Like a moth to the flame, [1] [2] I am compelled to examine the peculiar aspects of the Heritage CDA forecasts of the economy under 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.
Representative Ryan’s Roadmap: Interesting Implied Macro Impacts
I’ve read and re-read the Heritage Foundation’s analysis of how the projections for the Ryan plan were developed. I’m sure it’s my own failing, but I still don’t quite understand what is going on. And this is after Heritage took down their original documentation that indicated unemployment would eventually hit 2.8%.[0]
Natural gas moving forward
The Denver Post reported the opening on Saturday of stations offering compressed natural gas to drivers in Grand Junction and Rifle, towns along Interstate 70 in western Colorado, making it possible to drive a vehicle fueled by compressed natural gas from Denver to Los Angeles.
2011 Econbrowser NCAA tournament challenge winner
Congratulations to (1) the University of Connecticut, 2011 NCAA men’s basketball champion, and (2) A. Chaves, who, in part because he or she successfully predicted (1), is winner of this year’s world-famous Econbrowser NCAA tournament challenge.
And condolences to most of the rest of us, who messed up pretty badly with our predictions. Not that I wouldn’t have made pretty much the same calls if the same teams were to play again.