Many macroeconomists use models of aggregate consumption based on utility maximization by a rational representative agent. Some models also include liquidity constrained or rule of thumb consumers, but all micro founded models include inter-temporal substitution subject to a lifetime budget constraint. It is also standard to assume that utility is additively separable in consumption and […]

I have seen the top of the Dow Jones index as 16,800, but when the ECB loosened monetary policy to an extent never before seen last week, the Dow Jones lofted over 16,800. It is now hovering below 17,000, but there are concerns that it should not loft higher. I refer to an article by […]

 Via the IMF comes this interesting note: Managing the revenue from natural resources—what’s a Finance Minister to do? By Sanjeev Gupta and Enrique Flores The Finance Minister answers her mobile. On the line is the Minister of Energy, who informs her that the country has struck oil and that he expects revenues from its sale […]

The Real News Network interviewed 2 scientists about a new study on current extinction rates. The scientists interviewed are Dr. Terry Root & Dr. Stuart L. Pimm. The study shows that extinctions are occurring much faster than previously thought and that within 100 years, one third to one half of all species could be extinct. […]

I wrote back on January 28, 2014… “This is a character defining moment in capitalism, when the majority are not aware that the end of a business cycle is forming. There is asymmetric information, if you will. A few understand it. The majority do not. So what should be a time of seeking a sustainable […]

How people use economic terms mainly as a political stance comes in all levels of expertise and income levels.  And how to combine advocacy and justice, whether from the Koch brothers or Walmart and McDonald’s workers, is often blurred and has only soft edges based on personal context and daily exposure to whatever one thinks […]

In China, imports have fallen quite a bit recently. The drop in imports was not just in commodities like copper and iron ore, but in non-commodities too. The implication is that their domestic demand is weak. From a WSJ article, Economists React: China’s Sluggish Imports Raise Concerns. I focus on the comment by one economist […]

Via newsletter from rjs: We’ll include Bill McBride’s graph from his coverage of this report below because it best shows how our trade deficit suddenly spiked over the past 5 months after 2 years of gradual improvement…reading from the top $0 line down, the black graph line tracks our deficit in petroleum trade only in […]

Also via the New York Times comes an article on NSA versus the internet giants like Google. I haven’t a clue (other than skepticism and ‘how does that work?’) as to what it actually means. Just down the road from Google’s main campus here, engineers for the company are accelerating what has become the newest […]

Via Big Picture, Barry Ritholz points us to discussion on the role of ‘war’ in our economy: Preface: Many Americans – including influential economists and talking heads – still wrongly assume that war is good for the economy. For example, extremely influential economists like Paul Krugman and Martin Feldsteinpromote the myth that war is good […]