Yet another week of institutional changes that render all those nice macroeconomic texts and professors’ lecture notes obsolete.
Author Archives: James_Hamilton
A new one for the playbook
Via Hot Air, an interesting way to score a touchdown.
A very weak employment report
More bad economic news arrived today from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Manufacturers report more bad news
A quick update on the October ISM report.
Another bad month for autos
To say that the U.S. auto sector continues to bleed may be an understatement. Maybe we should start talking about a severed artery.
Real GDP fell slightly in 2008:Q3
The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported today that U.S. real GDP fell at a 0.3% annual rate in the third quarter of 2008. That’s the second quarter of negative real GDP growth out of the last four, and puts the cumulative annual growth since 2007:Q3 at an anemic 0.8%.
Deflation risk
There are plenty of things to worry about in the current economic situation. But deflation isn’t one of them.
Further rate cuts needed
The Fed will probably vote for another 50-basis-point cut in the fed funds rate this week, bringing its target down to 1%. Here’s why I think that would be a good idea.
The Federal Reserve’s balance sheet
On Thursday, the Federal Reserve issued its weekly H.4.1 report, which provides details of the Fed’s balance sheet. Once upon a time, this was one of the least interesting of the government’s many releases of data. These days, it’s become one of the most exciting.
Brief questions and answers on the fiscal stimulus
No time to post much today, so I’ll just pass along an interesting question and brief answer from the Econbrowser mail room.