Today we are fortunate to have a guest contribution written by Roberto Duncan, assistant professor of economics at Ohio University.
The Congressional Budget Office at 40
The CBO has been providing nonpartisan budgetary and economic analyses for four decades. Whether that continues depends upon the willingness of leaders in Congress believe in the worth of serious analysis (see here for doubts). For now, we look back and (hopefully) forward, at events today. Yesterday, a forum at the Brookings Institution presented some additional views. Director Doug Elmendorf blogs on the anniversary today.
Audit the Fed
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has gathered significant bipartisan support for the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2015, his proposal for more audits of the Fed. I’ve been trying to understand why any sensible person would think this is a good idea.
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All the Governor’s Men (Economists)
Paul Krugman notes Governor Walker’s advisers on economics at a recent meeting are Larry Kudlow, Stephen Moore and Arthur Laffer. These folks make appearances in the Econbrowser archives.
Governor Walker Proposes to Restructure Debt Thereby Increasing Total Taxpayer Cost
As the state’s fiscal position becomes more dire, in large part due to the tax cuts implemented last year, Governor Walker proposes to delay some debt payments.
The Economic Report of the President, 2015
The entire report was released today, covering the “…progress of the recovery and explores the long-term factors that drive middle-class incomes,…the macroeconomic performance of the U.S. economy during 2014, …the opportunities and challenges facing the U.S. labor market, …how American family lives have changed over the last half-century and the implications of these changes for our labor market, …productivity growth with an examination of business tax reform, ..the profound transformation of the U.S. energy sector” and “…the United States in the context of the global economy.”
CEA Chair Jason Furman, CEA Members Maurice Obstfeld, and Betsey Stevenson summarize the report’s findings here.
Guest Contribution: Long-Term Effects of the Great Recession
Today, we’re fortunate to have David Papell and Ruxandra Prodan, Professor of Economics and Clinical Assistant Professor of Economics, respectively, at the University of Houston, as Guest Contributors.
Review of Macroeconomics by Charles Jones
This quarter we shifted to a new textbook for teaching undergraduate macroeconomics at UCSD, which is Macroeconomics by Stanford professor Charles Jones. Here are some of my reactions to the book.
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Responding to the Proposed Cuts to Wisconsin Higher Education
Assuming there are no other “drafting errors” in the Governor’s proposed budget for higher education, then the plan, if implemented, for a $300 million reduction in funding for the UW system, combined with a two year tuition freeze, has the following implications for the Madison campus of the University of Wisconsin.
“Uncovered Interest Parity and Monetary Policy Near and Far from the Zero Lower Bound”
Why do interest rate differentials point in the wrong direction for subsequent exchange rate changes at short horizons, and not at long? And why have interest differentials at long maturities failed in recent years to predict subsequent exchange rate changes as well as in the past, especially for interest rates near the zero lower bound. Those are two topics taken up in a recent paper by myself and Yi Zhang (University of Wisconsin).