In several previous posts, I’ve emphasized the importance of future US consumption behavior in determining whether the global imbalances shrink, or revert to their pre-crisis configuration. [0] [1] [2] An IMF SPN by Jaewoo Lee, Pau Rabanal, and Damiano Sandri weighs in on the question of consumption. From the executive summary:
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A Crisis Reading List
The Political Economy of Recovery and Rebalancing
Jeffry Frieden, Professor of Government at Harvard, has a new Council of Foreign Relations working paper “Global Imbalances, National Rebalancing, and the Political Economy of Recovery” :
Global macroeconomic imbalances — massive borrowing by some countries and massive lending by others — drove the financial boom and bubble that eventually burst into the current crisis. There is now nearly universal agreement that such imbalances cannot be sustained, and that the former deficit and surplus nations need to move toward macroeconomic balance.
IMF Global Financial Stability Report on Financial Sector Interventions
Chapters 2 and 3 of the IMF’s Global Financial Stability Report are out.
Chinn and Collender on the Obama Stimulus Plan
I discussed current economic conditions and the prospects for the Obama stimulus plan on Kerri Miller’s “Midmorning” show on Minnesota Public Radio today. Capital Gains and Games‘ Stan Collender was also speaking. Here’s a link to the audio.
Peterson Institute for International Economics Joins the Blogosphere
From the Peterson Institute comes the “Real Time Economics Watch”. The latest posts are on how each crisis is different and yet the same [0], by Ted Truman, and the US/Japan parallels (or lack thereof) [1], authored by Adam Posen.
(The Peterson Institute doesn’t call it a weblog, but it seems like one…)
NCAA basketball: Round 2
Here’s the status of the 2008 NCAA Bracket Econbrowser Challenge now that the tournament is down to 16 surviving teams.
The Gamble Fails: Doha talks collapse
The Bush Administration’s quid pro quo of early-on steel protectionism in exchange for fast track negotiating authority for the Doha Round seems like a bad bet (May 24) in retrospect.
Message or Messenger
Why is Secretary Snow such a perennial target?
Energy imports, nontradables, and net exports
The messages from the 05q3 Preliminary GDP release.