Economist Blog

Waxman-Markey and the Great Depression II?

admin — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 16:02:19 +0000

Submitted by Econbrowser “With the passage of Cap and Trade there is a good chance that unemployment will be worse than 1933 by the end of 2010.” So writes an Econbrowser reader. Well, anything can happen, but that is not the outcome I predict. Nor the CBO, EPA, and other informed analysts. From the CBO: The incidence of the [...]

Fireworks

admin — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 16:00:18 +0000

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Cars.com 2009 American-Made Car Index: Detroit Automakers Claim Only 5 of Top 10, Fewest Ever

admin — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:58:46 +0000

Submitted by CARPE DIEM Cars.com’s American-Made Index highlights the cars that are built here, have the highest amount of domestic parts — with eligible models having parts-content ratings of 75% or higher — and are bought in the largest numbers by Americans. The Toyota Camry, once an American-Made Index presence, hasn’t appeared on this list since [...]

Ray Charles: America The Beautiful

admin — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:57:31 +0000

Submitted by CARPE DIEM Ray Charles in 1991, it doesn’t get any better than this: Visit 1800blogger to see all of our industry leading blogs.

Stronger Underwriting, Bigger Down Payments

admin — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:56:04 +0000

Submitted by CARPE DIEM Understanding the causes of the foreclosure explosion is required if we wish to avoid a replay of recent painful events. The suggestions being put forward by the administration and most media outlets — more stringent regulation of subprime lenders — would not have prevented the mortgage meltdown regardless of their merit otherwise. Rather, [...]

Instead of Adopting Canadian-style Health Care, How About Learning from Its Banking System?

admin — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:54:26 +0000

Submitted by CARPE DIEM USA TODAY – Our northern neighbor sometimes seems so similar to the United States that it’s hard to tell where the USA ends and Canada begins. Here’s one way: Canada is the place with healthy banks, taxpayers unscathed by megabillion-dollar bailouts and no need to overhaul financial regulation because it was done [...]

The Great Mancession of 2008-2009 Continues As A New Jobless Rate Gender Gap is Set in June

admin — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:53:11 +0000

Submitted by CARPE DIEM The BLS data released today show that the 2.4% difference between the adult male unemployment rate (10.0%) and adult female unemployment (7.6%) in June is the largest male-female jobless rate gap in the history of BLS data back to 1948 (see chart above of the monthly unemployment rates since 2006). Further, the [...]

Athletes and Their Agents Don’t Set Ticket Prices

admin — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:51:42 +0000

Submitted by CARPE DIEM CD regular reader Jim Moore writes in an email: “I don’t know if you’re interested in reader-provided links, but there’s an excellent little economics tutorial in the WSJ today (Wednesday) by Allen Barra, “Sports Salaries Show What We Really Value,” page A11.” Here’s at least part of that economic lesson: The athletes and their agents [...]

Canada: Boom in Private Health Care Business

admin — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:50:35 +0000

Submitted by CARPE DIEM Private for-profit clinics are a booming business in Canada — a country often touted as a successful example of a universal health system. Facing long waits and substandard care, private clinics are proving that Canadians are willing to pay for treatment. “Any wait time was an enormous frustration for me and also pain. [...]

Web Search Volume for Layoffs Falls to 8 Mo. Low

admin — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:49:09 +0000

Submitted by CARPE DIEM Chart above (click to enlarge) shows the Web Search Volume (that is supposed to track “interest over time”) for the term “layoffs,” which fell in May to the lowest level since early October. The chart below shows the alternative Google Trends search volume and news reference volume for the term “layoffs.” See related CD [...]

It’s Doctors and Politics, Not The Market, That Control the Supply of Doctors

admin — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:45:10 +0000

Submitted by CARPE DIEM The marketplace doesn’t determine how many doctors the nation has, as it does for engineers, pilots and other professions. The number of doctors is a political decision, heavily influenced by doctors themselves. And Congress also controls the supply of physicians by how much federal funding it provides for medical residencies — the graduate [...]

Back to the Stimulus Debate: W, Timing, the States, and Baselines

admin — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:43:17 +0000

Submitted by Econbrowser Martin Feldstein has recently raised the possibility that we might experience a relapse into recession (a beautiful symmetrical W), with the next dip in 2010. In my view, this means (1) we should have opted for a bigger and better composed stimulus package, and (2) the timing of expenditures in the stimulus package [...]

STILL FLOUNDERING BETWEEN THE ROCK & THE HARD PLACE

admin — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:41:27 +0000

Submitted by The Capital Spectator The pundits are shocked, shocked to learn that jobs are still being lost. But there’s really nothing surprising in today’s jobs report for June, released this morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Recessions have a habit of doing that, and for longer than the crowd expects. Disappointing and discouraging? Absolutely. [...]

THE COOL WINDS OF JUNE

admin — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 01:16:54 +0000

Submitted by The Capital Spectator The weather in June was cool and rainy in the New York region, and something similar prevailed over the capital and commodity markets last month as well. As our table below shows, June was a month of mixed messages, ranging from a healthy rally in high-yield bonds to loss in REITs. Disappointing, [...]

No rebound for autos

admin — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 01:02:10 +0000

Submitted by Econbrowser Autos are worth watching as one sector where economic growth could resume first. But despite what others are saying, I don’t believe that it’s happening yet. Some analysts seemed to take comfort in the fact that the decrease in auto sales from June 08 to June 09 was more modest than the year-over-year decline [...]