Paul Krugman's Blog, page 640
April 16, 2009
Reconsidering a miracle
In preparation for some recent teaching, I went back to something that was a hot topic not long ago, and will be again if and when the crisis ends: the apparent lag of European productivity since 1995. One recent, seemingly authoritative study is van Ark et al; and I noticed something that gave me pause.
In [...:]
In [...:]
April 15, 2009
Too many narratives
Brad DeLong lists three possible explanations for the Obama administration's bank policy, and expresses angst that officials don't seem to be clear about what they're actually up to. Matthew Yglesias points out that the president seemed to offer a fourth narrative yesterday. I'd add that in the past we've heard yet another narrative - that [...:]
Austria
http://flutethoughts.blogspot.com
Aha. It seems that I have reached the stage where I create a stir by saying the obvious. On Monday I held a Princeton-sponsored event at the Foreign Press Club, and was asked about Austria's Eastern European exposure. I responded by saying what everyone knows: Austrian lending to Eastern Europe is off the charts [...:]
Aha. It seems that I have reached the stage where I create a stir by saying the obvious. On Monday I held a Princeton-sponsored event at the Foreign Press Club, and was asked about Austria's Eastern European exposure. I responded by saying what everyone knows: Austrian lending to Eastern Europe is off the charts [...:]
April 14, 2009
Time for bottles in coal mines
President Obama hails the fact that stimulus projects are coming in "ahead of schedule and under budget." Yay - but boo.
Ahead of schedule is good. Under budget - well, ordinarily that's a good thing. But the point of the stimulus is to increase spending! So if we don't spend as much as expected, that's less [...:]
Ahead of schedule is good. Under budget - well, ordinarily that's a good thing. But the point of the stimulus is to increase spending! So if we don't spend as much as expected, that's less [...:]
Bush budgeting lives - at Goldman Sachs
Wow. Just wow. Floyd Norris, via Barry Ritholtz, tells us that Goldman's good numbers have a lot to do with a magic trick: they made December disappear! It's an "orphan" month!
This is Bush-style budgeting, with sunsets and all that which made the true costs of policies disappear, but this time applied to the private sector. [...:]
This is Bush-style budgeting, with sunsets and all that which made the true costs of policies disappear, but this time applied to the private sector. [...:]
April 12, 2009
A missed opportunity on This Week
So I was all ready to talk about Rick Warren on today's panel, only to learn that he had cancelled out at the last minute. The show replaced him with pirates, plus an extended roundtable. But I think they should have done what the British show Have I Got News For You did when a [...:]
April 11, 2009
Armey of darkness
Aha. So the "tea parties" are to a large extent being run by Freedom Works, which is basically Dick Armey with a lot of Koch-Scaife-Bradley-Olin support.
Same old, same old.
Same old, same old.
Being there
Chauncey Gardiner, economic guru.
He's too big to fail
But not, apparently, too big to ignore.
What's odd about the marginalization of Paul Volcker is that from what I hear, the Volcker era has become the key inspiration behind the administration's see-no-evil approach to banks. The arguments goes like this: several money-center banks were probably under water in 1982-3, thanks to Latin loans gone [...:]
What's odd about the marginalization of Paul Volcker is that from what I hear, the Volcker era has become the key inspiration behind the administration's see-no-evil approach to banks. The arguments goes like this: several money-center banks were probably under water in 1982-3, thanks to Latin loans gone [...:]
Green shoots and tea leaves
Beware the bumps
The crisis is over! Or so some are saying.
OK, a couple of things.
One is that even in the Great Depression, things didn't head down all the time. The chart above, from Eichengreen and O'Rourke, shows world industrial production in months from the previous peak, in the Depression and in the current crisis. [...:]
The crisis is over! Or so some are saying.
OK, a couple of things.
One is that even in the Great Depression, things didn't head down all the time. The chart above, from Eichengreen and O'Rourke, shows world industrial production in months from the previous peak, in the Depression and in the current crisis. [...:]
