Or, nothing to see here. (via Felix’s Twitter feed)

by Rebecca Wilder Yes, the renminbi (RMB) is closer to fair value. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu states: “Our currency, the RMB, has appreciated more than 20 percent against the U.S. dollar since July 2005, when China moved to a floating exchange rate regime,” Ma said. Before 2005, the RMB was pegged to the […]

Favorite papers from the 2008 AEA in New Orleans (all PDF, ungated): Emily Haisley on lottery tickets and perception. I heard about this paper before reading it. Such a simple idea, such a direct experiment. Michele Tertilt: Women’s Liberation: What’s in it for Men (with M. Doepke). The next step is to figure out why […]

A Healthy Blog notes that Massachusetts has reversed the national trend: Since the enactment of Chapter 58, Massachusetts has increased the percentage of employers offering coverage to their employees. With the employer offer rate up 4% over two year, to 76%, we are climbing well above the national average of 60%. This increase occurred in […]

The Guardian on the PIIGS: By the time Black Wednesday was over in September 1992, Soros had reputedly pocketed £1bn and the reputation of the government of John Major for economic competence was in tatters. Meanwhile, datacharmer at Bluematter gets to the core of the matter: I’m wondering what the shorters’ game is. As I […]

Angry Bear has just switched from its blogspot address to its own domain name of http://angrybearblog.strategydemo.com (Angry bear blog) JS-Kit has also just been changed to the new domain name but will take a little bit of time to make the transfer on its servers. I figured few will be visiting soon to read comments […]

by Bruce Webb A quick hit for Super Bowl Sunday. Certain opponents of Social Security claim their goal is ‘sustainable solvency’ which is in practice defined as reducing the flow of funds from the General Fund to Social Security over the long term. In a previous post I pointed out that straight benefit cuts do […]

Lifted from NPR Weekend Edition: The Super Bowl Stock Market Predictor holds that if a team from the old NFL wins, the market will rise in that year; if a team from the old AFL wins, the market will fall. In 1990 two researchers found that the predictor was accurate 91 percent of the time. […]

The Miami Insider has a comment on who makes money today, and who benefits in the longer run. Reprinted with permission from the author. Daniel Honan writes, quote: The Economic Impact: Can Super Bowl XLIV Live Up To The Hype? When Plum posed this question to both the Super Bowl Host Committee and a number […]

Henry Paulson’s book On the Brink is getting pilloried all over the place. David Wessel raises a point I’ve been hammering for a while: Jeff Imment, CEO of General Electric, frightened Paulson in early September by calling to say GE, which Paulson describes as “an American business icon,” was having trouble borrowing money by selling […]