|Peter Boettke| Paul Krugman provides his take on the Beckworth graph showing the collapse of nominal spending and relates it to his 1998 work on Japan. The upshot, monetary policy will not produce the desired effect in our current situation....
“LET’S FACE IT, WITH ALL THESE DIM-WITS SPENDING MONEY ON CARFARE, HOTEL ACCOMODATIONS AND LET’S NOT FORGET TEABAGS, BY THE END OF THE FOURTH QUARTER, THIS COUNTRY IS POISED TO GROW LIKE A MALIGNANT TUMOR.”
Obama has been listening to the wrong people, and he should be focusing on creating more stimulus programs to get this economy going. What is going to happen, as I fear, is the unemployment rate is going to keep going up, and Obama and the Democrats will be blamed. Then we will have more Republicans, who will not do ONE DAMNED THING about the economy and allow the country to slide into third world...
Mac Slavo submits: Friday’s unemployment report from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics is anything but a green shoot. The official U-3 unemployment number is 10.2%. The broader and more comprehensive official unemployment number, the U-6, is at 17.5%. The U-6 counts all the people that want a job but gave up, all the people with part-time jobs that want a full-time job, and all the people who...
It’s always a good day when Paul Krugman throws a nice easy pitch over the fat part of the plate. In this post commenting on Beckworth he combines all of the worst features of his blog, in one nice package with a bow on top. Here’s my problem. Underlying the focus on nominal demand or GDP [...]
The President inherited several messes from George Bush, not the least of which has been the war in Afghanistan and, closer to home, what he termed in October 2008 during a Toledo campaign speech ”an immediate economic crisis.” While Obama’s rhetoric has been compelling on both subjects he’s developed an unfortunate reputation, at least in terms of the economy, as being too...
Paul Krugman has a working draft that argues and models how increasing returns, in the form of localized external economies, plays a major role in explaining trade patterns even in a world of comparative advantage. He traces the history of international trade to three parts - pre-War (export of different goods - manufactures and primary products - based on comparative advantage), post-War (trade between...
UPDATE: Be sure to read the Sumner/Murphy exchange in the comments. Folks, I may have to put the Google ads back up. This is easily a $19.95 value, yours free if you act now. --RPM Sometimes I feel like the Barack Obama of econoblogging. I understand all sides in a dispute; I am the aloof Olympian overseer . Case in point: Paul Krugman was upset at economists who use MV=PY not simply as a tautology,...
During Japan's seemingly never-ending recession/semi-recession starting in the early 1990s, Paul Krugman repeatedly argued and lectured that Japan should use monetary policy to stimulate its economy. In 1998 he wrote a notable paper arguing that monetary policy would work in spite of 0% short-term interest rates (a "liquidity trap"), and criticizing Japan's wasteful government-spending "stimulus"...
David Beckworth has two graphs that depicts the nominal spending changes in the US economy and among OECD economies for the half century since 1960, which are strikingly similar, especially in the great crash in nominal spending since the later half of 2008. The immediate conclusion drawn from this is the apparent insufficiency of monetary expansion in recent times. Marginal Revolution feels that...
I've had this article in draft for about three weeks. Paul Krugman's latest item seemed an opportune moment to finish it. Intriguing article by Sheng and Pomerleano in the Economists' Forum about zero interest rate policy . I don't think I agree with what they are saying (insofar as I can even tell what they're saying) but it stimulates a few thoughts along Scott Sumnerish lines. One bit (from Kevin...
I sure as hell ain't as smart as Paul Krugman but we share the same thoughts sometimes. I saw the economy tanking back in November of 2007. What I didn't see was just how bad it was going to be and it is now worse than I imagined. This country is FUBAR. 10.2% unemployment, the mortgage crisis is still burning like a Roman candle, the Commercial Real Estate nightmare is just beginning and now the cheerleaders...
Pretty please, can we have some inflation? YESTERDAY, I linked to a Paul Krugman post in which he links to an old piece of analysis he wrote on the Japanese economy in 1998, in which he says:To preview the conclusions briefly: in a country with poor long-run growth prospects - for example, because of unfavorable demographic trends - the short-term real interest rate that would be needed to match saving...
Another great read by Paul Krugman . Obama's cautious approach to the economic crisis may lead the way for Democratic losses in 2010. Clearly the situation is better than it was a year ago though as we saw on Friday, employment is still lagging with limited chances of recovery before the mid term elections. Administration officials would presumably argue that they were constrained by political realities,...
Economist Greg Mankiw says it's perfectly okay for the Obami to say that they think the stimulus is responsible for creating or preserving some number of jobs. But it's economic quackery for them to say they know how many jobs have been "saved or created", Paul Krugman to the contrary . Note the sharp difference between the two arguments below. Mankiw: That is, I do not object to claims such...
Three leading political observers grade the President's first six months BY Eric Bates Rolling Stone Magazine D uring Franklin Roosevelt's first 100 days in office, congress granted every request the new president made. Barack Obama, despite enjoying a decisive majority in both houses of Congress, hasn't been so fortunate. His economic stimulus package failed to win a single Republican vote in the