Hiro Ito and Robert McCauley have compiled a new dataset of the currency composition of international reserves over the 1999-2020 period.
A New Database on Individual Central Bank Reserve Composition
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Author Archives: Menzie Chinn
Summarizing China’s Short Term Economic Outlook
Wells Fargo Economics analyses the extent of the current slowdown, and contemplates the impact on regional economies. Here’s the heat map:
Motivations for Economic Policies in Western China
I’m not a China expert, but 20 years ago, I had the opportunity to hear the Chinese explanation for their planned policies in Western China (Xibu Dakaifa), translated in English journalistic accounts as “Develop the West” (I was the international finance economist on the Council of Economic Advisers at the time, and the Chinese counterpart, the State Development Planning Commission, was coming to Washington to meet with us; I was tasked with overseeing elements of the meeting).
Wisconsin’s Labor Markets in August
Employment numbers for August were released yesterday. Nonfarm payroll employment fell, and is undershooting the July 2021 Economic Forecast:
Business Cycle Indicators as of Mid-September
Industrial production finally rises above levels in 2020M02 (the latest NBER peak). We now have the following picture of the macroeconomy (for some key indicators followed by the NBER’s BCDC).
More on the China Slowdown
From BBVA (Jinyue Dong & Le Xia) today, discussing August data: “China | Worse-than-expected growth deceleration exposed the vulnerability of its anti-virus strategy”:
Wisconsin Monthly Economic Update
From the Wisconsin Department of Revenue – September issue. The regular publication of Economic Forecast reports (latest here) and the innovation of monthly updates contrasts strongly with the near economic news blackout in the second Scott Walker administration (discussed here). DoR has also added a lot more data visualizations, here.
CPI Undershoot Illustrated
Typical headline – “U.S. Consumer Price Growth Cools, Smallest Gain in Seven Months“, and “Treasuries Rally After CPI Seen Pushing Off Taper: Markets Wrap” or “Consumer prices climbed more slowly in August, welcome news for the Fed“. Here’re the graphical depictions of the undershoot, first in levels (updating graph from yesterday’s post).
Slowdown in China
Goldman Sachs Current Activity Indicator (CAI) dips into negative territory in August. Since the CAI is scaled to GDP annualized growth, this implies negative GDP growth in that month.
Two Pictures – Money to Income and the Price Level
[For my Econ 435 students] Consider the following graphs. Figure 1 is M1 and M2 to real GDP (0.80 means 80%) for the United States. Figure 2 is M1 to real GDP on left scale, and CPI-all urban on the right scale (taking on a value of 100 in the period 1982-84).