Some reflections on the new Ryan plan.
The CBO provides some numbers (it’s not a “score”), with a caveat:
Why do gasoline prices differ across U.S. states?
Gasoline prices differ substantially across different parts of the United States. For example, the average price in Illinois is currently 70 cents/gallon higher than that in Wyoming, and California motorists pay 86 cents/gallon more than the folks in Wyoming. Why is that?
Revisiting the Determinants of the Term Premium
In last Thursday’s post, John Kitchen recounted our joint work on what amount of foreign financing would be required to make consistent projections of government debt, and short and long term interest rates. That article from International Finance is now freely available on the Council on Foreign Relations website here.
“The Eurozone in Crisis: Origins and Prospects”
Time to breathe a sigh of relief, with resolution of the Greek bailout? Not so fast. Greece is likely to need re-adjustments to its plan [0] Plenty of challenges remain in the eurozone; PIMCO’s El-Erian says Portugal is next [1]. In fact, as Jeffry Frieden and I argue, the resolution of the problems facing eurozone policymakers is likely to be contentious and prolonged. From an article forthcoming in the Spring issue of the La Follette Policy Report, by me and Jeffry Frieden (since the article is not yet published, the working paper version is here):
Strategic Petroleum Reserve to the rescue
The United States and Britain have apparently been discussing a joint release of strategic petroleum stockpiles.
Guest Contribution: “Financing U.S. Debt”
In a Guest Contribution today, John Kitchen (U.S. Treasury, formerly Chief Economist, Office of Management and Budget) addresses the issue of “Financing U.S. Debt: Is There Enough Money in the World — and at What Cost?”. The comments are based on a paper recently published in International Finance (Winter 2011), co-authored with Menzie Chinn. The views expressed are the author’s and do not represent the views of the U.S. Treasury.
Links for 2012-03-14
Quick links to a few items I found interesting.
“Scoring” the Romney Economic Plan
Well, this could be a short blogpost, because in Mitt Romney’s words, “frankly it can’t be scored” [The Hill]. However, I think it of interest to consider what it would take to make the Romney plan deficit neutral, as he has argued it would be.
The Amazing Prescience of the Capitol Steps
I’ve been a fan of the Capitol Steps for decades now, but only recently have I fully appreciated the prescience of their musical insights. I hope Econbrowser readers will too, by singing along to this twenty year old song, “Favored Right Wing” [sample], sung to the tune of “My favorite things”. (This song is so old, that no complete online version exists, and I had to laboriously transcribe the words by hand(!), so apologies if there are a couple errors.)
2012 Econbrowser NCAA tournament challenge
Enough on oil prices and the Fed. I know what you’ve all really been waiting for is the 2012 Econbrowser NCAA tournament challenge, where you can test your skills (and luck) at predicting the outcomes of the U.S. college men’s basketball tournament. All you have to do is go to the Econbrowser group at ESPN, do some minor registering to create a free ESPN account if you haven’t used that site before, and make your picks for the winners of each game. Just make sure you complete your entry before Thursday, because the Econbrowser group only allows predictions before the tournament begins. And be forewarned that some of the people who enter this group really know what they’re doing!