If President Obama is looking for ideas that would build American infrastructure, create jobs, and reduce the budget deficit, here’s an option to consider.
Brent-WTI spread
The puzzling differential between the price of oil in different markets seems to be persisting.
Dispatches (XIII): Gov. Walker: “It doesn’t save any [money]”
That is Governor Walker’s answer to the question of how much money rescinding collective bargaining for public unions saves the state government. From the Capital Times:
More on the Characteristics of the Heritage Foundation CDA Analysis of the Ryan Plan
Interest rate risk and the Fed
Is borrowing short and lending long a risky strategy for the Fed?
Dispatches (XII): Wisconsin Governor Walker Threatens Layoffs (Again!)
From WisPolitics today:
Gov. Scott Walker says he may have to again consider laying off state employees if his collective bargaining law remains tied up in the courts for much more than the next week or two.
From the GOP: Budget Cuts for FY 2011
From the House Appropriations Committee (Republican), courtesy of TPM:
Some Thoughts on Energy Independence
The President’s new initiative on increasing energy independence inspired much commentary on how much it was aspirational, rather than realistic; see for instance this extensive NYT article. In this post, I want to consider whether reduced dependence on imported energy is a worthwhile objective.
Paying for health care
Representative Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) plan to address the U.S. federal deficit is an opportunity to reflect on fundamental questions of what we’re trying to buy and how much we’re willing to spend when it comes to the role of the government in health care.
Implied Supply Side Elasticities from the Heritage CDA Simulations
Following up on yesterday’s post on the Heritage Foundation’s assessment of the Ryan plan, I thought it would be useful to see how the labor and capital supply elasticities that are implied in the simulations compare with the literature, for the benefit of my macroeconomics class. Unfortunately, I come up with some really odd numbers, so I must either be making a mistake somewhere, or the simulation is very odd. Update 4/10, 4:50pm Pacific: I added two graphs illustrating exactly how odd these numbers are.