Continued stagnation in July.
The National Savings Identity, Crowding-Out, and Apocalypse Predicted
Consider this prognostication from 2011:
Americans face the most predictable economic crisis in this nation’s history. Absent reform, the panic ahead is no longer a question of if, but rather when. A deterioration of confidence by investors in government’s ability to pay its bills will drive interest rates up, increasing borrowing costs for government, small businesses and families alike. A vicious cycle of debt will compound upon itself; the available exit options once the crisis hits will be limited; and all will involve pain. (p.59)
Investment slumps
I was interested to take a look at our recent weak economic performance from a longer-term perspective.
Guest Contribution: “Don’t Look to Congress for a Solution to the Nation’s Long-Term Transportation Woes”
Allowing Private Sector Innovation Holds the Most Promise, if Government Doesn’t Impede Progress
Today we are fortunate to have a contribution written by Clifford Winston, Searle Freedom Trust Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. This post is based on a more extensive analysis available here.
Kansas Downgraded
From WaPo:
Continue reading
The Ever-Expanding Government, Revisited
John Fund, in National Review Online, writes of:
“…an ever-expanding government that chokes off economic opportunities for the middle class and those who aspire to it.
Links for 2014-08-03
Quick links to a few items I found interesting.
Parsing the Employment and GDP Releases
The employment release reported a 209,000 net increase in nonfarm payroll (NFP) employment was below consensus, but still represented the sixth straight month of +200K net job creation. The net change in private NFP was 198,000. Here I want to note (1) the household survey based alternate measure of nonfarm payroll employment also continues to rise; (2) revisions in NFP and private NFP have typically been positive in recent months; (3) the 2014Q1 drop in GDP seems a little out of line with labor input.
Anti-Intellectualism in American Blogging
With apologies to Richard Hofstadter.
On reading “New Classical Kansas”, James Sexton comments:
Guest Contribution: How Janet Yellen Might Have Responded to the Policy Rules Legislation
Today, we’re fortunate to have Alex Nikolsko-Rzhevskyy, Assistant Professor of Economics at Lehigh University, David Papell and Ruxandra Prodan, respectively Professor and Clinical Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Houston, as Guest Contributors