I thought it might be helpful to summarize some of the background on how we got into our present mortgage mess.
What Are the Prospects for a Two Recession Bush Presidency?
With recession calls becoming more frequent ([1], [2], [3], [4], [5]) it might pay to revisit the indicators that the NBER looks at in determining the turning points in recessions (The fact that NBER put up some new recession-dating-FAQs just a couple days ago might be a leading indicator of sorts).
International Reserves: Messages from the ASSA
I did not get a chance to go to too many sessions at the ASSA meetings in New Orleans (the AEA agenda is here). That being said, I did manage to squeeze in a few on international economics, and the topic of several papers was foreign exchange reserves.
Ongoing slump in autos
The weak performance of auto sales continues, with a new twist.
Economic indicators take a turn for the worse
No cheer for the New Year from the numbers released this week.
Do We Really Know that a Flexible Exchange Rate Regime Facilitates Current Account Adjustment?
In an post in VoxEU, Shang-Jin Wei alluded to work we have undertaken examining whether de facto exchange rate regimes have an impact on current account reversion.
Financial Globalization and the US Current Account Deficit
Matthew Higgins and Thomas Klitgaard at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York discuss the outlook for financing the deficit, going forward, in a new Current Issues. From the introduction:
The Dollar in the New Year
Is there (an “equlibrium” exchange rate) model for all seasons?
Home sales and prices continue to fall
2007 ended like it began, only worse.
More on China, Currency Misalignment and Data Revisions
In a previous post on China’s currency, I focused on the implications of the ADB’s report on the new ICP analysis of PPP-based GDPs for misalignment estimates for China. Now, it’s time to look a bit more closely at why the data revision occurred.