Americana
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Central Banks and Asset PricesDUNCAN CURRIE 11/19/2008
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Australian economist Stephen Kirchner explains why monetary policy should not target asset prices.
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The Bankruptcy SolutionDUNCAN CURRIE 11/19/2008
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“General Motors, Ford and Chrysler can make excellent cars, but they cannot sell them at prices that are competitive with the prices of cars produced in the United States by Toyota and others or with the prices of cars imported from Europe and Asia. The basic reason is the labor costs imposed by union contracts,” writes Harvard economist Martin Feldstein.
“The Big Three pay much higher wages than production workers are paid in the nonunion auto firms and in the general economy. And the health-care costs of current workers and retired union members are an enormous additional burden.
“The simplest solution is to allow GM and the others to file for bankruptcy. If the companies file under Chapter 11, they would be able to continue producing cars, and the workforce would remain employed while the firms reorganized. The firms would also be able to get short-term credit under bankruptcy protection.”
Read the whole thing.
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Lomborg on Green PoliciesDUNCAN CURRIE 11/19/2008
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“Obama is now facing countless people who claim that subsidies for renewable energy and CO2 taxes are great ways to tackle global warming and forge a new green economy. Unfortunately, this is almost entirely incorrect,” argues Danish statistician Bjorn Lomborg, head of the Copenhagen Consensus Center. “Taxes and subsidies are always expensive, and will likely impede growth. Moreover, if we really want to tackle global warming, we shouldn’t spend vast sums of money buying inefficient green technology—we should invest directly in R&D to make future green technology competitive.”
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Approve the Colombia Deal NowDUNCAN CURRIE 11/18/2008
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The New York Times editorial page is urging Congress to approve the U.S.-Colombia free trade pact.
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Analyzing the G-20 SummitDUNCAN CURRIE 11/17/2008
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Former IMF chief economist Simon Johnson, a professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, comments on the weekend meeting.
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Bailing Out the Big ThreeDUNCAN CURRIE 11/17/2008
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Economist Gary Becker and Judge Richard Posner discuss the proposed bailout of the Big Three automakers.
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‘Wine Prices Go Into the Red’DUNCAN CURRIE 11/17/2008
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“It is enough to make the super rich cough into their carefully cellared claret—prices of some of the world’s most revered wines are falling sharply,” reports Will Smale of BBC News.
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Obama and the MarketsDUNCAN CURRIE 11/17/2008
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“If President-elect Obama were to announce he would not propose increasing any business, capital gains, or dividend tax for at least two years, this would give great reassurance to the stock markets, and would likely push them in a positive direction,” argues Cato Institute scholar and Institute for Global Economic Growth chairman Richard Rahn. “If he were also to announce he would not put any punitive environmental restrictions on the energy industry for at least several years, it would both foster a stock market and real general economic recovery.”
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Modern LoveDUNCAN CURRIE 11/17/2008
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Writing in City Journal, Manhattan Institute scholar Kay Hymowitz examines “the chaotic postfeminist dating scene.”
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The NFL’s Best and WorstDUNCAN CURRIE 11/14/2008
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Dollar DominanceDUNCAN CURRIE 11/14/2008
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“The United States is the epicenter of global market distress, but investors flood into the market for U.S. government securities. It would not seem to be a natural impulse to rush into a burning building at the first sign of smoke, but the financial market equivalent is happening. This reflects the funding advantage conferred upon us by being a reserve currency,” write economists Carmen and Vincent Reinhart.
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Nationwide Menu Labeling?DUNCAN CURRIE 11/14/2008
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From Reuters:
“A nationwide system requiring fast-food chains to list calories on their menus could be gaining support in Congress as more states adopt the practice and the restaurant industry concedes change is on the way, a consumer, industry and health panel said on Friday.
“Laws requiring that calories and other nutritional information be posted have become increasingly popular as states and cities struggle to combat the country’s growing obesity problem while promoting health and nutrition. At the same time, lawmakers in Washington have struggled to get the practice adopted nationwide.”
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Bipartisan ProposalsDUNCAN CURRIE 11/14/2008
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“It is to be expected that Obama will govern as a progressive. But there are measures he could back as president and appointments he could make—consistent with the larger progressive spirit—that would show respect for conservative concerns and accord with principles that, at their best moments, both right and left in America embrace,” writes Hoover Institution fellow Peter Berkowitz.
