Bachmann and the global economy, Zimbabwe constitutions, Google's money, and currency standards

Wait... what? Who is this Michele Bachmann person and why don't she understand what 'global economy' means? Politicians confuse me sometimes.

I imagine (best as I can) that things are scary, right now, in a country that needs a new constitution. Zimbabwe has been through a lot, and it's hard to trust those who are making the new document... I doubt they have a significant number of constitutional scholars working on it. Is it a liberal American bias to demand experts be involved in decision making?

I imagine that, upon doing further research, Google discovered that you can't throw money at a problem to fix it. Also, they have less power than they think they do (I'm looking at you, Google China).

While a monetary basket might be a better standard than the dollar, any attempt to make such a basket would be highly political rather than economic in nature. Countries will likely continue making their own decisions in determining currency standards rather than deferring their sovereignty. Though, I suppose, the international lending agencies could make it a requirement of aid.

Samuelson, Greece, fair trade, and academic journals.

A tribute to Samuelson, from an ex-coworker.

Rodrik uses Greece as a teaching tool for the world economy. Economic globalization, politcal democracy, and the nation-state: pick two. I wonder if the EU will be more careful in the future.

An Economist debate on fair trade. It's an interesting debate, but Bhagwati in particular never fails to impress in my opinion. I think the benefits of free trade are less clearly documented in the media, and public opinion (of developed states, especially) ends up mattering more than it should.

What kinds of articles get published in journals? Empirics seem to be winning the day. I thought people use to think academia was divorced from real life...

Cap and trade, data, open journals, and more econblogs.

Krugman explains the basics of cap-and-trade.

Here's a handy little tool from IBM to facilitate data visualization. Looks neat!

And, if you didn't know about this before, but there's an open-access Economics journal. There look to be some really neat articles in there.

In the same vein, here's an econblog aggregator to keep up with research and academic blogs. Thanks to RePEc.

Happiness, universities, Africa, and income gaps

What makes you happy? And, how much is your happiness worth?

The success rate of universities and their prices are brought to question. Do "better" universities have more of an incentive to graduate their students (who might be in wealthier families or are well-connected)? James Hamilton pointed out that students seem to prefer prestigious research universities. Seems to me that the job market prefers students from prestigious research universities.

As much as Africa is progressing, they don't have very many trade links, and are disconnected from the global economy.

Some money news. Poverty is up, and income is down.

Inflation, scalping, 100 resources, protectionism, and development

Free Exchange discusses the possibility of inflation as recovery comes. It seems to me that the argument is that once the recession starts to lessen, the effects of loose monetary policy will start to show, though I'm not sure why inflation will rear without the usual corresponding GDP growth. Typically, you'd think that banks spreading money around would boost GDP growth, and it'd be pretty hard to get around that.

Ticketmaster is trying to stop scalping, using paperless tickets.

Here are 100 useful resources.

Wow, this is pretty cool. The Global Trade Alert. It supposedly keeps track of all protectionist policies, worldwide.

Continuing on a previous story, Sachs v Easterly. Easterly seems to have the more nuanced position, while I feel Sachs is approaching the subject of aid money from a more political point of view. Specifically, Sachs is worried that an anti-aid position will lessen the amount of money that will go towards development goals. On the other hand, Easterly isn't against aid money, but sees it as ineffective due to problems in the field.

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.

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.

Development, Obama's international policies, education, Microsoft, LPB, and the CBO.

Some research on the impact of the financial crisis on developing countries. Menzie Chinn breaks down the first chapter of a piece from the IMF.

Mankiw celebrates that Obama has improved his platform on international economic issues.

The US apparently spends the most money per grade point in education. Solutions? Why not figure out where the most bang-for-buck comes from, and restructure spending?

Some interesting numbers behind Microsoft. Could they be losing their massive market share? Maybe, but they'll still be a big player.

Kotlikoff and Leamer propose Limited Purpose Banking. Banks wouldn't hold assets, and would only borrow to fund mutual fund operations. What ever happened to depository institutions?

The CBO announces its panel of economic advisors.

World Economic Forum on Latin America, Bernanke, charter schools

President Lula, of Brazil, calls for ethics ahead of the World Economic Forum on Latin America. Brazil has been doing much better than most countries in that region, so I'm hoping for Brazil to take the lead. Obama is there too, which will be interesting, as Chavez has spoken against the United States (well, Bush at least) for the past eight years. While reports say that Obama plans to talk about Cuba, I'm hoping for a more diverse agenda for the US president and maybe talk about problems in Venezuela.

Fed chairman Ben Bernanke has apparently been explaining his policy decisions. While it may be helpful for some, I'm not sure it's necessary. I think he's been doing a pretty good job anyways.

Why do charter schools fail? Well, at least 68% of them fail because of "finances, mismanagement, or other organizational problems." Wow. That's an impressive percent of them.

Macroeconomics again, Africa, safety nets, and retail spending.

Matt Nolan at TVHE provides a critique of macro critiques. Over the past few months, he has provided some insightful commentary on the state of macroeconomics, I think. While it's important to try to explain stylized facts about the economy, I think what people want out of macroeconomics is something more concrete. Hopefully that'll come with time.

