Author Archives: Menzie Chinn

China Acts

From Bloomberg:


China Announces 4 Trillion Yuan Economic Stimulus (Update2)


By Li Yanping and Chia-Peck Wong

Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) — China announced a 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) stimulus plan to spur expansion in the world’s fourth-largest economy, helping sustain global growth as the U.S., Europe and Japan teeter on the brink of recession.

The funds, equivalent to almost a fifth of China’s $3.3 trillion gross domestic product last year, will be used by the end of 2010, the Beijing-based State Council said today on its Web site. China will adopt a “pro-active fiscal policy” and pursue a “moderately loose” monetary policy, it said.

Continue reading →

Main Street Recession Watch: ADP Report on Employment

Further evidence that the small business segment of the economy is undergoing stress. From the ADP National Employment Report:

[Joel] Prakken added, “This month’s employment loss was driven by the goods-producing
sector which declined 126,000 during October, its twenty-third consecutive monthly
decline. The manufacturing sector marked its twenty-sixth consecutive monthly decline,
losing 85,000 jobs. These losses were compounded by an employment decline in the
service-providing sector of the economy which fell by 31,000, the first loss in the serviceproviding
sector recorded by the ADP Report since November of 2002.”

“Large businesses, defined as those with 500 or more workers, saw employment decline
41,000, while medium-size companies with between 50 and 499 workers declined
91,000. Employment among small-size businesses, defined as those with fewer than 50 workers, declined 25,000. This is the first outright decline in small business employment reported by the ADP Report since November of 2002, and the largest percentage decline
since the economy was emerging from recession in early 2002,” said Prakken.

Continue reading →

Fiscal Implications of the Candidates’ Plans

I think now is the time to consider the fiscal implications of the candidates’ budget — and particularly tax — plans, especially considering the revenue declines and outlays that will confront the next President. Indeed, I would say imminent revenue declines will place an even greater premium on sensible tax plans, and efficient use of Federal dollars. Figure 1 displays the budget surplus to GDP ratio, both actual and CBO baseline.

Continue reading →

Some Additional Observations on the 2008Q3 Advance GDP Release

If you went no further than noticing that the q/q annualized growth rate of -0.3% was faster than the -0.5 in the Bloomberg consensus, you might have taken this as good news. I’m not going to say it wasn’t good news (relatively speaking), although negative growth makes the case for recession pretty good according to Jeff Frankel (who is on the NBER BCDC); see also RealTime Economics. However, there are some pretty interesting things that merit additional discussion.

Continue reading →

Pocketful of Multipliers (II): Options for Stimulus Packages

As the debate over the nature and size of a stimulus package wends its way through the Congress [0], [1], [2], I thought it would be useful to bring numbers into the debate, especially as we are considering fiscal stimulus in a time when the Bush Administration has constrained, by dint of previous profligacy, our options. In particular, I want to return to the issue of multipliers, discussed in nearly a year ago. Here, I want to provide a little more specificity, regarding the impact depending upon the type of outlays.

Continue reading →

Yikes! Euro Area Edition

From the FT today:

Survey underlines grim outlook for eurozone


By Ralph Atkins in Frankfurt, Published: October 24 2008 11:23 | Last updated: October 24 2008 18:37

The eurozone economy contracted sharply in October as the global bank crisis slammed the brakes on business activity and blackened the outlook for the 15-country region, a closely watched survey indicated on Friday.

Continue reading →

Middle Kingdom Malaise? The Latest Chinese GDP Figures

Monday’s announcement that Chinese growth was decelerating was not surprising; that it decelerated to below the consensus of 9.7% growth to 9% (y/y) in 2008Q3 was a surprise. This was reflected in the headlines: “China growth rate slows sharply” (FT), “China less likely to buffer world crisis as its economy slows” (LA Times), “China’s economy feels chill from global crisis” (AP). For detailed numbers, see Haver.

Continue reading →

CRA and Fannie and Freddie as betes noire

There is so much chaff floating around about the roles of Fannie and Freddie and of the Community Reinvestment Act in the current crisis, despite the best efforts of economists like Jim Hamilton [0] [1], Mark Thoma and Janet Yellen, that it seems worthwhile to once again go through some of the arguments that have been forwarded.

From David Goldstein and Kevin G. Hall, “Private sector loans, not Fannie or Freddie, triggered crisis”:

Federal Reserve Board data show that:

  • More than 84 percent of the subprime mortgages in 2006 were issued by private lending institutions.
  • Private firms made nearly 83 percent of the subprime loans to low- and moderate-income borrowers that year.
  • Only one of the top 25 subprime lenders in 2006 was directly subject to the housing law that’s being lambasted by conservative critics. Continue reading →