, I think the best way to understand this report is to see what sectors [...]
The Lost Budget Decade
Posted in Budget, tagged Budget, Debt, Deficit on February 25, 2010 | 3 Comments »
Budget aficionados have long warned that the U.S. budget is on an unsustainable path. That’s old news (but important). The new news, which I hope you’ve noticed, is that those warnings have become more urgent over the past year or so. Why? Because our future problems have moved much closer. Over at the Committee for Economic [...]
The Fed and the Supplementary Financing Program
Posted in Macroeconomics, tagged Federal Reserve, Macroeconomics on February 24, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
As I discussed briefly yesterday, Treasury has announced plans to revitalize its Supplementary Financing Program (SFP), which will effectively mop up $200 billion in excess reserves over the next two months. Even though this is a Treasury action, it strikes me as an important step (with many yet to come) in the Fed’s exit strategy. [...]
Step Three of the Fed’s Exit Strategy
Posted in Macroeconomics, tagged Federal Reserve, Macroeconomics on February 23, 2010 | 4 Comments »
As Confucius Lao Tzu once said, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. The Fed faces just such a journey today: returning monetary policy to normal as the economy heals. And in case you didn’t notice, the Fed has already taken three steps down the road. Step 1 was the termination [...]
The Spectre of Creative Bookkeeping
Posted in Budget, International, tagged Accounting, Budget, Debt, Deficit, Europe, Greece on February 22, 2010 | 3 Comments »
A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of creative bookkeeping. In an article in this morning’s Wall Street Journal (“Debt Deals Haunt Europe“), Charles Forelle and Susanne Craig provide more examples of the “aggressive” bookkeeping that European nations have deployed to satisfy the deficit and debt targets of the Growth and Stability Pact. Greece, [...]
Good Charts from the ERP
Posted in Economy, Finance, Health, Macroeconomics, tagged Finance, Health, Housing on February 15, 2010 | 7 Comments »
Last week, the Council of Economic Advisers released its 2010 Economic Report of the President (ERP). I haven’t had time to read it yet, but I did take a quick spin through looking at the charts and getting a feel for it. The first thing I noticed is that the folks at the CEA have [...]
How Governments Hide Their Liabilities
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Accounting, Budget, Debt, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Greece on February 14, 2010 | 10 Comments »
In my testimony to the Senate Budget Committee the other day, I recommended that Congress set specific fiscal targets for bringing our out-of-control deficits and debt under control. My particular suggestion? Get the publicly-held debt down to 60% of GDP in 2020. By budgeting standards, that makes for a great bumper sticker: “60 in 20“. [...]
Instant Runoff Voting Awards the Oscar
Posted in Politics, tagged Voting on February 11, 2010 | 5 Comments »
As even the most casual film buff knows by now, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences expanded the field of nominees for Best Picture. This year ten films have been nominated for the Oscar, up from five in recent years. Nominees include Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Up in the Air, the Blind Side, [...]
Crisis and Aftermath: The Economy and the Budget
Posted in Budget, Economy, Politics, tagged Budget, Debt, Deficit, Economy on February 9, 2010 | 5 Comments »
Most of official Washington was closed today in the wake of Snowmageddon. But not the Senate Budget Committee, which went ahead as planned with its hearing “Crisis and Aftermath: The Economic Outlook and Risks for the Federal Budget and Debt.“ The three witnesses were Carmen Reinhart of the University of Maryland (famous for her work [...]
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