Oscar Landerretche is an awesome economist from Chile. Below is an excerpt of his participation in a video forum with Brad DeLong on the Politics of Inequality in 2012. Since then he has become the President of the Board of Directors for Codelco, the largest copper producer in Chile. He is currently dealing with the […]
One has to be crazy to disagree with Brad DeLong. Then, I must be crazy. He said… “After being wrong for eight straight years, critics of expansionary macro policies in a high-slack low-inflation economy–” Link It is true that if we look across America, we will see lots of slack and underemployment. Labor force participation […]
In a recent post Tyler Cowen makes an admirable effort to lay out his overarching approach to thinking about macroeconomics, revealing the assumptions underlying his understanding of how economies work. (Even more salutary, this has prompted others to do likewise: Nick Rowe, Ryan Avent.) Cowen’s first assertion: In world history, 99% of all business cycles are real […]
This is a comment on an article that came out yesterday called The equilibrium real funds rate: Past, present and future by James D. Hamilton, Ethan Harris, Jan Hatzius and Kenneth D. West. They talk about how difficult it is to determine an equilibrium real interest rate which is the real rate at full employment […]
by Joseph Joyce Growth in the Emerging Market Economies In recent decades the global economy has been transformed by the rise of the emerging market economies. Their growth lifted millions out of poverty and gave their governments the right to call for a larger voice in discussions of international economic governance. Therefore it is of […]
Menzie Chinn wrote about various ways to estimate potential GDP. It becomes perplexing when an estimation shows that the output gap could be zero. Why? Because there are such weak inflation pressures… “That seems implausible to me, but then, so too does a nearly zero gap, given the lagging inflation rate.” – Menzie Chinn The […]
Since December of 2014, I have been tweeting that the Dow will orbit around an attractor level around 17,300… “Dow is in what I see as stable part of weightless orbit around 17,200… waiting for Fed communications” — Edward Lambert (@wisegrowth) December 17, 2014 “Dow heading toward attractor zone of 17,200 to 17,300 that I […]
by Joseph Joyce The Continuing Dominance of the Dollar: A Review of Cohen’s “Currency Power” Every year I choose a book that deals with an important aspect of globalization, and award it the Globalization Book of the Year, also known as the “Globie.” Unfortunately, there is no cash prize to go along with it, so […]
One who makes comments on Angry Bear, William Ryan, said… “Besides I thought we have been in a slump since 2008 haven’t we?( I guess it depends on what sector of the economy we are talking about)” What sector has been in a slump? Middle and low incomes. Wages have been barely rising. Under-employment is […]
From what I read, nobody has pointed out the drop in Nonfarm Business Sector: Hours of All Persons in the 3rd quarter. (seasonally adjusted) The index of hours decreased from 110.66 to 110.53. This is actually noteworthy… Nonfarm Business Sector: Hours of All Persons since 1967. (link to graph) You can see that hours increase […]