Bank of England new governor Carney makes fans in first week At the end of his first week at the Bank of England, Mark Carney appears to have impressed the markets, economists, and even a group of determined female protestors. Since the new governor got his feet under the desk on Monday morning, the FTSE 100 has risen around 6%. Economists welcomed the moves towards "forward guidance", o...Read More
Egypt needs elections, not generals … Mohamed Morsi's one-year rule of Egypt was disastrous. He ruled by fiat, alienated potential allies and failed to stabilize the country's spiraling economy. But a military coup is not an answer to Egypt's problems. It will exacerbate, not ease, Egypt's vast political divide. The Egyptian military's primary interest is maintaining its...Read More
The events that led to the Egyptian army's removal of President Mohamed Morsi confronted the military with a simple choice: intervention or chaos. Seventeen million people on the street is not the same as an election. But it is an awesome manifestation of people power. The equivalent turnout in Britain would be around 13 million people. Just think about it for a moment. The army wouldn't i...Read More
It Looks Like Everyone Owes Bernanke A Big Apology … Since the day the rally began in early 2009, basically they've always been wrong. The economy since the bottom has been characterized by steady, underwhelming improvement, and the only time the market has dived has been during periods when it looked like the economy might falter (most notably right after the 2011 debt ceiling brouhaha)...Read More
Bank of England new governor Carney makes fans in first week At the end of his first week at the Bank of England, Mark Carney appears to have impressed the markets, economists, and even a group of determined female protestors. Since the new governor got his feet under the desk on Monday morning, the FTSE 100 has risen around 6%. Economists welcomed the moves towards "forward guidance", o...Read More
Egypt needs elections, not generals … Mohamed Morsi's one-year rule of Egypt was disastrous. He ruled by fiat, alienated potential allies and failed to stabilize the country's spiraling economy. But a military coup is not an answer to Egypt's problems. It will exacerbate, not ease, Egypt's vast political divide. The Egyptian military's primary interest is maintaining its...Read More
The events that led to the Egyptian army's removal of President Mohamed Morsi confronted the military with a simple choice: intervention or chaos. Seventeen million people on the street is not the same as an election. But it is an awesome manifestation of people power. The equivalent turnout in Britain would be around 13 million people. Just think about it for a moment. The army wouldn't i...Read More
China admits local govt debt levels unknown, could be higher than estimated … A senior Chinese official said on Friday that the government did not know precisely know how much debt local governments had built up and warned that it could be more than previous estimates. Estimates of local government debt range from Standard Chartered's 15 percent of the country's GDP at end-2012 to Cr...Read More
Carney Should Make the Bank of England an Innovator … Speculation that Mark Carney, who took charge at the Bank of England this week, might radically change U.K. monetary policy cooled in the months after his appointment was announced. No doubt, this softening of expectations was justified — the constraints of the office are tighter than the new governor and his admirers would like. It...Read More
Unprecedented Globalization … A couple of weeks ago I posted a chart showing the long-term trend of world trade in manufactures relative to world production. The paper I took the chart from, however, only went up to 2000. And I decided to update it for the next edition of Krugman Obstfeld Melitz. And it's pretty striking: You see the interwar trade decline; the growth in world trade afte...Read More
Delaying the Employer Mandate Requires Delaying All of Obamacare … The IRS has announced it will postpone the start date of Obamacare's "employer mandate" from 2014 to 2015. Most of the reaction has focused on how this move is an implicit acknowledgement that Obamacare is harmful, cannot work, and will prove a liability for Democrats going into the November 2014 elections. The...Read More
Libertarian Gary Johnson: 'this Independence Day feels different … Former Libertarian presidential hopeful Gary Johnson hopes you have a nice picnic, parade or BBQ to attend, and a flag to wave. But he is not delivering the typical feel-good Fourth of July message this year. "This Independence Day feels a little different," he says. "The news in recent weeks about the IRS...Read More
China admits local govt debt levels unknown, could be higher than estimated … A senior Chinese official said on Friday that the government did not know precisely know how much debt local governments had built up and warned that it could be more than previous estimates. Estimates of local government debt range from Standard Chartered's 15 percent of the country's GDP at end-2012 to Cr...Read More
Carney Should Make the Bank of England an Innovator … Speculation that Mark Carney, who took charge at the Bank of England this week, might radically change U.K. monetary policy cooled in the months after his appointment was announced. No doubt, this softening of expectations was justified — the constraints of the office are tighter than the new governor and his admirers would like. It...Read More
Unprecedented Globalization … A couple of weeks ago I posted a chart showing the long-term trend of world trade in manufactures relative to world production. The paper I took the chart from, however, only went up to 2000. And I decided to update it for the next edition of Krugman Obstfeld Melitz. And it's pretty striking: You see the interwar trade decline; the growth in world trade afte...Read More
Delaying the Employer Mandate Requires Delaying All of Obamacare … The IRS has announced it will postpone the start date of Obamacare's "employer mandate" from 2014 to 2015. Most of the reaction has focused on how this move is an implicit acknowledgement that Obamacare is harmful, cannot work, and will prove a liability for Democrats going into the November 2014 elections. The...Read More
Libertarian Gary Johnson: 'this Independence Day feels different … Former Libertarian presidential hopeful Gary Johnson hopes you have a nice picnic, parade or BBQ to attend, and a flag to wave. But he is not delivering the typical feel-good Fourth of July message this year. "This Independence Day feels a little different," he says. "The news in recent weeks about the IRS...Read More
ElBaradei tops list to head Egypt government … Mohamed ElBaradei, a former U.N. nuclear agency chief, is favorite to head a transitional government in Egypt after the military overthrew Islamist President Mohammed Mursi, military, political and diplomatic sources said on Thursday. ElBaradei, 71, was mandated by the main alliance of liberal and left-wing parties, the National Salvation Front,...Read More
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi was forced out of office Wednesday by the Egyptian military and opposition leaders, just a couple of hours after the Obama Administration voiced its first public doubts about Morsi's handling of the massive street protests that spread across the country in recent days. Egyptian Army Chief Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi took to state television to announce that the head o...Read More
Celebrity Economists Make Waves – At Work … Who are people turning to nowadays for business advice? Celebrity economists. Big-name experts on the economy like Paul Krugman, Joseph Stiglitz, Michael Porter, Robert Reich and Muhammad Yunus feature prominently in a new ranking of influential business thinkers compiled for The Wall Street Journal. – AP/WSJournalDominant Social Theme:...Read More