One of the striking things about about the deficit crisis that seems to loom over the United States is the probability that it will force a massive change in American expectations. In Newsweek this week Niall Ferguson beats the deficit drum. His fear is that US will have to [...]
Here’s a letter that I sent yesterday to Fred Hochberg, President of the Export-Import Bank of the United States — an agency charged with helping American firms export more:
Dear Mr. Hochberg:
My e-mail today brought a proud announcement from CG/LA Infrastructure LLC that you’ll speak at one of that company’s [...]
A number of readers wrote me this morning and asked what I thought of Paul Krugman's column today. Krugman writes:
As Gary Gorton and Andrew Metrick of Yale have shown, by 2007 the United States banking system had become crucially dependent on “repo” transactions, in which financial institutions sell assets [...]
Thanksgiving I:
Making Light: Thanksgiving: By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.
The year that is drawing towards its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies.
To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we [...]
Edmund Andrews has a long front-page story today on what he calls “the United States’ long-term budget crisis” — and has occasioned a strangulated “Urg” out of Paul Krugman in doing so. Krugman wrote a very smart blog entry on Friday (Tyler Cowen called it one [...]
Interesting stuff:
• China’s Blunt Talk for Obama (WSJ)
• China vs United States by the Numbers (NYT)
• Riding on China’s coat-tails (Business Spectator)
• Hong Kong to U.S: Please Don’t Blow our Bubbles (Real Time Economics)
• The Tokyo Hot List: 20 people to watch (Tokyo)
Mark Thoma is alarmed by our president:
Economist's View: Obama's Wrong-Headed Thinking on the Deficit: Edward Harrison catches this quote from Obama....
Obama warned the United States' climbing national debt could drag the country into a "double-dip recession," though he said he's still considering additional tax incentives [...]
President Obama visits China at a time when the world’s two most powerful economies face very different fortunes.
A humbled United States is slowly recovering after sparking the global financial crisis. China, on the other hand, has handled the downturn with ease and appears to be leading the world out of [...]
As the holiday travel rush approaches, air travelers grounded by delays should take a moment to think about why they're stuck in airports or on the tarmac. There's a good chance Washington is to blame.
"The air traffic control system in the United States is technologically obsolete," says Robert W. Poole, Jr., director of' [...]
The rich world should show emerging markets how it's done
ED GLAESER is basically right when he says:[I]f China’s per capita carbon dioxide emissions increase by 14.4 tons and reach United States levels, then world carbon dioxide emissions will increase by about 19 billion tons or 67 percent. If [...]
Why did a sophisticated, international financial market, but not its insurance equivalent, evolve in the United States? One important reason is the absurdly restrictive US insurance regulation. FULL ARTICLE by Jan Iwanik
[...]U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders on Sunday supported delaying a legally binding climate pact until 2010 or even later, but European negotiators said the move did not imply weaker action...
French Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said it was clear the main obstacle was the United States' [...]
Straight talk on the dollar is hard to find
AH, THE painful contortions American leaders find themselves attempting whenever the dollar's relative strength or weakness is at issue. Earlier this week, Tim Geithner could be heard saying:I believe deeply that it's very important to the United States, to the [...]
From David Meltzer and Zhuo Chen (HT Greg Mankiw):
Growing consumption of increasingly less expensive food, and especially “fast food”, has been cited as a potential cause of increasing rate of obesity in the United States over the past several decades. Because the real minimum wage in the United States has declined [...]
Falling wages mean more empty calories
SPEAKING of unintended consequences from above market wage rates, have a look at this (via Greg Mankiw):Growing consumption of increasingly less expensive food, and especially “fast food”, has been cited as a potential cause of increasing rate of obesity in the United States [...]
If China remains culturally closed, the Chinese Century will never come to pass. Instead, the United States--a country that has struggled with race and racism for centuries, and in the process has become more culturally open and resilient--will dominate this century as it did the last.
That's from Reihan Salaam, [...]
1. The vote to defund political science: how it went.
2. Jason Kottke doesn't read books anymore.
3. "Food rewards obsessiveness," the best eater in the United States. The full article is gated (the link offers only an excerpt), so buy the 9 November New Yorker. I don't usually [...]
This morning Warren Buffet's company Berkshire Hathaway announced that it was buying Burlington Northern Santa Fe in a deal valued at $44 billion. In the announcement, Buffett called the purchase an "all-in wager on the economic future of the United States."
Is Buffett right that a bet on Burlington Northern is [...]
The largest provider of medical services in the United States is Medicare. Forty five million Americans receive Medicare. Out of this total only 85% are elderly (aged 65 or older). Disabled individuals, individuals with end-stage renal disease or Lou Gehrig’s disease are also eligible for Medicare coverage.
Medicare has 4 parts. [...]
