Macro stuff

Here's a fun new tool from the Federal Reserve. It's a dynamic map that will show you a variety of national data. You can compare states, MSAs, and more.

George Waters of Illinois State talks about the current state of macroeconomics, and how we view the current recession. (link to Thoma) I think many are becoming increasingly disenchanted with macroeconomic models, and I think that includes many macroeconomists. On a recent radio interview (I believe it was on NPR), an economist described what forcasters are doing right now as guesses. In general, they try to use past similar situations to estimate what will happen, but there aren't many past situations similar to today. Surely, if it were easy, everyone would be macroeconomists.

Over at voxeu.org, Philip Lane reminds macroeconomists not to forgot global issues. Domestic fixes to the crisis that don't take into account global imbalances may just lead to another crisis. I'm less paranoid than Lane, I think, but global imbalances are always important to consider.