W(h)ither Italy? I returned a few days ago from a conference in Italy where I spoke with some former economic advisers of the Five Star Movement (M5S), which is now in a coalition government with the hard right wing Lega, formerly the separatist Northern League, which has now gone national, appealing to southern Italy with […]
I have to link to this column, which is better than Krugman’s average. It is mostly Krugman’s usual shrill praise of fiscal stimulus. I find two things notable. One is that he has no time or column inches for unconventional monetary policy. He’s back to “monetary policy was ineffective because we were at the zero […]
New article on tax increment financing in Missouri shows impact of KS/MO border war After several years of work, my colleague Susan G. Mason (Boise State University) and I have published a new article on TIF in Missouri, specifically in the St. Louis and Kansas City metropolitan areas. “Exploring Patterns of Tax Increment Financing Use […]
Scenes from the August jobs report 1. The strong trend of people entering the jobs market and getting jobs remains intact Here’s a nice graph put together by Kevin Drum at Mother Jones showing both a linear and curvilinear trend line (which are nearly identical) (red) with the prime age employment to population ratio (blue): […]
by New Deal democrat August producer data goes in the opposite direction from the consumer I have a new post, “Producers are Hot*, but Consumers Maybe Not,” up at Seeking Alpha. in which I contrast the white hot ISM manufacturing report with the lackluster motor vehicle sales and residential construction — the two biggest durable consumer […]
August jobs report: overall progress, with some new highs and some givebacks – by New Deal democrat HEADLINES: +201,000 jobs added U3 unemployment rate unchanged at 3.9% U6 underemployment rate declined -0.1% from 7.5% to 7.4% (NEW EXPANSION LOW) Here are the headlines on wages and the broader measures of underemployment: Wages and participation rates Not […]
by Joseph Joyce The Euro At Twenty: Mody’s EuroTragedy The euro will mark its twentieth anniversary in 2019. Is this a cause of celebration and congratulations? Or a case of a well-intentioned policy gone awry? Ashoka Mody in his new book , EuroTragedy: A Drama in Nine Acts, offers an account that shows that the joint currency […]
The July-August issue of New Left Review published an essay by Robert Pollin titled “De-growth vs. Green New Deal” in which he outlines his objections to what Peter Dorman affectionately refers to as “a suicide cult masquerading as a political position.” I have written a response to Pollin’s article, that I have submitted to NLR, […]
China Starts Yuan/RMB Futures Market Juan Cole reports that Reuters reports that China is establishing a commodities futures market in Shanghai that will operate in yuan/rmb. According to the report the commodity that is most expected to be traded is crude petroleum. This will put this exchange in competition with the West Texas intermediate crude […]
Brad DeLong hops aboard the “Employers have a Taboo against raising Wages” bandwagon For Labor Day Prof. Brad DeLong posted a talk on the implications (or not) of the US being near “full employment.” The arguments on a few of the pages will be familiar to readers of this blog: