Asia, law, international trade, and health care

Asian economies are supposed to be the first ones to recover. I suppose that's not a surprise--lesser developed countries tend to have a higher GDP growth level, so a global recession is less likely to keep their growth rates negative.

Economics is respected in law. James Kwak thinks maybe lawyers shouldn't stick so closely to economic principles, or at least they should recognize its shortcomings. I don't advocate as drastic a view as James Kwak puts forth, but I do think it's important for lawyers to understand the limitations of using the Hand formula and of traditional economic analysis.

Dani Rodrik thinks about which sorts of trade liberalization policies will have the greatest positive impact. He says that we should open agricultural trade and increase quotas for highly skilled foreign workers.

Apparently, we can pay for universal health care using sensible cost-cutting practices.

Agriculture, Libertarianism, TED talk, law, city house prices, and Google

Some stylized facts about agricultural subsidies. It looks like a very inefficient market. Again, no surprise there.

Henry Kaufman explains how Libertarianism hindered the Fed. While I don't agree with all of it, it raises some good points, I think.

A couple of very interesting pieces from Marginal Revolution. I recommend you read them. Alex Tabarrok gave a TED talk, and Tyler Cowen discusses the field of Law and Economics.

Here's some Case-Shiller city data on housing prices. They're still dropping, though it looks like we're nearing normal levels in some places. Unfortunately, there's still likely more dropping to happen, due to a super saturated market.

On a different sort of note, now Google offers some searchable public data. I hope they greatly expand this.

Stress tests, immigration, trade balances, R&D

A basic explanation of the bank stress tests. Apparently, most of the banks are doing well.

Would legalizing immigrants improve the economy? I don't think this is a tough question for most economists, though they'd probably disagree on the degree to which it would help.

Some interest graphs on US trade. The trade balance is improving very quickly, helping the dollar, and lowering import prices. Menzie Chinn with a more advanced econometric analysis. I guess we'll see how this plays out in GDP forecasts.

On news of Obama announcing he wants to raise R&D spending, here's a graph showing R&D spending as a percentage of GDP, for the US and some other places. I'd be curious to see a longer term graph. It looks like the US spends very little on R&D, as a percentage of GDP, compared to other countries. I've seen research saying that government R&D isn't very effective, but if economic growth is tied to technological growth (which few economists diagree), then increasing R&D spending sounds like a good idea, in general.

Moving onwards.

I've created a page on my website that includes links to some of the best commentary about the financial crisis around. With so much opinions on the matter, it's difficult to keep up with it all, difficult to figure out what's useful, and it kind of crowds out other interesting pieces of information. I'll keep that page updated with information or links to information, and try to keep this blog for other stuff (though, chances are there will be interesting financial crisis news I'll want to mention on here as well).

Robert Waldmann, on the Angry Bear, refutes the claims of the previously mentioned physicist. While Waldmann brings up good points, I don't think he refutes all of the claims with satisfaction. In a similar vein, a University of Houston physicist writes "What Economists should learn from Econophysics."

Now for a few links from Dani Rodrik. He's a Harvard professor specializing in developmental issues. He points to a useful site for development data. But, he's sometimes silly, such as linking this economics rap (I'm kind of impressed). He also sometimes takes on fellow Harvard professor Greg Mankiw. He also has a number of posts pointing out that subsidies can lower prices, not raise them (depending on whether the country is a net importer or a net exporter). MyC4 looks like a Kiva-type site. That's good stuff. And, a ranking of econoblogs, updated with data from the past 90 days. The other common ranking I knew of is here.

Here is a video archive of London School of Economics lectures. Nice stuff. I'll eventually make a webpage with economics podcasts and videos.

Phil Izzo at the Wall Street Journal tells us that most lawmakers don't have economic educations. Well, I think we all knew that already, but it's particularly pertinent when they're trying to fix a financial crisis.

It's interesting to note the net present value of a JD. I wish I could also find the study that shows the incidence of JDs in various countries.

I Bits is an interesting blog, and Laura Holson tells us that wireless broadband boosts economies.

Lastly, a couple of Slate articles I meant to post on here a long time ago. A discussion about automobile subsidies, and a commentary on Obama's law exams he used to give.

Enjoy!