December 08, 2006
Employment remains solid
This week's employment data do not show an economy in recession.
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December 07, 2006
Compensation Catch-up Postponed
The Administration has been lauding the acceleration in compensation growth. Newly revised figures indicate that the rejoicing was premature, as Q2 real compensation growth was revised downward.
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December 06, 2006
November auto sales
November U.S. light vehicle sales were 2.8% higher than last year. Sounds good, until you take a closer look.
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December 05, 2006
China: Over-investment or not
There's been a debate whether investment rates in China are sustainable or not.
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Posted by Menzie Chinn at 07:04 AM permalink | Comments (16) | TrackBack (0) | digg this | reddit
December 03, 2006
The yield curve and foreign purchases of U.S. debt
A few weeks ago I discussed some new research that suggests that the current negative spread between long-term and short-term yields may be a little less worrisome than earlier studies had led us to conclude, to the extent that the negative spread in part results from an unusually low term premium on U.S. bonds rather than an expectation of future declines in short-term yields. One factor that may be depressing that term premium is foreign holdings of U.S. securities.
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November 30, 2006
Home sales down further
Data on October new home sales released yesterday by the Census Bureau suggest that I may be proved to have been wrong in thinking that new home sales had already hit bottom.
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November 28, 2006
Downshifting and Reversion in Forecasts
My post on CEA's forecast discussed the similarity between the Administration's forecast and the Society of Professional Forecasters forecast. What can we learn from recent SPF forecasts, in the wake of decelerating growth.
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November 26, 2006
Housing: speculative bubble or fundamentals?
Caclulated Risk had some interesting observations this week about why forecasts for housing differ so widely across analysts.
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November 25, 2006
Will the Dollar Plunge? Would that Be So Bad?
Yesterday's dollar plunge unnerved markets. What's the likelihood of a sustained, drastic decline?
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Posted by Menzie Chinn at 08:30 AM permalink | Comments (21) | digg this | reddit
November 24, 2006
Litvinenko
Martin Kelly is your source for news on the death of Alexander Litvinenko.
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November 23, 2006
Forecasts Then and Now: A Cautionary Tale
The White House released its midterm forecast on Tuesday. Some thoughts on forecasts around turning points.
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November 22, 2006
So who wants Russia's oil and gas, anyway?
"The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them," Lenin is said to have boasted.
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Posted by James Hamilton at 05:54 AM permalink | Comments (15) | digg this | reddit
November 21, 2006
Guest column from Shivaji Sondhi and Michael Cook
The moment seems to be opportune for some creative ideas about how to handle the situation in Iraq. Econbrowser is pleased today to publish a guest column from Princeton professors Shivaji Sondhi and Michael Cook, who direct the Project on Oil, Energy and the Middle East at the Princeton Institute of International and Regional Studies.
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Posted by James Hamilton at 03:20 PM permalink | Comments (22) | digg this | reddit
Some Puzzling Effects of Productivity on the Real Exchange Rate
What should be the effect of productivity increases on the real exchange rate?
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Posted by Menzie Chinn at 08:35 AM permalink | Comments (4) | digg this | reddit
November 19, 2006
Are the Democrats Truly More Protectionist?
In the wake of the midterm elections, and the failure to renew Vietnamese PNTR, there has been a lot of talk about how more protectionist Democratic lawmakers are. See WaPo, The Economist (pre-election) [sub.req.], WSJ [sub.req.] and here. Greg Mankiw also steps in the fray.
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November 17, 2006
Housing stats look bad
Much worse numbers for housing than I was expecting were announced today by the Census Bureau.
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Posted by James Hamilton at 10:14 AM permalink | Comments (27) | digg this | reddit
Can Gravity Be Defied?
"Dark Matter", like all stories about free lunches, still excites lots of people's imagination, as evidenced by the reaction to my post on the subject a week ago. Here is one picture that should further temper the excitement.
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Posted by Menzie Chinn at 08:22 AM permalink | Comments (5) | digg this | reddit
November 15, 2006
Ain't no use to sit and wonder why, Bob
After the learned New York critics savaged my beloved Twyla Tharp/Bob Dylan musical, I was pleased to see that Right Wing Bob knows the score.
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Posted by James Hamilton at 02:16 PM permalink | Comments (4) | digg this | reddit
The Expansion Compared
There was a lot of mystification why the electorate was so concerned about the economy, when aggregate measures of economic performance were signalling positive.
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November 14, 2006
Current Account Imbalances, Again
At the 7th annual IMF Research Conference, Olivier Blanchard discussed in the keynote lecture whether it makes sense to worry about the U.S. current acount deficit.
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November 13, 2006
The yield curve and the term premium
Some new studies suggest that the yield curve inversion might not be quite as ominous as some of us have been assuming.
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Posted by James Hamilton at 02:22 PM permalink | Comments (17) | digg this | reddit
November 10, 2006
RIP, Dark Matter As Cure-All
Two recent publications should help put to rest the conjecture that there are vast pools of U.S. wealth lying overseas, ready to save the day.
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Posted by Menzie Chinn at 07:41 PM permalink | Comments (6) | digg this | reddit
