Three Cheers for Kevin Hassett

Numerous news reports suggest that President Trump will tap Kevin Hassett to chair the Council of Economic Advisers.  This would be an excellent choice.  Here is an overview of Kevin's perspectives on economic policy, and here is my old review of his book Dow 36,000.

You have got to be kidding me

If I did not know the source, I might have thought that this report was from The Onion:

The Trump administration is considering changing how U.S. trade deficits are calculated, a move that would make the deficit look larger on paper, the Wall Street Journal reported.  

People involved in the discussions told the Journal that the leading idea is to count “re-exports” — goods that are imported to the U.S., and then exported to a third country unchanged — as imports, but not exports.

The change would inflate the trade deficit number, an important figure in trade negotiations and policy.

The Path Ahead on Climate Change

Click here to read an article in today's NY Times that I coauthored with Martin Feldstein and Ted Halstead.

Macro/Finance Summer Camp

Grad students and young faculty with interests in macro and finance should consider this opportunity.

Policy Summer Camps

Undergraduates with interests in public policy should consider this opportunity and this one as well.

Econ Theory Summer Camp

Graduate students with an interest in economic theory may be interested in considering this opportunity.

Good News at Harvard College

The Crimson reports:

Economics 10b: “Principles of Economics” is the most popular course in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the fourth consecutive spring, beating out the second-largest class—Life Sciences 1b: “An Integrated Introduction to the Life Sciences: Genetics, Genomics, and Evolution”—by a hefty margin of about 150 students.

Worthwhile Canadian Initiative

My friend Joshua Gans alerts me to the following:

The Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto is offering to help scholars and students impacted on by the new US immigration restrictions. We would like to hear from anyone who: 

- Can no longer return to the US to continue their academic position or studies in a business, economics or related areas 

- Students who have missed application deadlines for University of Toronto degree programs in business, economics or related areas but are concerned they will not be able to undertake studies in the US anymore 

- Students and scholars who are facing temporary disruptions as a result of the new policies who may need a place in North America to continue their academic work.

More information can be found here.

The Demise of the CEA?

This is not good news:

CEA DOA?… MM hears there’s a chance Trump will simply pass on filling the CEA Chair job that at one point appeared to be going to Larry Kudlow. Trump could decide to just stick with Gary Cohn and the National Economic Council and skip over the more academically-inclined CEA. Not a done deal at all but the chatter is out there.

Let's hope the rumor is unfounded.