Global temperatures in 2014, that is.
The SNB Removes the Cap
Commenting on what has been termed “Francogeddon” and a “tsunami” as well as consequent mayhem, Joe Weisenthal at Bloomberg/Business Week writes:
“Today the Swiss National Bank shocked the world when it announced it would remove the cap it had in place to prevent the Swiss franc from rising too high against the euro.”
I Agree with Ed Lazear (and Alan Auerbach)!
If you dynamic score, dynamically score both expenditure and revenue measures.
Global Economic Prospects on Fiscal Policy, Oil Prices, and the Trade Slowdown
Update: The World Bank’s forecasts are also now out, summarized here. Russia is forecasted to hurtle into a deep recession.
Two chapters from the World Bank’s Global Economic Prospects are out.
The December Employment Release
The JEC Chair Brady (R) writes: “While the unemployment rate has fallen it doesn’t tell the true story about stagnant paychecks and Americans struggling to find full-time work.” He then calls for passage of Keystone-XL as part of the remedy.
Demand factors in the collapse of oil prices
The price of oil passed another milestone last week, falling below $50 a barrel, a level that I had not expected to see again in my lifetime.
An Economic Warning?
In today’s NY Times, Peter Eavis writes about the message in “soaring bond prices”:
…a huge bond market with a strong track record for predicting economic problems is flashing a warning sign right now. … The prices of Treasury bonds are rallying fiercely.
Guest Contribution: “Terms of Trade Shocks, Competitiveness and Stability: The Role of Foreign Asset Management”
Today we are fortunate to have a guest contribution written by Joshua Aizenman, Dockson Chair in Economics and International Relations. This post is based on a presentation at the Society for the Study of Emerging Markets Panel session, AEA meetings, Boston, January 3, 2015.
The Dollar’s Recent Rise in Perspective
Minimum Wage Increases in the Wake of WW II
Some people have fixated upon the near doubling of the minimum wage after WW II (one person misidentifies the date as 1948, but it’s actually 1950) as a cause of disemployment in certain groups. This may have happened; however, the increase in the minimum wage from $0.40 to $0.75 was not associated with a decrease in general employment, nor of youth unemployment.