The transcript and video for the IMF Book Forum (October 14th) is now online here. Nobel Laureate George Akerlof (UC Berkeley) moderated, Diane Lim Rogers (EconomistMom, Concord Coalition) and Gail Cohen (Joint Economic Committee) were discussants, and Simon Johnson (Baseline Scenario, MIT) provided concluding comments.
Author Archives: Menzie Chinn
The Dollar and the Renminbi as International Currencies
There’s been a lot of discussion of the potential rise of the Renminbi as an international currency. In particular, Jeffrey Frankel has recently written a paper on the subject (blogpost), backed in part on research we did in our papers [1] [2] on the dollar. Now, the New York Fed’s Linda Goldberg, Mark Choi and Hunter Clark have re-examined some of benefits of being an international currency in a post entitled What If the U.S. Dollar’s Global Role Changed?.
“Financial Stability in Emerging Markets: Dealing with Global Liquidity”
That was the title of a conference in Beijing (October 21st), organized by the Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), and the German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) . I had the privileged of delivering a keynote speech. The conference agenda is here, and encompassed three sessions: Global Liquidity — Consequences and Policy Options; Dealing with International Capital Flows; and a panel forum on International Capital Flows and the International Monetary System.
Guest Contribution: The Great Slump is Not Yet Half Over
By David Papell and Ruxandra Prodan
Today, we’re fortunate to have David Papell and Ruxandra Prodan, Professor and Clinical Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Houston, as Guest Contributors.
The Real American Jobs Act: Dealing with the Threat from Farm Dust Regulation (Really!)
When I click on the link on the website for The Real American Jobs Act (officially, “Jobs Through Growth Act”), this is what I get:
Wealth Inequality: A Time Series Plot
Dismissing the plots of income inequality in previous posts [0] (related posts [1] [2]), an Econbrowser reader asks:
“Do you concur that measures of the wealth distribution have been mostly quiescent since the 1970s and that the distribution of wealth is more even today than it was in the 1940s (the peak for the US modern era)?”
Well, I think that this is an interesting question, and so I went a-searching for data. This is what I found, which led to my answer of “no”.
Crowding Out Watch, Again
I thought my March post on crowding out would be my last for a while, but the latest data are startling enough so that I wanted to post this graph of ten year real interest rates. Just for all those people who were worrying about big jumps in rates with government borrowing.
The World Close to Stall Speed
Or at least OECD plus China *, on the basis of the OECD’s Composite Leading Indicators for August 2011:
On China: Global Impact, Domestic Costs, Hard Landing, and the RMB As an International Currency
A new book on China (and Asia) in the global economy, the costs of the Chinese currency regime, the prospects for a Chinese hard landing, and can China save the day if the US and euro area go into recession. Plus, the prospects for the RMB as a key international currency.
A new book — Asia and China in the World Economy, edited by Yin-Wong Cheung (UCSC and HK City U) and Guonan Ma (BIS).
IMF Book Forum: Lost Decades
A Book Forum on our book, Lost Decades will take place on October 14th, in Washington, DC.