The Guardian emphasizes the dire condition of Africa during the global recession. Though they have relatively little political capital, they are in great need of assistance. I'm not convinced that people are more willing to help during a recession, though. It's hard enough to help Africa when things are going well. Still, it's important for that region to improve. Thank goodness Zimbabwe dollarized!

Mike Moffatt comments on safety nets--protect people when they start businesses.
safety nets. Sure, it's inefficient and could cause people to take advantage of the system, but it'll speed up growth a lot. While I agree it'll speed up growth in the short run, I'm not convinced it's a good idea. Since we're trying to affect the recession, it'd have to be a temporary safety net. Do we want to prop up the economy with temporary inefficiencies? What will happen when we take away the safety nets?

Michael Mandel points out why falling retail sales are good--they reduce our trade deficit. It matters whether retail is falling more in imports or domestic goods, though. Still, since we've been spending beyond our means for quite some time, reeling that back and having some savings will be a good thing in the long run.

G-20, credit crisis, auto industry, and taxes

Now that the G-20 summit is over, you can imagine that a lot of people are weighing in on what they consider to be the important results. Dani Rodrik says that it was a victory for Europe. Vicky Pryce talks about the focus on trade. Free Exchange seems optimistic about most of the results. Justin Fox talks more about the IMF's cash. ... And that's just a drop in the bucket of all the commentary going around out there.

Calculated Risk provides a bunch of graphs of credit crisis indicators. We're still high on all of them, but things are looking better.

Free Exchange considers how one would separate the auto and oil industries. We don't want rising oil prices to sneak up on us again, which may happen due to rising demand in China, but there are fewer incentives for fuel efficient or electric cars while oil prices are low. Of course, this is nothing new, it's just another thought on that same old topic. The way to do it might be a tax on gas.

Mike Mofatt talks about why value-added sales taxes are more efficient than other taxes.

Family planning, the bottom, help for Geithner, protectionism, and defaults

As history has clearly shown a number of times, economics affects family planning.

A few pieces from Calculated Risk. Orders for durable goods rose in February. Truck tonnage also rose in February. The bottom of the recession may have arrived! Not that it necessarily matters much, anyways. We'll feel the effects of the recession for quite some time.

Thankfully, Geithner may be getting some help, soon. Helen Garrett has been nominated for the Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy, Michael Barr for Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions, and George Madison for General Counsel.

Yet another piece warning against protectionist policies, ahead of the G20 summit. I hope the world leaders get the idea.

Credit card and school loan default rates are on the rise.

Newspapers, teaching, multilateralism, data, and the Geithner plan

There has been a bill introduced to allow newspapers file as nonprofit organizations. You know public television? Public radio? Try public newspapers. The Tax Foundation says that this may mean the end of editorials, but I don't see that happening. Public television and radio often have commentaries by people that express their opinions, so editorials may take a different form.

A community college professor gives some thoughts on teaching basic economics. Her article is well worth the read, I think. When I try to explain the concepts they're supposed to be learning, I worry that the students are sometimes missing the point, so I think this might be a good way to try to drive the essentials home.

FT provides an article on the importance of economic and political multilateralism. I think most economists see things this way as well, which makes me wonder about the economic education of political "realists."

Mark Thoma tells us that economists need better (and faster) economic data. if people expect us to have better forecasts. I suppose it makes sense to have better data as technology gets better, right? In a somewhat related post, Steve Horwitz points out that importance of looking at the right data.

And, a NYT debate on the Geithner plan. Follow along to see thoughts by Brad DeLong, Simon Johnson, Paul Krugman, and Mark Thoma. It's certainly an interesting read.

Technology, the Fed, the global recession, hiring, and trade

Lynne Kiesling has some interesting posts on smart grid technology. I'm looking forward to this stuff in the future.

Ben Bernanke says that he is glad to work at the Federal Reserve. "Economics is only useful to the extent that it helps people..."--very true.

Academic hiring is down, unsurprisingly. People tend to think lawyers can still make money, but apparently law firms are laying off lawyers, too.

U.S. trade deregulation provided for around 25% of trade growth. Seem obvious? Well, maybe not to people who are advocating protectionist policies.

Global Recession Status map. On the other hand, Chavez says that the global recession has not affected Venezuela.

Christina Romer's Lessons from the Great Depression.

Another thought on the unit-root-vs-trend-stationary Krugram-Mankiw debate, this time from David Altig at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

Research on the question: Does Money Bring Happiness? Some research says yes!

James Kwak provides Nationalization for Beginners.

Dani Rodrik on the problem with economists. He says we need to use multiple models, not just the one we believe.

Geithner starts to get some help. Geithner has been scrambling to get stuff done.

The IMF reports the costs of the financial crisis.

Houston Rodeo, ESE, marginal taxes, protectionism, and popular kids

The Houston rodeo is feeling the effects of the recession.

There is now an Economics Search Engine. It sounds like a very useful thing, but I haven't tried it out yet. (I'm having trouble with the link provided, so maybe you'll also have better luck with this one)

Jonathan Chait has some fun with people who believe they'll be better off by keeping their incomes under $250k.

A couple of World Bankers worry that trade protectionism is rising. I hope any trend doesn't last. (Edit: another Voxeu.org article on a similar subject, but a bit more broad)

Popular kids make more money, says some research. An extra two percent for every extra friend. I wonder what Bill Gates would say about this.