I did a long interview today with Tom Keene of Bloomberg Radio on the current recession and Federal Reserve policy. You can listen to it by clicking here.
It’s official
The Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research announced today that the eleventh U.S. postwar recession began in December of 2007.
So long, Tanta
Doris Dungey, who had been known to me only as the contributor Tanta to the Calculated Risk blog, has died from cancer at the age of 47.
William Kristol on Economic Theory and Practice
I don’t usually read Bill Kristol’s column, but once in a while, my eyes get caught by a headline (that’s the difference between reading online and “on paper”), and I’ll check out what he has to say. The other day, I read his column “Admit we don’t know” on the current economic crisis that, while not in my mind “wrong”, seemed puzzling to me. Pay attention to the last paragraph (highlighted in bold).
The more the merrier
How many economic-advice-giving organizations does it take to run a White House?
Synchronized Recession, Synchronized Stimulus?
The OECD has just released its forecasts. This follows the recent updated IMF forecasts. Growth is evaporating the industrial countries. What is to be done?
Chinn and Collender on the Obama Stimulus Plan
I discussed current economic conditions and the prospects for the Obama stimulus plan on Kerri Miller’s “Midmorning” show on Minnesota Public Radio today. Capital Gains and Games‘ Stan Collender was also speaking. Here’s a link to the audio.
Obama’s economic plans
President-elect Barack Obama today announced more details of the economic team that will be advising the new president. I find these quite encouraging.
Time for a change at the Fed
Plan A didn’t work. Plan B didn’t work. I suggest the Fed get going on Plan C.
GDP Prospects: Mean Estimates Fall and Dispersion Increases
One of the points that all the panelists at last Thursday’s event sponsored by WAGE (“The Global Economic Crisis”) agreed on was how quickly the macroeconomic situation has deteriorated. I wanted to see if one could quantify the rapidity with which growth prospects have changed. Here is one perspective, showing the mean forecast from the October and November WSJ surveys of forecasters.