Economics

Somewhere Between Scylla and Charybdis

October 12, 2011 Budget

Recently I had lunch and caught up with an old friend and colleague, one who’s been central to the wars over health coverage. We’re equally distressed about, not only the state of the economy, but the state of political discourse and decision making. We’ve been concerned for quite some time, but this past summer’s debt […]

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Numbers News

September 29, 2011 Cities

Just for a taste. Though most of the taste is bitter Roubini says the economy has started a downturn.spending less on entertainment and charity. Guess we can’t count on charity to help those who are struggling in a down eocnomy. Fifth consecutive year that US cities suffer a revenue decline. Original study was done of […]

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Effect of Debt Ceiling Compromise on Economic Forecasts

August 2, 2011 Economics

My working assumptions have been that any deal on the debt ceiling would impair an economic recovery. The estimates are now beginning to come in. Here’s Macroadvisors, Debt Ceiling Deal: Little Fiscal Drag in ’12, Big Risk in ’13. And here’s Brad DeLong’s response. We’ll add more as we find them.

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If the Federal Government decides not to pay its bills

July 19, 2011 Default

Mathew Yglesias does a nice summary of how the pain (and whatever) will roll downhill if the Federal Government decides not to pay its bills. Actually, Yglesias says “can’t pay its bills.” I think it’s a matter of Congressional choice. Note which states are most likely to suffer the most.

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More on economic interrelationships

July 11, 2011 Economics

Graphic from NPR shows why Europe’s Crisis Matter for the US.

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We slide toward talking about economics – and economic slides

July 11, 2011 Economics

The current economic distress in the US and in the EU have common threads both financially and politically. Certainly the public reactions do. In particular, both involve protecting lenders to a much greater degree than borrowers and much more than the public, which in various ways pays to protect the lenders. They also both involve […]

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Use ALL the Damn Data

March 30, 2011 Economics

Follow the trail here. It’s only barely polite, if that. But the issues are important. The issues are what should our economic policy be and the honesty in data analysis. John Taylor is a professor of Economics at Stanford. In mid-January, he posted an analysis, Higher Investment Best Way to Reduce Unemployment, Recent Experience Shows […]

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Visualized Budget Data for the UK

March 23, 2011 Budget

Even a cursory view suggests to me that the Guardian has been making extra efforts at using data and visualized data at that in their reporting. You’ll find them particularly at their Datablog. Here’s their story on five key data sets in the latest budget. One graphic in particular stood out for me and that […]

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Peanut, Peanut Butter

March 21, 2011 Economics

Too much of economics is pure theory with no data. Take a look at James Hamilton’s commentary at Econobrowser on a paper by Chevalier and Kashyap. The authors actually used grocery store price data. What variability is hidden behind national economic data?

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