I am a little slow responding to the stunning revision to the first-quarter GDP estimates that came out two weeks ago, but here are my thoughts about the new estimates.
On the Characteristics of Those Covered under Some Government Programs
“…SNAP and Medicaid. These are programs for People Who Do Not Work.”
Is this statement true?
The June Employment Release
Rapid and broad based employment growth
Gasoline prices in perspective
Many reporters have been pushing the meme that:
Consumers will pay the highest Fourth of July gasoline prices in six years.
International Trade and Finance…and Policy
I’ve just returned from two highly stimulating conferences in Beijing. The first was a Columbia-Tsinghua conference on “Capital Flows and International Financial Systems”, organized by Jiandong Ju and Shang-Jin Wei, and the second a NBER-China Center for Economic Research conference on “China and the World Economy”, organized by Yang Yao, Shang-Jin Wei, and Chong-En Bai.
Whistling Past the Intellectual Graveyard
The Extreme Supply-Sider one in Topeka, that is. Josh Barro notes how tax cuts failed to result in entrepreneurial renaissance that would result in revenue increases; Wonkblog further observes (I did before) that employment growth has collapsed utterly and completely. Paul Krugman has dissected the social dynamics underpinning the adherence to patently unsupported ideas, but it is always useful to reiterate the facts of the case.
Energy and the economy 30 years later
Also at the meeting of the International Association for Energy Economics last week I was honored to receive an award from the association for outstanding contributions to the profession. Here are the remarks I made at the awards banquet.
Imminent Wage Increases?
How tight is the labor market? A recent article summarizes the argument that wage pressures are building. From K. Madigan in WSJ Real Time Economics:
Energy demand and GDP
Last week I was at the annual meeting of the International Association for Energy Economics in New York City. One of the many interesting presentations was by Professor David Stern of Australian National University describing his research with Zsuzsanna Csereklyei and Maria del Mar Rubio Varas developing some stylized facts about energy and economic growth.
Gasoline price calculator
What do recent developments in Iraq imply for the price U.S. motorists should expect to pay for gasoline?