RT @lisadebode: hint on online marketing: I'd leave congratulating myself on my "great" network to customers and followers @VZWSupport
10 minutes ago
Category Archive: Uncategorized
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Why Rolling Back Environmental Protection is the Wrong Fix for Jobs
Just when it seemed nothing could do it, persistently high U.S. unemployment has produced bipartisan agreement in Washington—agreement to roll back environmental protection in an attempt to save jobs and create new ones. The White House, shrugging off environmentalist opposition, has quashed a major EPA initiative that would have strengthened ozone regulations and is reportedly [...]
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How Germany Free-Rides on the Euro
For years, I have warned my European students of the fiscal free-rider problem built into the structure of the euro area. My examples have always been fiscally undisciplined peripheral governments seeking political gain by running budget deficits at the expense of their euro partners. Now, though, as the debate unfolds over measures to cope with [...]
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Why Rick Perry’s Position on Climate Change Makes Him a True Conservative
Rick Perry is a climate-change skeptic. Sure, he says, the world is getting warmer, but the climate has often changed. He doesn’t buy in to the idea that human activity has an effect on the current warming trend. Friedrich Hayek would say that makes him a true conservative. Hayek liked to view the political spectrum [...]
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Is a 56.2 MPG Fuel Economy Standard Really a Good Idea?
According to news reports, the Obama administration is talking to automakers about raising the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standard for passenger cars to 56.2 miles per gallon by 2025, more than double the 27.5 MPG in force for the 20 years up to 2010. Economists, even those like myself who favor policies to reduce fuel [...]
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If QE2 Was Price-Level Targeting, It is Starting to Work
Has QE2 worked? Some say yes, some say no. The answer depends on what you wanted it to do. If you wanted a quick revival of the housing market, a boost to GDP growth, and rapid job creation, it’s easy to say QE2 has failed. None of those indicators look good. On the other hand, [...]
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One Year Later, How Much has China’s Yuan Appreciated?
A year ago this week China announced a major change in its exchange rate policy. After holding the yuan-dollar exchange rate fixed for almost two years during the global crisis, the country’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) announced that the yuan would once again be allowed to float, albeit in a highly [...]
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Failure of Austerity in Europe? What Does the Latvian Exception Prove?
Writing in The New York Times this week, Paul Krugman argues that austerity has failed in Europe. Budget cuts and tax increases were supposed to provide the confidence needed to get troubled EU economies back on track, but the “confidence fairy” hasn’t shown up. Austerity has not just failed to work, says Krugman—it has made [...]
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Will Shifting Political Winds Finally Kill Ethanol Subsidies?
As recently as last December, the coalition backing U.S. ethanol subsidies appeared to be alive and well, despite the fact that everyone knew they were bad for the environment, bad for energy efficiency, and bad for the budget. The largest subsidy, a tax credit for blending ethanol into gasoline, was set to expire at the [...]
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Are Financial Regulators Flying Blind? Would Better “Risk Topography” Help?
Data on the capital and liquidity of banks are the navigation aids that regulators depend on to avoid another financial crash. Improvements to these indicators, adopted last year by the Basel Committee on Bank Supervision, are among the most heralded regulatory reforms since the 2008 crisis. But what if the instruments are faulty, even in their upgraded form? If so, regulators are flying blind, and our chances of avoiding another crash are slim. What can be done?
A recent paper by three prominent financial economists suggests one possible answer: a sort of Manhattan project that would map out a “risk topography” of the financial system. The authors are Markus K. Brunnermeier of Princeton, Gary Gorton of Yale, and Arvind Krishnamurthy of Northwestern. All three are also affiliated with the National Bureau of Economics Research. (I will refer to the team in what follows as BG&K.)
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The Ecosocialist Critique of Capitalism vs. Real World Socialism
It has been twenty years now since first glasnost and then the collapse of the USSR lifted the curtain on the appalling environmental record of Soviet socialism. Over that same 20 years, the burgeoning economy of socialist China has overtaken the United States as the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gasses. Still, it remains common to hear capitalism singled out as the greatest environmental threat to our planet, and socialism as its salvation.
