Category Archives: Uncategorized

On the Word “Eminent”

Reader EConned writes about Judy Shelton:

One can disagree with Shelton’s policy stances, public statements, writings, etc… but there’s no doubt she’s an eminent economist. Debating the substance of her views is great but I certainly don’t see the need to just “hate on her” I. The fashion of this comment (and, honestly, the OP). There are Americans including policy makers of past, present, and future who respect her opinions… for better or for worse.

Now, I know “eminence” is in the eye of the beholder. As an academic economist, I would be tempted to go to “Google Scholar” or the successor to the Social Sciences Citation Index to make my own judgment.

Personally, I don’t know Dr. Shelton, have never met Dr. Shelton, nor corresponded with Dr. Shelton. However, I find her views on government statistics strange, her views on currency manipulation confusing, and her malleability with respect to the conduct of monetary policy troubling.

A Literature Review on Economic Policy Response to Covid-19

An excellent review of empirical findings regarding the various provisions is contained in this FEDS Notes article, by Elena Falcettoni, and Vegard Nygaard.

The COVID-19 pandemic has kept economists busy analyzing many aspects of economic side of the coronavirus impact. This note is meant to present an overview of what economists have analyzed regarding the implications of two of the main components of the CARES Act that affect individuals: the increased UI benefits and the stimulus checks. We present the findings from the literature on these two policies with an eye on potential future governmental interventions.

Taken together, these two components have been effective at providing stimulus and lowering poverty. In the aggregate, Kaplan et al. (2020) (PDF) find that the initial UI benefits and stimulus payments boosted aggregate consumption by 2 percentage points, while Bayer et al. (2020) show that the CARES transfers reduced the output loss due to the pandemic by up to 5 percentage points.

Complete note here.

 

Update to the Comment Moderation Policy

Comments should be directed to the topic of the original post, and commenters should restrict themselves to civil discussion of the substance of comments. In addition, racist, misogynistic comments and use of profanity will not be permitted.

Effective immediately, failure to adhere to this policy will constitute cause for editorial action.

Per James Hamilton and Menzie Chinn