Just an anecdote, but an interesting one.
Yearly Archives: 2008
Expenditure Switching or Expenditure Reduction Again: How Adjustment Is Occuring
The latest GDP release suggests trade balance adjustment is proceeding. Some of the adjustment is being driven by changes in the dollar’s value. But I think a lot seems to be coming from the reduction in consumption and income growth.
ISM Nonmanufacturing index
Big news yesterday (e.g., WSJ, Abnormal Returns, and Paul Krugman), was the plunge in the January ISM nonmanufacturing business activity index. But what’s it mean?
Predicting recession
Michael Dueker is a senior portfolio strategist at Russell Investments and formerly was an assistant vice president in the Research Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. He has been doing some very interesting economic research recently in developing what he calls a Qual VAR model for predicting recessions. We are pleased that he agreed to share some of the current implications of that research with Econbrowser readers, subject to the disclaimer that the content is the responsibility of the
author and does not represent official positions of Russell Investments
and does not constitute investment advice.
How to balance the Federal budget, Bush style, Redux
A year ago, I observed that the Bush Administration was projecting a balanced budget eventually, by assuming away expenditures. We’re in for a replay.
January auto sales
Detroit continues its slow bleed.
More murk in the crystal ball
Some good news, some bad, in the economic data released yesterday.
A “San Diego-style” recession
Alan Gin is an economics professor at the University of San Diego (a separate institution from the University of California at San Diego, where I teach). His San Diego index of leading economic indicators is sending a pretty strong negative signal.
Thinking about Monetary Policy Efficacy: Back to the Textbooks
As the Fed drops interest rates, I’ve been trying to sort out all the channels that monetary policy will affect output, and which ones are likely to be short circuited this time around.
Fed rate cut
Today the Federal Reserve announced a further 50-basis-point cut in its target for the fed funds interest rate, bringing it down to 3.0% for a total reduction in January of 125 basis points. How long should it take before this has an effect on the economy?