
The Fed has been under considerable pressure recently by those, me among them, who believe the Fed should use quantitative easing to lower long-term interest rates. However, a temporary investment tax credit can provide the same incentives for business investment...
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Tags: Economics, Fiscal Policy, Monetary Policy, Taxes
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Illegal immigrants are helping to finance your retirement: The contributions by unauthorized immigrants to Social Security ... are much larger than previously known... Stephen C. Goss, the chief actuary of the Social Security Administration and someone who enjoys bipartisan support...
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Tags: Economics, Social Security
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Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes: The true cost of the Iraq war: $3 trillion and beyond, by Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilmes, Commentary, Washington Post: Writing in these pages in early 2008, we put the total cost to...
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Tags: Economics, Iraq and Afghanistan
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I probably should have posted this discussion of naked CDS from Yeon-Koo Che and Rajiv Sethi, but for some reason I felt like something different from the usual fare: Stephen Hawking's big bang gaps, by Paul Davies, CIF: Cosmologists are...
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Tags: Economics, Science
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Economic consequences of speculative side bets: naked CDS - voxeu “Low for long”: A risky but necessary interest rate policy - voxeu Payroll Tax Holiday with a Twist - David Beckworth The Real Lesson of Labor Day - Robert Reich...
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Tags: Economics, Links
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Dennis Lockhart, president of the Atlanta Fed, makes it clear that presently he sees no need for more stimulus -- a slow, plodding recovery like we had in the previous two recession is the best we can expect. If we're...
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Tags: Economics, Fed Speeches, Monetary Policy
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Will a payroll tax cut stimulate the economy? I am going to answer this in the context of Gauti B. Eggertsson' paper "What Fiscal Policy Is Effective at Zero Interest Rates?" where this question is addressed directly (the analysis begins...
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Tags: Academic Papers, Economics, Fiscal Policy, Taxes, Unemployment
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Here's my somewhat cranky response this morning's employment report showing that the unemployment rate ticked up, and that the broader U-6 measure went up even more. There was some private sector job growth, but not nearly enough to keep up...
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Tags: Economics, Unemployment
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When Obama announces his new measures to boost the economy next week, will he learn from the mistakes he made the first time?: The Real Story, by Paul Krugman, Commentary, NY Times: Next week, President Obama is scheduled to propose...
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Tags: Economics, Fiscal Policy, Politics
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David Beckworth pushes back against some posts that have appeared here and elsewhere recently (my view is that low interest rates played a role, as did regulatory failures, but these were not the only causes of the crisis): What Role...
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Tags: Economics, Housing, Monetary Policy, Regulation
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