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BlogJob Creation Ideas in HuffPo
Thomas Masterson and Pavlina Tcherneva were interviewed by the Huffington Post for an article on job creation policy. Tcherneva discussed the idea of a modern-day WPA, echoing a call she made at the outset of the Obama administration (in this policy note) for the government to provide an explicit employment guarantee targeting the unemployed. Masterson [...] -
Blog
Mandelbrot and the August S&P 500 close
According to wsj.com, the S&P 500 stock price index stood at 1,218.89 at the close of the trading day on Wednesday afternoon, after a month that saw much turmoil in the financial markets. Combining monthly data from the website for Robert Shiller’s book Irrational Exuberance with the average unadjusted closing value for August (closes from [...] -
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Consequences of a Eurozone Breakup, German Edition
Conversations surrounding eurozone disintegration have largely focused on the prospect of Greece making its exit, but the publication of this Hans-Olaf Henkel op-ed in the Financial Times puts the possibility of a German departure front and center. For an analysis of the consequences should Germany revert to a national currency, see this Levy Institute policy [...] -
Job Creation: Obama, Government Can Do Much More, Economists Say
The Huffington Post, September 1, 2011. Copyright © 2011 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. | “The Huffington Post” is a registered trademark of TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. All rights reserved. As President Obama puts the finish on a much-touted program aimed at promoting job creation, public expectations appear low, owing to national dismay over a deep unemployment crisis and the […] -
Blog
Stimulus funds, pens, and socks: where do they go?
All to the same place? You might be excused for thinking so after perusing Tyler Cowen’s post Why didn’t the stimulus create more jobs?, but you would be wrong. First let’s look at Cowen’s post for some obvious red flags. About the number of people hired using stimulus funds who were already employed, Cowen says: [...] -
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A Just-So Story About Money
From an intriguing interview with David Graeber, author of Debt: The First 5,000 Years, regarding the history of money and debt: Yes there’s a standard story we’re all taught… It really deserves no other introduction: according to this theory all transactions were by barter. “Tell you what, I’ll give you twenty chickens for that cow.” [...] -
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Who Needs Free Lunch Anyway?
There appears to be a standoff brewing over renewal of the federal gas tax. The tax traditionally funds highway infrastructure projects and is due to be extended September 30th. But a group in Congress, led by Senator Tom Coburn, is maneuvering to block the extension. A delay of just ten days, Ron Klain writes in [...] -
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How many Social Security checks fit inside one tax break?
The Congressional deficit reduction committee has numerous government programs on the chopping block, and we may soon see some very severe spending reductions. The committee must agree upon, and Congress must pass, $1.2 trillion in spending cuts and/or tax increases by November 23, or automatic, across-the-board spending cuts will go into effect in 2013. I [...] -
Historically GDP Growth Is Off by 11.9% and Labor Markets Should’ve Already Bounced
Forbes, August 30, 2011. © 2011 Forbes.com LLC™. All Rights Reserved. “[This] recession has turned into a prolonged and very unusual slump in growth, preventing a labor-market recovery,” explained Dimitri Papadimitriou, head of the Levy Economics Institute, in a recent paper called Not Your Father’s Recession. The economist makes the argument that post-crisis GDP growth rates are […] -
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Automatic Stabilizer Fail
If you believe the US political system is incapable of handling counter-cyclical policy and that we need to rely on automatic stabilizers, this CBPP graph is depressing: In other words, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (the result of the 1996 “welfare reform”), for whatever its other merits might be, has not been particularly sensitive to [...] -
Public Policy Brief No. 119The Contradictions of Export-led Growth
The export-led growth paradigm is a development strategy aimed at growing productive capacity by focusing on foreign markets. It rose to prominence in the late 1970s and became part of a new consensus among economists about the benefits of economic openness. According to Thomas I. Palley, this paradigm is no longer relevant because of changed […] -
Public Policy Brief No. 119
Οι αντιφάσεις της εξαγωγικής ανάπτυξης
Το μοντέλο της εξαγωγικής ανάπτυξης είναι μια αναπτυξιακή στρατηγική που στοχεύει σε αυξανόμενη παραγωγική ικανότητα εστιάζοντας στις ξένες αγορές. Κυριάρχησε προς το τέλος της δεκαετίας του ’70 και έγινε μέρος μιας καινούργιας συναίνεσης ανάμεσα στους οικονομολόγους σχετικά με τα οφέλη του διεθνούς «ανοίγματος» της οικονομίας. Σύμφωνα με τον Thomas I. Palley, το μοντέλο αυτό έχει […]