I can’t pass up this opportunity to brag about another one of my former students– Matthew Kahn says that Derek Neal would make a good president.
Matthew’s right.
Author Archives: James_Hamilton
What would Milton do?
What with next Monday apparently having been declared Milton Friedman Day, I thought I might try to contribute to the festivities with some thoughts on how recent U.S. monetary policy might be evaluated from a Friedmanesque perspective.
Commodity speculation
Two stories this week give me some concern.
Bernanke and the Social Security Trust Fund
I would like to join Felix Salmon [1],
[2]
in suggesting that Dean Baker has mischaracterized both Fed Chair Ben Bernanke’s remarks to the Congress as well as the substantive policy questions on the table.
Bernanke on the deficit
In testimony before the Senate Budget Committee yesterday, Fed Chair Ben Bernanke once again tells it like it is.
What’s bringing oil prices down?
Darn hard to talk about this without bringing in the speculators.
Housing market review
Our local newspaper, the San Diego Union Tribune, has a big article this morning on the housing market. Among other things, this features some thoughts from yours truly and a foray into multimedia publishing.
The distribution of world income
One of the most profound questions in economics is why are some countries rich and others poor?
The New Deal and the Great Depression
Like the folks writing at Mahalanobis, Marginal Revolution and Free Exchange, I was rather surprised to see Berkeley Professor Brad DeLong claim, “A normal person would not argue that the New Deal prolonged the Great Depression.” Since Brad is a smart guy, I think it might be time for me to acknowledge my freakiness.
Recession probability
Yet another tool to try to assess the probability of a recession.