News
FOX Business | OECD: Economic Outlook Shows Improvement
Several of the world's leading economies are showing signs of improvement while the euro zone has stabilized even if France remains weak, an indicator compiled by Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development suggested on Monday.
Market Watch | At the retail level, economy could stutter
We’re about to find out how consumers reacted to higher taxes and less take-home pay in January.
Econ Comments & Analysis
NY Times | Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor and Your Economists, Too
All the recent talk in Washington about reforming immigration policy brings to mind Pat Paulsen, the comedian who, every four years, conducted faux campaigns for president.
Washington Times | Printing more money won’t stop economy from shrinking
Upon learning recently that the economy shrank for the first time in more than three years, the Federal Reserve decided to continue its longstanding policy of printing money at full speed until investor confidence runs out or the ink runs dry. Unfortunately, this is all within its purview due to its “dual mandate,” which requires it to focus on the often contradictory mission of “maximum employment” and “stable prices.”
Four Percent Growth | Forgetting Prosperity
There’s a growing portion of Americans who consider this a real possibility. It is common to hear people discuss 2% annual growth and 8% unemployment as the “new normal.” Respected economists like Robert Gordon even contend that our country’s franchise on innovation is being lost. Perhaps most alarming is that Americans between the ages of 18 and 27 have never known what it’s like to participate in a robust, growing, economy.
NBER | Multi-Product Firms and Product Quality
This paper proposes that quality differentiation is an important feature of the operations of multi-product firms. We develop a model in which manufacturers vary product quality across their product range by using inputs of different quality levels.
Blogs
Economist | Adding value?
The private equity industry justifies its high fees to institutional investors in part by claiming that PE allocations improve a portfolio's diversification. While there may be individual PE firms that can deliver this kind of uncorrelated outperformance, there is significant evidence that the industry in the aggregate provides few services for its investors that cannot be obtained elsewhere at far lower cost.
Heritage Foundation | Free Trade Twist: China No Longer Cheapest Labor
As wages in China rise with economic growth, some companies are beginning to look elsewhere for what was once China’s selling point: cheap labor. It just highlights the power that free trade provides—growing economies and raising living standards.