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Dingell vs. WaxmanDUNCAN CURRIE 11/14/2008
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From Bloomberg News:
“When House Democrats return to Washington next week, they will have to choose between two of the party’s most senior lawmakers.
“The elder statesman is Michigan Representative John Dingell, 82, the longest-serving House member, with 52 years in office. The challenger is Henry Waxman of California, 69, who has been in Congress for 34 years and is vying to replace Dingell as chairman of the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee.
“The stakes are high because the panel has jurisdiction over energy, health care and telecommunications issues, central elements of President-elect Barack Obama’s agenda.”
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Defending George W. BushDUNCAN CURRIE 11/13/2008
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Prominent Australian journalist Greg Sheridan argues that President Bush “will have a better place in history than most of his critics.”
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The Truth About OilDUNCAN CURRIE 11/13/2008
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“Unless or until inventors can come up with a substance (or substances) that can replace all of the products that are refined from a barrel of crude oil—from gasoline to naphtha and diesel to asphalt—then the United States, along with every other country on the planet, is going to continue using oil as a primary energy source for decades to come,” writes energy expert Robert Bryce. “And that will be true no matter how much corn gets burned up in America’s delusional quest for ‘energy independence.’”
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‘The Global Slumpometer’DUNCAN CURRIE 11/12/2008
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The Economist notes that “there is no agreed definition of a global recession.”
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After the CrashDUNCAN CURRIE 11/12/2008
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Writing in Portfolio, Liar’s Poker author Michael Lewis surveys the end of an era on Wall Street.
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Is America Still Polarized?DUNCAN CURRIE 11/12/2008
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“The vote last week was transformative in a sense. In many ways, however, the election produced no change at all,” writes journalist Bill Bishop, author of The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart. “The country is split in much the same way it was divided four and eight years ago. People continue to sort by age and by way of life. As a result, our communities (and states) are growing more like-minded….
“Liberals and Democrats seem to think the country’s divisions have disappeared just because their man won. And it is easy to ignore people on the other side when they aren’t your neighbors. But that doesn’t mean the country is less polarized—because it isn’t.”
Read the whole thing.
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The History Wars in East AsiaDUNCAN CURRIE 11/11/2008
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From The Times of London:
“Emperor Akihito of Japan should follow the example of Germany in making a genuine gesture of contrition for his country’s wartime aggression in Asia, Lee Myung Bak, the South Korean President, has said.
“In an interview with The Times Mr. Lee made a comparison with the late German Chancellor, Willy Brandt, whose genuflection before a monument to murdered Polish Jews became a symbol of postwar German contrition for the horrors of the Holocaust and the Second World War.”
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ObamanomicsDUNCAN CURRIE 11/11/2008
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Harvard economist Greg Mankiw, a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, explains how Barack Obama can “become a reliable steward of the economy.”
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Who Will Be Obama’s Treasury Chief?DUNCAN CURRIE 11/10/2008
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From Reuters:
“President-elect Barack Obama’s short-list for Treasury secretary includes one man with a reputation for being too blunt and another whose genial manner makes some wonder if he is tough enough.
“Neither Lawrence Summers’ nor Timothy Geithner’s expertise is in doubt, but there are questions about who is better suited for the sensitive post with global markets mired in the worst turmoil since the Great Depression.
“Summers is tough but possibly too outspoken. Geithner is even-tempered but possibly too nice.”
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Rich Man, Poor ManDUNCAN CURRIE 11/10/2008
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“By and large, the poor aren’t poor because the rich are rich,” writes economic columnist Robert Samuelson. “They’re usually poor for their own reasons: family breakdown, low skills, destructive personal habits and plain bad luck.”
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What Now?DUNCAN CURRIE 11/10/2008
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Former Bush White House aide Pete Wehner ponders the future of the Republican Party.
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‘The Best Stimulus’DUNCAN CURRIE 11/10/2008
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According to a new Rasmussen poll, “A majority of U.S. voters (52%) say the federal government needs to do more to deal with the current economic crisis, and 63% think the best stimulus would be more tax cuts. Just 20% think new government spending is what is needed, while 17% aren’t sure which is better.”