The New York Times has provided a neat interactive graphic that allows one to see how various proposals affect the budget deficit in 2015 and 2030, here.
Jeffrey Frankel on QE2, Inflation Hysteria and Actual Facts
Recalling President Reagan’s statement, “Facts are stupid things”, it’s no surprise that the disinformation campaign arguing that the Fed has been pressured into engineering a bout of high inflation continues. Jeffrey Frankel helps bring some facts to the table. From “The pot again calls the kettle red: Republicans, Democrats, the Fed and QE2”.
Losing the Battle, Winning the War?
Or, the Economic Implications of the G-20 Meeting’s Aftermath
The narrative emerging in the wake of the G-20 meetings is that, not only is the rest of the world angry at us over quantitative easing, but we also achieved none of our diplomatic objectives regarding rebalancing (the coverage seemed particularly negative on CNBC). [1] [2] [3] In addition, the outcome has been taken as a harbinger of the end of US dominance over economic policymaking, to the extent the US no longer has the intellectual high ground (given the failure to regulate the financial system in a sensible way) and the relative decline in economic weight.
Inflation Fears and Measures of Expected Inflation
Recent news items have noted the fears of several individuals that QE2 will spark rapid inflation, e.g. [1]. For instance, Representative Paul Ryan, expected to become the Chairman of the House Budget Committee in January, stated: “I think it’s going to give us a big inflation problem down the road.”
Here are what various market-based indicators suggest.
Commodity inflation
I guess now we know that the Fed has the tools to prevent deflation.
Gold standard discussion
The New York Times hosts a discussion of the proposal by World Bank President Robert Zoellick for an international monetary system that uses the price of gold as a reference.
East Asian Exchange Rates and China’s Trade Surplus
By Willem Thorbecke
Today, we’re fortunate to have Willem Thorbecke, Senior Research Fellow at Asian Development Bank Institute, and consulting fellow at Japan’s Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI) as a guest contributor. The views expressed represent those of the author himself, and do not necessarily represent those of ADBI, RIETI, or any other institutions the author is affiliated with.
Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico and Oil
Current economic conditions
Things look slightly cheerier than they did a month ago. But that’s not saying much.
The October Employment Situation: Upside Surprise and Shrinking Government
The Employment situation release for October surprised on the upside: the Bloomberg consensus was for 60,000 increase and the actual was 151,000. And yet I receive emails from the JEC-Republican stating: