So much for expansionary fiscal contraction in the UK. Not that that’s a surprise.
In Search Of: Fiscal Responsibility
Given all the talk about taxes, I wondered how the Republican candidates plans stack up on the fiscal responsibility dimension, which Jeffry Frieden and I define thus:
[T]rue fiscal responsibility involves a willingness to raise sufficient tax revenue, over the longer term, to pay for the programs the government implements. Fiscal responsibility should not be equated with a small government, but rather with a commitment to pay for the government services provided. …
Wealth creation
Here’s my suggestion for how to become rich: buy low and sell high.
Dispatches (XIX): Wisconsin Employment Hemorrhaging Continues
Wisconsin’s Department of Workforce Development yesterday released preliminary employment figures for December, and revised figures for November. Both nonfarm payroll employment and private nonfarm payroll employment continue to decline (Figures 1 and 2). Total nonfarm payroll employment is now below levels recorded in January 2011, when Governor Walker took office. The divergence between the national employment trend and Wisconsin’s over the past six months is highlighted in Figure 3.
Miscellanea: America’s Lost Decades, Wisconsin’s Lost Year, Hi Frequency Measures, Europe, and Conditional Inflation Targeting
Lost Decades
Here’s my 25 minute presentation of Lost Decades at the Rotary Club of Madison, on January 4th (as recorded by Wisconsin Eye) Powerpoint. One point I made was that the global financial crisis and ensuing recession have exacted a tremendous cost on the US economy. In the absence of more aggressive action, another 2.4 trillion Ch.2005$ loss will be incurred through 2013Q4. The blithe indifference with which opponents of extended payroll tax reductions, extended unemployment benefits, food stamp expenditures and infrastructure investment contemplate the damage continues to astound me.
Links for 2012-01-18
FT Alphaville on crude oil and the eurozone crisis.
“http://oldprof.typepad.com/a_dash_of_insight/2012/01/evaluating-recession-forecasts.html”>Jeff Miller does not buy into recent forecasts of a U.S. recession. On a related note, Bonddad deconstructs the ECRI Weekly Leading Index.
VoxEu notes the systematic international tendency for official deficit figures to understate the magnitude of the change in public debt.
Liberty Street Economics on forecasting with internet search data.
Think Tanks in the Economics Profession
Indicators via representation at the Allied Social Sciences Association meetings.
Iranian oil embargo
China: Inflation and Exchange Rate Watch
Chinese inflation is decelerating [0]. This suggests that whatever further real CNY appreciation occurs is likely arise from nominal appreciation, over the near term.
Reducing Petroleum Consumption from Transportation
MIT Professor Christopher Knittel has a new paper on the potential for the United States to reduce petroleum consumption.