What does the empirical literature say about the sources of inflation movements in an era of globalization?
Following yields up and down
Another energy bill
If it’s summer, it must be time for another energy bill, for which the Senate seems to have followed the strategy of Captain Renault to round up the usual suspects.
One nice thing when Congress keeps coming up with the same old ideas is that it allows us pundits to save energy by recycling our old comments on CAFE standards, ethanol mandates, and anti-gouging legislation.
Econoblog on interest rates
I was pleased to participate in the latest
Wall Street Journal Econoblog
with Mark Zandi, Chief Economist and co-founder of Moody’s Economy.com. Here’s a brief preview of what you can
find over at the WSJ.
Thinking about import prices, the dollar, and inflation
Some delayed reflections on the May import/export price release, and how to interpret the data in light of the empirics of exchange rate pass through.
Slipping a little
I wouldn’t read too much into the new starts, permits, and sentiment data, but I don’t take them as very encouraging.
Rejoice! The 2006 current account to GDP ratio has been revised up by 0.3 percentage points
There’s a temptation to view the upward revision to the current account balance, and the components thereof, as yet more evidence that the US external situation is in better shape than commonly perceived.
Oil shale hits a freeze
Don’t count on running your Hummer on gasoline from oil shale just yet.
More on those rising interest rates
Rising rates look scary, but I still read it as good news.
Lessons from the yield curve
The dramatic upward move of long-term interest rates gives me an opportunity to look back on some of the predictions made on the basis of the inversion of the yield curve, and what might be in store next.