Things to Note on the Afternoon of May 12, 2015
Must- and Should-Reads:
- : “It might, however, be what you’d expect in a market that is still pretty close to a high-unemployment equilibrium, but one that expresses the insufficiency of effective demand via underemployment rather than unemployment. If we were, that would explain why it is so difficult to reduce the deficit and why wages are so poor, and also why productivity is so poo…”
- (1999): “It’s possible to summarize what [Tom] Friedman has to say fairly quickly… it’s what you read in just about every … Business Week. Information technology… has made the world a small place… richly rewards countries and societies that meet its needs… strong property rights, open minds, and a flexible attitude…. This story is told via hundreds of anecdotes, most of them involving the author…. [Friedman’s] clear implication of his various parables and metaphors is that Japan is in trouble because it is hidebound and inefficient…. Yet, as Friedman himself points out, Japan’s export sector remains world-class…. The immediate problem is not inadequate supply but inadequate demand. Put in a nutshell, the Japanese simply save too much; that is, although Friedman’s only reference to Keynes is a disparaging one… Japan is in fact suffering the most classically Keynesian crisis since the 1930s. And the United States…. If the role-reversal between the United States and Japan has more to do with old-fashioned macro-economics than with the inexorable new logic of globalization, maybe the rules of the game haven’t changed as much as Friedman thinks–and maybe, also, America’s winning streak is not forever. Did somebody say ‘bubble economy’?”
- Must-Read: : Finally, war on Prop. 13 breaks out
- Must-Read: : How Do Net International Positions Matter?
- : Six Economic Facts About Transportation Infrastructure in the United States
- Must-Read: : The Magnificent Five: Some Ridiculously Kind Words from Tren Griffin
- Must-Read: : Medicaid Expansion Is Producing Large Gains in Health Coverage and Saving States Money
- (2011): Managing the Eurozone’s Fragility
- (2011): The Pain in Spain
- (2011): Macroeconomics: what is it good for?
- Must-Read: : The Trans-Pacific Partnership: A Threat To Global Health?
- : Nail salon workers aren’t the only ones who need protection from abusive workplaces