Author Archives: Menzie Chinn

“Future Recession Risks”

That’s the title of a new FRBSF Economic Letter. From Future Recession Risks, by Travis Berge and Oscar Jorda:

An unstable economic environment has rekindled talk of a double-dip recession. The Conference Board’s Leading Economic Index provides data for predicting the probability of a recession but is limited by the weight assigned to its indicators and the varying efficacy of those indicators over different time horizons. Statistical experiments with LEI data can mitigate these limitations and suggest that a recessionary relapse is a significant possibility sometime in the next two years.

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Vast Ice ‘Island’ Breaks Free of Greenland Glacier

From NYT, a quote of researcher Jason Box:

Petermann [glacier] is a sleeping giant that is slowly awakening. Removing flow resistance leads to flow acceleration… The coincidence of this area loss and a 30 square kilometer loss in 2008 with abnormal warmth this year, the setting of increasing sea surface temperatures and sea ice decline are all part of a climate warming pattern.

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The 10Q2 Advance GDP Release: Cautionary Notes from Revisions

The 2010Q2 advance GDP release has been covered by Jim, as well as others. [RTE/Izzo] [CEA] [FreeExchange/RA] [CR] [MA] The release was accompanied by an annual revision of data extending back to data for 2007Q1. This revision alters our understanding (or lack of understanding in the cases of certain people) of the evolution of this recession. Here are the points I gleaned.

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Conference: China in the Global Economy

Recently, I had the pleasure of participating in a CES-ifo workshop on “The Evolving Role of China in the Global Economy,” co-organized by Yin-Wong Cheung and Jakob de Haan. The conference agenda is here. The paper topics spanned issues ranging from monetary independence and integration into global financial markets, SOE access to credit and SOE efficiency, Chinese saving/consumption behavior, econometric models of China-global interactions, and the determinants of Chinese FDI in the rest-of-the-world.

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Bruce Bartlett Reminds Us: WMD, Medicare Part D, Steel Tariffs, Harriet Miers

Bruce Bartlett reminds us of the George W. Bush: Screwup-in-Chief, 2001-2008. Short version: Iraq, WMD, unfunded Medicare Part D, Sarbanes-Oxley, Katrina, Harriet Miers, no vetos until second term, tax rebates+credits and nonpermanent tax cuts, steel tariffs, ag subsidies, keeping Cheney, compassionate conservativism, signing McCain-Feingold after threatening to veto, neutering SecTreas, and GSEs.

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