Sunday, November 03, 2024

A Great Podcast about the Great Economist Franco Modigliani

Not about his economics, but about his early life and escape from fascist Italy. Told by his grandson David Modigliani. I listened to it via Audible, but it's probably available at other outlets as well.
 

Friday, October 18, 2024

I talk with Scott Wolla

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

Upcoming Webinar

I will be giving a webinar on Wednesday October 23 on The Fiscal Challenges Facing the Next President. For more information, click here.

Sunday, September 22, 2024

More evidence on the value of education

According to the recent NBC poll, among white voters, those with a college degree favor Harris by a margin of  21 points, while those without a college degree favor Trump by a margin of 28 points.

Races other than white may be similar, but that comparison is not reported in the article.

Friday, September 13, 2024

Thank you, Pingry


I would like to publicly thank all my friends at the Pingry School, which recently honored me with its Letter-in-Life Award.


Wednesday, September 11, 2024

I talk with Scott Cunningham

Wednesday, August 21, 2024

Crossing to Safety

I rarely read books for a second time, mainly because I am a slow reader and there are so many good books I haven't yet read. But recently I decided to reread Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner. 

It had been about 30 years since I first read it. I did not remember it well, but I did remember liking it very much. After the second read this summer, I can report that I liked it just as much, maybe more.

Crossing to Safety is not a book of high drama. It is a book about friendship, marriage, aging, and life's other challenges, focusing on two couples as they traverse their lives from their youth as struggling academics to their later years of greater wisdom and inevitable loss. 

I read somewhere that, though fiction, the book is autobiographical. That makes sense. It reads like a thoughtful and honest memoir, which is a genre I love.

Sunday, August 18, 2024

Maybe Ms. Harris needs some economists

The response to the rollout of Kamala Harris's economic plan, especially the price gouging regulation, has not been good. 

When you lose the ever-reasonable Catherine Rampell, you should doubt whether you are positioning yourself to attract swing voters. Rampell writes, "It’s hard to exaggerate how bad this policy is. It is, in all but name, a sweeping set of government-enforced price controls across every industry, not only food. Supply and demand would no longer determine prices or profit levels. Some far-off Washington bureaucrats would....At best, this would lead to shortagesblack markets and hoarding, among other distortions seen previous times countries tried to limit price growth by fiat.

The centrist editorial page of the Washington Post titles their piece "The times demand serious economic ideas. Harris supplies gimmicks." 

What is happening here? I have two hypotheses.

One is that the Harris campaign believes that the remaining persuadable swing voters are economically ignorant, so the campaign is offering them economically ignorant economic policies. Bryan Caplan's wonderful book The Myth of the Rational Voter documents a lot of mistaken beliefs among the general public, including an anti-market bias. Ms. Harris's political advisers may be steering her to pander to these mistaken beliefs,

A second hypothesis involves campaign personnel. The people I see mentioned as Harris economic advisers are Brian Deese, Gene Sperling, Mike Pyle, Deanne Millison, and Brian Nelson. All smart people, no doubt. But as far as I know, none of these people is trained as a PhD economist. They all seem to be lawyers. Maybe lawyers are more inclined to see a problem and think, "I know what new law will fix that." True economists are more respectful of the invisible hand and more worried about the unintended consequences of heavy-handed regulation.

Where is Jason Furman when you need him?

Friday, August 16, 2024

I talk with Jon Hartley

Thursday, August 15, 2024

Kamala Harris...sigh

I plan to vote for Kamala Harris. Why? Simply because she is not Donald Trump. In my judgment, Trump is (1) an authoritarian narcissist whose rhetoric is mean-spirited and untethered from reality and (2) an isolationist with wrong-headed views on trade and immigration and downright scary views on national security issues like NATO, Ukraine, and Taiwan.

But every time Harris says something specific about economic policy, she makes my voting for her more painful. For example: No taxes on tips, stricter rules against price gouging, expanded price controls on pharmaceuticals. 

My take on these issues:

1. The janitor who cleans the restaurant after it closes should not face a higher tax rate than the waiter who earns much of his income in tips.

2. Inflation is about supply and demand, not price gouging. Ask Janet Yellen or any of the other excellent economists in the Biden-Harris administration.

3. Greater pharmaceutical price controls mean less research and fewer cures in the future, as the Wall Street Journal points out today.

I read that, in the coming days, Harris plans to be vague about her policy plans. I hope that is true because by advocating specific ill-advised (if politically attractive) policies during the campaign, she might feel compelled to follow through on them after she is elected. After the election, good policy is more likely to win out against good politics. At least I hope so.

Ms. Harris, you have my vote, but please, don't make it any more painful for me.

Tuesday, August 13, 2024

I am on Wall Street Week

 You can watch here.

Tuesday, July 16, 2024

Two headlines that make me wish more people studied the principles of economics

 



Monday, July 15, 2024

The Wisdom of Referees

 From the New York Times:

One peer reviewer suggested that Darwin drop all the evolution stuff and expand the chapter on raising pigeons. (“Everybody is interested in pigeons,” the reviewer explained.) 

Wednesday, July 10, 2024

Six Beliefs I Have About Inflation

I was recently a panelist at an NBER conference, organized by Larry Ball and Yuriy Gorodnichenko, on inflation. You can read my remarks here.

Update: Here is the published version.

Tuesday, July 02, 2024

Why do people feel bad about the economy?

A question that many pundits have been asking is: Why does the general public seem to feel bad about the current economy, when many traditional indictors suggest it is doing okay? Here is a hypothesis: People are comparing things to 2021, the first year of the Biden administration, when things looked much better for them.

Consider real disposable income per capita. In the latest reading, for May 2024, it was $50,491. For the year 2021, the figure was $51,567. That is, average income is down about 2 percent over this period. By contrast, average income grew by more than 3 percent per year from 2017 to 2021.

Similarly, consider credit card debt. From 2017 to 2021, it was up a mere 4 percent (in nominal terms). From its trough in April 2021 until now, it is up 44 percent.

To be sure, one might say that 2021 was an unusual year. Disposable income was goosed by numerous, temporary fiscal policies aimed to ease the pain of the pandemic. Covid also reduced consumers' ability to spend, so they used more of their incomes to pay off their debts. No economist expected these unusual conditions to persist. 

That is all true. But do most people take this fact into account? Maybe they think, "A few years ago, my income was higher, and my debts were lower. So, yes, I am glad the pandemic is over, but my finances are worse."

Monday, July 01, 2024

A Biography of Milton Friedman

I just finished reading the biography of Milton Friedman by Jennifer Burns, which came out last year. It is great. The reader is taken through not only the life of one of the great economists of the 20th century, but also the economic and political events that surrounded and motivated him. If you are looking for a nerdy economist beach read, I highly recommend it.

Thursday, June 20, 2024

Ghostlight


I just saw a great movie at the Nantucket Film Festival called Ghostlight. It is now opening at theaters nationwide. Strongly recommended. For more information, click here.

Tuesday, June 18, 2024

Macro 12e

 The 12th edition of my intermediate macroeconomics textbook is now available. For more information, click here.