NYT - Economy

Bloomberg View

Calculated Risk

  • !Friday: New Home Sales
    From Matthew Graham at Mortgage News Daily: Mortgage Rates Sideways to Slightly LowerMortgage rates have been so little-changed in recent days that yesterday's coverage wouldn't need to be changed in order to apply perfectly today....The absence of…
    - 4 hours ago 22 Jun 17, 10:50pm -
  • !U.S. Demographics: The Millennials Take Over
    From the Census Bureau The Nation’s Older Population Is Still Growing, Census Bureau ReportsNew detailed estimates show the nation’s median age — the age where half of the population is younger and the other half older — rose from 35.3 years…
    - 9 hours ago 22 Jun 17, 6:29pm -
  • !Kansas City Fed: Regional Manufacturing Activity "Expanded Further" in June
    From the Kansas City Fed: Tenth District Manufacturing Activity Expanded FurtherThe Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City released the June Manufacturing Survey today. According to Chad Wilkerson, vice president and economist at the Federal Reserve Ban…
    - 12 hours ago 22 Jun 17, 3:00pm -
  • !Black Knight: Mortgage Delinquencies Decreased in May, Foreclosures at 10-Year Lows
    From Black Knight: Prepayments (historically a good indicator of refinance activity) jumped 23 percent month-over-month, reaching their highest point so far in 2017• Prepayments (historically a good indicator of refinance activity) jumped 23 percen…
    - 14 hours ago 22 Jun 17, 1:30pm -
  • !Weekly Initial Unemployment Claims increase to 241,000
    The DOL reported:In the week ending June 17, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 241,000, an increase of 3,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 237,000 to 238,000…
    - 15 hours ago 22 Jun 17, 12:34pm -

The Undercover Economist

  • What are the best books about the history of technology?
    I’ve had such fun working on the book and radio series, Fifty Things That Made the Modern Economy – and along the way I’ve had the opportunity to read some great books about the history of economics, finance, innovation and technology. Here ar…
    - 4 days ago 19 Jun 17, 12:33pm -
  • The age of the Microsoft and Amazon economy
    One of my first economics lessons contrasted perfect competition, which was judged to be a good thing, with monopoly, which was not. There are worse places to begin than by being shown the difference between championing the miracle of the free market…
    - 7 days ago 16 Jun 17, 12:40pm -
  • I’m giving some talks. Come along!
    A few upcoming talks, mostly about my new book, Fifty Things That Made the Modern Economy. (UK) (US). Do come along if you can! Interviewing Owain Service at Waterstones Piccadilly on 20 June 2017, 7pm. (Owain’s book, “Think Small“, is great.…
    - 11 days ago 12 Jun 17, 12:53pm -
  • Where the truth really lies with statistics
    As any magician can tell you, the real trick often takes place offstage. The deck has already been stacked; the card placed into the shoe. No matter how closely you look, you’ll never spot the sleight of hand. So it is with statistics. We often pay…
    - 16 days ago 7 Jun 17, 12:46pm -
  • Undercover Monday 3
    Books of the week I read Elie Wiesel’s Night – his account of surviving Auschwitz. It’s a simple and powerful book, almost unbearable. I picked it up in a Bodleian Library reading room and for an hour or so, while I read, I was completely una…
    - 18 days ago 5 Jun 17, 12:34pm -

Marginal Revolution

  • !Grading Modi
    There have been a number of articles recently reviewing economic reform under India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The best is this excellent report from the Economist: FEW countries would see a tax requiring some businesses to file over 1,000 re…
    - 8 hours ago 22 Jun 17, 7:18pm -
  • !Temporarily postponed markets in everything, Gilligan’s Island edition
    There is a restaurant in New Jersey called Tina Louise. It’s serves “a taste of Asia.” We were thinking tropical island fare. According to the website, it is temporarily closed due to a fire. But if you someday find yourself in Carlstadt, New…
    - 10 hours ago 22 Jun 17, 5:38pm -
  • !Thursday assorted links
    1. Those who leave vs. those who stay. 2. Cass Sunstein paper on mandatory labeling for GMOs. 3. Did the Scalise shooter almost cause a constitutional crisis? 4. Is there an oversupply of American restaurants? 5. Rollback of Medicaid provisions in th…
    - 11 hours ago 22 Jun 17, 4:04pm -
  • !To what extent is current alt right populism an Anglo-American phenomenon?
    That is the topic of my latest Bloomberg column, here is part of the argument: More generally, the U.S. is an environment where new products — and here I mean of the non-political sort — get started relatively easily. People are willing to take m…
    - 12 hours ago 22 Jun 17, 2:48pm -
  • !How and why did economic history blossom?
    C. inquires: Why do we live in the golden age of economic history? Was there something identifiable that caused the subfield to grow in esteem? Some new technology that changed the costs of research (not that I can see)? Something else? Mark Koyama s…
    - 23 hours ago 22 Jun 17, 4:47am -

