With all the heated discussions of the last two weeks, it is important to keep perspective on which issues are in dispute and which are not. Let me state plainly something on which I think we ought to be agreed: Carmen Reinhart and Ken Rogoff’s 2009 book, This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly, is a valuable work of scholarship that continues to deserve study and praise from any thinking person. Here I review some of my reasons for saying that.
Another mediocre GDP report: is this the new normal?
The BEA released today its estimate of 2013 first-quarter real GDP, which grew at a 2.5% annual rate from the previous quarter. That’s below the average 3.1% growth rate since World War II, but better than the 2.1% average since the recovery began in 2009:Q3.
Wisconsin: Economic Development
Measuring Financial Openness
Chinn-Ito Index Updated to 2011
Reinhart-Rogoff and Herndon-Ash-Pollin: a few further comments
I made some comments on Sunday about a recent critique by Thomas Herndon, Michael Ash, and Robert Pollin of an influential 2010 paper by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff. Yesterday Econbrowser hosted a
reply from Pollin and Ash to my remarks. Here I would like to add a few further thoughts on this discussion.
Reply to Prof. Hamilton regarding “Reinhart-Rogoff Data Problems”
Today Econbrowser hosts this guest contribution from Robert Pollin and Michael Ash of the Department of Economics and Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Guest Contribution: “Fairness and Sustainability for Cyprus”
Today, we have a guest contribution from Marios Zachariadis, Associate Professor of Economics at University of Cyprus.
Reinhart-Rogoff data problems
The methods and conclusions of an influential paper by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff published in 2010 have recently been challenged by Thomas Herndon, Michael Ash, and Robert Pollin. Here I comment on both the details and broader significance of the dispute.
Wisconsin in March: Nonfarm payroll employment declines
Private nonfarm payroll employment growth near zero, and the level is about 70 thousand below the path implied by Governor Walker’s commitment to increase private sector employment by 250 thousand by 2015M01.
No Time for Austerity: US Edition
With unemployment at 7.6% and an output gap of around 6%, it’s (still) not the time to embark on front-loaded spending cuts in the United States.