A lot of people are bracing for huge effects of the latest Gulf storm on energy markets. I see reasons for hoping things won’t be that bad.
Author Archives: James_Hamilton
The space pioneers
You have to wonder about the timing, if nothing else. Last week, Cato Institute researchers warned of a looming budget disaster if strong measures such as cutting the budget for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in half were not taken. On Monday, NASA chief Michael Griffin unveiled a new $104 billion plan for sustained human exploration of the moon by 2018 as a preparatory step for getting people on Mars. Here’s my suggestion for how to explore space without breaking the budget.
Consumer confidence plunges
Yet another key leading indicator turns gloomy. How much can the stock market and the Fed shrug off?
Pop quiz on the deficit
Here’s a pop quiz for macroeconomic students from Economist’s View on how to deal with the deficit.
Lawsuit abuse
Two more examples of why I think America’s lawyers are out of control.
Who cares about core inflation?
This is another one of those months when you could report pretty much any number you like to summarize the current inflation rate, and, as William Polley noted, newspapers did. At times like these, the concept of “core inflation” can be very helpful.
Gasoline demand plummets
By Monday, oil and gasoline futures prices had given up all of the gain they’d experienced since Katrina. Today we learned that U.S. gasoline demand has plummeted. Both developments were pretty surprising, but are surely related.
Energy theory of value
Perhaps no statement by economists causes physical scientists more aggravation than the claim that the economic importance of energy can be measured by its dollar share in total GDP. Here I explore some of the arguments for both sides of that claim.
Hurricane? What hurricane?
Amazingly, gasoline futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange today ended back where they were before Hurricane Katrina struck with all its fury. Retail prices will likely follow that lead. But what about the Fed?
The question about refining
Has environmental regulation been responsible for leaving the U.S. with inadequate gasoline refining capacity? The story is not as simple as some have suggested.