Beat The Press

Liberty Street Economics

  • Low Interest Rates and Bank Profits
    The Fed’s December 2015 decision to raise interest rates after an unprecedented seven-year stasis offers a chance to assess the link between interest rates and bank profitability.
    - 2 days ago 21 Jun 17, 11:00am -
  • Introducing the Revised Broad Treasuries Financing Rate
    The Federal Reserve Bank of New York in cooperation with the Office of Financial Research is proposing to publish three new overnight Treasury repurchase (repo) benchmark rates. Recently, the Federal Reserve decided to modify the construction of the…
    - 4 days ago 19 Jun 17, 11:00am -
  • Hey, Economist! How Do You Forecast the Present?
    New York Fed macroeconomists have been sharing their “nowcast” of GDP growth on the Bank’s public website since April 2016. Now, they’ve launched an interactive version of the Nowcasting Report, which updates the point forecast each week, but…
    - 7 days ago 16 Jun 17, 3:15pm -
  • Just Released: June Regional Business Surveys Paint a Mixed Picture
    Yesterday’s June Empire State Manufacturing Survey pointed to a significant increase in regional manufacturing activity. However, our parallel survey for the region’s service sector, the June Business Leaders Survey, released today, paints a some…
    - 7 days ago 16 Jun 17, 12:45pm -
  • Valuing Workplace Benefits
    Workplace benefits—such as parental leave, sick leave, and flexible work arrangements—are increasingly being recognized as important determinants of differences in labor supply behavior, education and occupation choice, inequality in wages, and…
    - 21 days ago 2 Jun 17, 11:00am -

Freakonomics

  • !Why Hate the Koch Brothers? (Part 2)
    Our latest Freakonomics Radio episode is called “Why Hate the Koch Brothers? (Part 2).” (You can find part 1 here, and subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts or elsewhere, get the RSS feed, or listen via the media player above.) Charles Koch,…
    - 17 mins ago 23 Jun 17, 3:00am -
  • !How Big is My Penis? (And Other Things We Ask Google)
    Season 6, Episode 41 This week on Freakonomics Radio: Stephen J. Dubner talks about what gossip is and isn’t; about the characteristics of the people who produce and consume gossip; and about the functions of gossip, good and bad. Plus: what do ou…
    - 5 hours ago 22 Jun 17, 10:00pm -
  • Why Hate the Koch Brothers? (Part 1)
    Charles Koch, the mega-billionaire CEO of Koch Industries and half of the infamous political machine, sees himself as a classical liberal. So why do most Democrats hate him so much? In a rare series of interviews, he explains his political awakening,…
    - 1 day ago 22 Jun 17, 3:00am -
  • Cities: TMSIDK Episode 19
    Eugene Mirman, Ed Glaeser and Amy Glasmeier are panelists. The comedian, the Harvard economist and the MIT professor join us in one of America's oldest urban centers for a show about cities, including ruins, sewage and ghost towns. Mike Maughan is ou…
    - 4 days ago 19 Jun 17, 12:00am -
  • The Health of Nations
    Season 6, Episode 41 This week on Freakonomics Radio: for decades, G.D.P. has been a standard way of measuring living standards around the world. Martha Nussbaum tells Stephen J. Dubner that she’d rather use some better data. Plus: Steve Ballm…
    - 7 days ago 15 Jun 17, 10:00pm -

Conversable Economist

  • !The Story of Robert Keayne, Protocapitalist
    Self-made entrepreneurs often generate a mixed public response. On one side, there is often an appreciation for their skills, the economic dynamism they provide, and in some cases for the charitable work funded by their earlier profits. For example,…
    - 10 hours ago 22 Jun 17, 5:17pm -
  • Unions in Decline: Some International Comparisons
    Union membership and clout has been dropping in the US economy for decades. But it's not just a US phenomenon: a similar drop is happening in many high-income countries. The OECD Employment Outlook 2017 discussed the evidence in "Chapter 4: Collectiv…
    - 2 days ago 20 Jun 17, 3:18pm -
  • An Update on Foreign Direct Investment
    Foreign direct investment is "an investment made to acquire lasting interest in enterprises operating outside of the economy of the investor. [T]he investor´s purpose is to gain an effective voice in the management of the enterprise. ... Some degree…
    - 7 days ago 16 Jun 17, 1:00pm -
  • Competition Issues in Seed and Agricultural Chemicals
    The number of US public companies (that is, companies with stock traded on a public exchange and owned by those shareholders) has dropped by half in the last 20 years.  Part of the reason is a slowdown in the rate of start-ups; part is a rise in mer…
    - 9 days ago 14 Jun 17, 1:00pm -
  • Interview with Janet Currie: Health, Liability, Overtreatment
    Jessie Romero interviews Janet Currie on a range of topics in "Interview: Janet Currie," Econ Focus: Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, First Quarter 2017, pp. 23-36. Here are a few tidbits: Socioeconomic Status and Effects of Pollution"There is a la…
    - 10 days ago 13 Jun 17, 1:00pm -

