Category Archives: economics

I’m having a bit of a debate over at Zubin’s economics blog, and rather than continue it in the comments there, I thought I might as well hoist it up here, into its own blog entry. Zubin’s found a chap … Continue reading →

Why did Harvard announce yesterday that its tuition fees, for students whose families earn between $120,000 and $180,000, would be 10% of family income? Frankly, I buy the official story: that those students were getting less than the maximum benefit … Continue reading →

Most people have a good intuitive understanding of first derivatives: you’re going up or you’re going down, you’re going backwards or you’re going forwards. It’s an important distinction to make, and it’s the reason why people focus on the concept … Continue reading →

Brad DeLong has solved the balls in the hat game, and in his comments section provides the solution, which is a psychologically horrible one: you basically have to run your losses and cut your winnings. Keep playing until you get … Continue reading →

Keith Bradsher reports that China’s $200 billion sovereign wealth fund will be investing mainly in China, its much-ballyhooed stake in Blackstone notwithstanding. This is a smart and sensible decision. As Sudip Roy says in this month’s Euromoney, it can often … Continue reading →

Ranjan Bhaduri sets up the "balls in the hat game": The game consists of a hat that contains 6 black balls and 4 white balls. The player picks balls from the hat and gains $1 for each white ball, and … Continue reading →

Brad Setser started it, back on November 19: Bottom line: private demand for US financial assets has disappeared. In emerging market terms, the US has experienced a sudden stop. Yves Smith picked up the ball, as did Wolfgang Munchau: "financial … Continue reading →

You wait years for a magisterial overview of the entire global economy on a thousand-year timescale, and then two come along within a week of each other. Angus Maddison’s Contours of the World Economy 1-2030 AD: Essays in Macro-Economic History … Continue reading →

Yesterday’s NYT ran two almost idential "little coffee shop versus Starbucks" stories. Peter Applebome was in Little Falls: Mrs. Mallek was a bit taken aback when she saw two of the regulars — the regulars! — near her shop, Starbucks … Continue reading →

You thought Roubini was extreme? Check this guy out: RHINEBECK, N.Y., Nov. 19 (UPI) — A financial crisis will likely send the U.S. dollar into a free fall of as much as 90 percent and gold soaring to $2,000 an … Continue reading →

Why blog about something as banal as a US recession when you can blog about a fully-blown financial crisis? Barry Eichengreen stays solidly in the realm of the hypothetical when he explains why any country’s attempt to leave the euro … Continue reading →

Nathan Berg, of the Center for Urban Economics, has noticed that there are many fewer grocery stores in poor urban neighborhoods than economic theory would suggest. The public-health implications of eating mainly processed food are pretty nasty, to say nothing … Continue reading →

Can you think of an economy where the money supply is increasing but consumer prices are falling dramatically? Eyjólfur Guðmundsson can: it’s called EVE Online. Over the course of the third quarter of 2007 – which is equivalent to about … Continue reading →

The Economist has brought its debate series to New York, and the first two debates took place in the magnificent Gotham Hall on Saturday. The first one was on wealth and happiness, and pitched two bloggers (Tyler Cowen and Will … Continue reading →

Vanity Fair gives Joe Stiglitz 4,000 words in its December issue, and he delivers what Andrew Leonard describes as "a stinging, biting, razor-sharp dissection of everything George W. Bush has done wrong as the keeper of the American economy". A … Continue reading →

And you thought it was bad here, in the US: Japan’s housing starts dived 44% in September from the year earlier, the sharpest fall on record, following a 43.3% plunge in August and a 23.4% drop in July. As Brad … Continue reading →

John Quiggin: On an exchange rate basis, Australia has a higher GDP per person than does the US. Currently US GDP per person is around $US44,000. Australia’s is about $A51,300, which at a market exchange rate of 0.93 converts to … Continue reading →

Greg Mankw gets an email from the White House, which says, quite rightly, that GDP figures are "no fun unless you have a picture". I think it’s very pretty: