What do recent developments in Iraq imply for the price U.S. motorists should expect to pay for gasoline?
Wisconsin Employment Flatlines
State-level employment figures released this morning by the BLS indicate indicate that as US (and regional peer Minnesota) employment powers along, Wisconsin lags. As does Kansas. Hence, the negative correlation between the ALEC-Laffer economic outlook index and actual economic activity persists [1] [2]
Sunk Costs and Considering Intervention in Iraq
Senator McCain has argued forcefully for intervention in Iraq, in response to events outlined by Jim. It is conceivable that surgical strikes might tip the balance and restore stability to Iraq. But hope is not a basis for policy (or shouldn’t be).
Iraq, oil markets, and the U.S. economy
The group is calling itself the Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham, translated as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria, or ISIS. And so it may come to be.
Links for 2014-06-11
Quick links to a few items I found interesting.
More Curious Correlations
Negative interest rates
The European Central Bank announced on Thursday that it is moving interest rates into negative territory, charging banks for maintaining deposits with the ECB rather than paying the banks positive interest. The hope is that lower (now even negative) interest rates may provide some stimulus to the European economy which might help bring European inflation closer to the ECB’s 2% target. Here I offer a few thoughts on this move.
Guest Contribution: “Asia-Pacific Regional Integration”
Economic Effects and Implications for the Global Trading System
Today we are fortunate to have a guest contribution written by Peter A. Petri (Brandeis University) and Michael G. Plummer (The Johns Hopkins University, SAIS).
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Educating Brad DeLong
Brad DeLong writes:
Department of “Huh?!”–I Don’t Understand More and More of Piketty’s Critics: Per Krusell and Tony Smith
As time passes, it seems to me that a larger and larger fraction of Piketty’s critics are making arguments that really make no sense at all– that I really do not understand how people can believe them, or why anybody would think that anybody else would believe them. Today we have Per Krusell and Tony Smith assuming that the economy-wide capital depreciation rate δ is not 0.03 or 0.05 but 0.1–and it does make a huge difference.
Let me do my best to try to educate Brad.
Guest Contribution: “Economic Prospects of Ukraine”
Today we are fortunate to have a guest post written by Yuriy Gorodnichenko (UC Berkeley).
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