The Economist

VOX - CEPR's Policy Portal

  • !Shedding (night-time) light on the local resource curse
    A large literature has argued that natural resources have a negative effect on economic development. The Brazilian data used in this column fail to confirm these findings. Economic activity, as measured using night-time light data, increases more dur…
    - 3 hours ago 23 Jun 17, 12:00am -
  • !Cyber attacks: An economic policy challenge
    Cybersecurity is becoming a vital concern for the functioning of a modern economy. This column argues that the threat of cyber attacks should be tackled economy-wide, with economic policies aimed at overcoming the externalities and information asymme…
    - 3 hours ago 23 Jun 17, 12:00am -
  • Introducing VoxDev
    VoxEU is pleased to announce the launch of its new sister site – VoxDev.org. VoxDEV will focus on development issues, posting research-based analysis and commentary by leading economists. The Editor-in-Chief is Tavneet Suri, Professor of Economics…
    - 1 day ago 22 Jun 17, 12:00am -
  • Price manipulation in the Bitcoin ecosystem
    The cryptocurrency Bitcoin has attracted widespread interest, in large part due to wild swings in its valuation. This column considers an earlier rise in the Bitcoin price to investigate what is driving the currency’s price spikes. The 2013 rise wa…
    - 1 day ago 22 Jun 17, 12:00am -
  • The EU Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure: Some impact and no sanctions
    Since 2011, EU macroeconomic surveillance has aimed at preventing or correcting the type of imbalances that were responsible for the Global Crisis. Surveillance under the Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure implies regular reports and policy recommenda…
    - 1 day ago 22 Jun 17, 12:00am -

EconLog

  • !Is America in Retreat?, by David Henderson
    This evening Johan Norberg, who, with Free to Choose Media, put together a one-hour video on foreign policy, will be presenting a segment of the video at the Commonwealth Club. There will be a panel discussion after. I will be one of the panelists.…
    - 5 hours ago 22 Jun 17, 10:37pm -
  • !Progressive/Libertarian: The Alliance That Isn't, by Bryan Caplan
    My one big disagreement with Ed Glaeser's great piece on housing deregulation is when he says:Reforming local land use controls is one of those rare areas in which the libertarian and the progressive agree. The current system restricts the freedom…
    - 8 hours ago 22 Jun 17, 7:01pm -
  • Tanenhaus on James Buchanan, by David Henderson
    I have just read the first serious book review I've seen of historian Nancy MacLean's hatchet job book on James Buchanan, Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America. It's by Sam Tanenhaus.He is, by and l…
    - 1 day ago 21 Jun 17, 11:42pm -
  • Build, Baby, Build, by Bryan Caplan
    Ed Glaeser makes the case for housing deregulation for Brookings:Housing advocates often discuss affordability, which is defined by linking the cost of living to incomes. But the regulatory approach on housing should compare housing prices to the M…
    - 1 day ago 21 Jun 17, 7:35pm -
  • What's causing the low inflation?, by Scott Sumner
    This article caught my eye:When online retail giant Amazon.com Inc. announced last Friday that it would purchase Whole Foods Market Inc., a plunge in retail and grocery stocks reinforced the disinflationary tone set by three straight months of disa…
    - 1 day ago 21 Jun 17, 4:23pm -

Paul Krugman

Economists View

  • !Fed's Labor Market Forecasts Don't Make Sense

    - 9 hours ago 22 Jun 17, 6:43pm -
  • !Links for 06-22-17
    Why you should never use the Hodrick-Prescott filter - VoxEU Is the Fed being misguided by the Phillips curve? - Equitable Growth Intergenerational mobility and preferences for redistribution - VoxEU Low Interest Rates and Bank Profits - Liberty Stre…
    - 20 hours ago 22 Jun 17, 7:06am -
  • Does the Fed Have a Financial Stability Mandate?
    From the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond: Does the Fed Have a Financial Stability Mandate?, by Renee Haltom and John A. Weinberg, FRB Richmond: The 2007–08 financial crisis and the Fed's unprecedented response raised new questions about the Fed's…
    - 1 day ago 21 Jun 17, 10:37pm -
  • Rodrik: Doing (and Teaching) Economics [Video]
    (Starts at 7:00 min. The sound is a bit buzzy.)
    - 1 day ago 21 Jun 17, 10:21pm -
  • Links for 06-21-17
    Seattle’s Minimum Wage Experience 2015-16 - IRLE Don’t Raise the Debt Limit—Repeal It - WSJ Fisticuffs Over the Route to a Clean-Energy Future - NYTimes Selecting for Corbynism - Stumbling and Mumbling The Blockchain Is Going to Revolutionize C…
    - 2 days ago 21 Jun 17, 7:06am -

Naked Capitalism