Business as usual

Michael Mandel reports that, during the recession, we're consuming less food. Strictly speaking, we're spending less money on food. This probably means that people are buying less expensive food, but you wouldn't think it's the second biggest cost cut we're making--after all, everyone has to eat.

Ed Glaeser argues that we shouldn't try to help the auto industry. This is a common economic argument, actually. After all, if a company is going under--particularly a large one--there's probably a good reason for it. They're somehow not efficient enough to survive the market, and helping them out is a waste of money.

How's this for developmental news? Over 60% of the world now uses cell phones. I expect everyone around me to have a cell phone, it's strange to me that almost 40% of people don't use cell phones. And, developed nations account for 66% of cell phone usage. That's even more weird to me!

Intel wants to push its Atom processor (which currently runs my netbook) into other devices. Hooray for low cost processors! I love it when innovation and competition drive down prices.

Romer on the recession

Christina Romer with a piece defending (pdf) her position on the stimulus plan. It seems like she believes in a larger than research indicates, for one. It's an interesting ten-page read that also covers why they decided to stimulate aggregate demand directly, why it is directed at a large number of programs, and why there are programs included that people don't traditionally associate with needing stimulus (I hear that last issue talked about a lot). I'm impressed with the fact that she put her reasoning under public scrutiny, as if she were part of the public discourse. It's certainly a breath of fresh air, I think.

In that same vein, I really like the fact that there are so many government blogs: CBO, OMB, Whitehouse, and more, I'm sure.

Robert Waldeman talks about the value that is left in the IS-LM model.

Another take on the current situation

Scott Sumner, professor at Bentley University, now has added to the econoblogosphere, with his blog TheMoneyIllusion. As a monetary economist (which you could guess by the name, I'm sure), he has a variety of interesting posts, such as the role of rational expectations and GDP targeting.

NPR says that the recession is producing more art. Do we really need more angst?

Michael Mandel thinks that Health and Education will drive future GDP growth, thanks in part to Obama's budget plan.

Big job for Geithner

The discussion at Free Exchange talks about the role of humanities PhDs in a recession. Humanities PhDs are apparently luxury goods, as people choose more easily marketable degrees. On the other hand, it is argued that a diverse economy is better for long term growth. Is it possible to teach ethics to adults anyways? It may be possible, but I think it's unlikely.

Catherine Rampell asks whether economics forecasts from top officials are too optimistic. A lot of people seem to think so. I don't think those forecasts are coming out of just the officials, which I think is an important point.

Felix Salmon is worried that the Department of the Treasury doesn't have assistant secretaries and undersecretaries yet--considering we're going through the worst recession in decades, this is an important time to be fully staffed. For reference, the Department of the Treasury has nine offices, each of which is supposed to have an assistant secretary and an undersecretary. Geithner is the only official listed (in looking at some of the offices, I saw one 'acting assistant secretary' listed... sounds like a very temporary thing, though).

A bit about the Federal Reserve

I thought this was pretty hilarious: This site answers your question, "Is This The Bottom?" I'm sure you can guess the answer.

On a more serious note, here are some interesting links to the tools of the Federal Reserve.

Lastly, an opinion piece at the American Mathematical Society covers how they think mathematical modeling of global problems, and their expected results. Somehow, this seems rather familiar... (h/t TVHE)

Another jolt of optimism.

... Well, as long as you don't listen to people in front of government. Ben Bernanke recently gave a mixed look at the economy. Assuming effective government action, he says that the second half of this year will have a "gradual resumption of growth." It really does sound like he's pushing for more fiscal policy, backing up Obama's plan. I can't help that it's more politically motivated than economically.

A number of people are starting to report good news, even though the government's fiscal policy hasn't kicked in yet. This shouldn't really come as a surprise, though, since historically fiscal policy comes too late to have much if any effect on the end of recession. Irwin Kellner at MarketWatch lists 21 reasons to be optimistic about the economy.

Going back.

A lot of these are links I've been saving for when I had time to blog about them. So... well, here they are.

A couple of economists at the University of Bristol give some recommendations for econoblogging. If you're interested in picking it up, you may want to read this as a basic guide. A Guide to Blogging in Economics

On the same train of thought, a Canadian economist talks about the value of econoblogging. I think as economies become more dependent on each other, and as they are encountered with global shocks and changes, public knowledge of what's going on, why it's going on, and what the effects are become more important. If economists claim to have a roughly decent idea of what ideal economies looks like, we should make an effort to drive the public in that direction. Even if we can't be forecasters, if we know that more open trade policies lead to greader global growth, we should have a venue to try to convince the public of that. And, if what we believe really is true, we should be able to convincingly argue our points.

Tyler Cowen remarked (some time ago, admittedly, that an economist book club would be good, and that there would be discussion on Keynes's General Theory, section by section. It seemed like a good idea, though I don't know what's come of it. Others seemed to think it was a good idea at the time.Again

Recession Announcements (the official ones, from the NBER):

http://wwwdev.nber.org/dec2008.html

http://www.nber.org/cycles.html

Many others were talking about this, of course, even though it was really not a surprise to anyone, and hardly even news. I don't remember if I linked this article before, but here's a Business Week piece on why it takes so long to official call a recession.

I find news about other economies interesting, in particular when different economies interact. Edward Hugh at Bonobo Land is an interesting source of economic analysis of different countries. I've also been reading a bit about Spain in particular, so I found this piece of Edward's interesting. Lawrence Lux comments on the same blog post.

This bailout comic is, I think, more poignant today than it was when it was first published. And, it relates to a recent blogpost of mine (pardon the self-reference).

A recent defense of Wal-Mart. People who oppose high corporate taxes and support small businesses over large ones confuse me.

A smoking ban in Holland has an interesting effect: smokers merely pay the owner to be able to smoke, so the owner can pay the resulting fine. Sounds pretty efficient to me! "Just paying my Pigouvian tax, thanks."

GM CEO being driven 9 hours from Detroit to DC. Seems like a silly way to support your own business to me.

Crises and protectionism. Leading scholars compile their essays into an e-book every world leader should read.

As bad as the 80s, not the 30s. Time remarks that the talk of the current recession is a bit overdramatic. If this recession becomes even remotely comparable to the Great Depression, it hasn't gotten there yet.

Hey, I didn't know the Economist had a free audio/video page. Neat!