Archives: February 2006

Productivity, the Trade Deficit, and Dark Matter: Part II

Posted by: Michael Mandel on February 22, Categories: Growth

I'm going to continue (finally) my previous post. Most commentators implicitly or explicitly assume that that the trade deficit has risen because the U.S. is consuming too much (call this...

Productivity, the Trade Deficit, and Dark Matter: Part I

Posted by: Michael Mandel on February 21, Categories: Trade

The debate over the trade deficit and dark matter goes on. Brad DeLong takes a shot at it here, concluding that: I believe what Rudi Dornbusch said: that when highly...

Economics and ecological disasters in the Philippines

Posted by: Michael Mandel on February 21, Categories: Environment

I don't do as much environmental economics as I should, but I was really horrified by the February 17 mudslide in the Philippines which killed as many as 1800 people....

Why college savings don't really count as savings

Posted by: Michael Mandel on February 16, Categories: Macro

I pointed out in my cover story that the government counts outlays for college tuition as consumption, rather than investment. Several readers wrote in and asked whether putting money into...

Booming Transatlantic IP Traffic

Posted by: Michael Mandel on February 15, Categories: Tech

This is really a sidebar to the knowledge economy story. Level 3 Communications just reported that "IP traffic carried across Level 3’s transatlantic network has doubled in the last twelve...

Rising Wages for New College Grads?

Posted by: Michael Mandel on February 15, Categories: Labor Market

Is the trend of falling real wages for college grads finally about to reverse? A new survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers says that this is looking...

Economic Misconceptions from the Columbia Journalism Review

Posted by: Michael Mandel on February 14, Categories: Macro

Gal Beckerman of the Columbia Journalism Review is not happy at all with my cover story on intangibles. Unfortunately, in objecting to my story, Beckerman falls into a simple economic...

Labels Matter

Posted by: Michael Mandel on February 14, Categories: Fiscal Policy

pgl of Angry Bear objects to my previous post on deficits. He says: The simple point is that public investment has NOT increased even as private investment has declined. Mandel’s...

Tyler Cowen on Government Spending

Posted by: Michael Mandel on February 13, Categories: Fiscal Policy

Tyler Cowen has an item titled Do future generations pay for deficits?. He starts off this way: Assume that government spends some money today on consumption. That money could have...

Krugman: Economic and Technological Conservative

Posted by: Michael Mandel on February 13, Categories: Growth

In an economic and technological sense, Paul Krugman is a conservative (small 'c'). He likes traditional measures of the economy. And he appears not to like my latest cover story...

The Democrats and the Coming Housing Bust

Posted by: Michael Mandel on February 13, Categories: Macro

The coming housing bust will be a golden opportunity for the Democrats to gain political ground--but only if they are ready for it. We know what Republicans will propose in...

Be Honest Now

Posted by: Michael Mandel on February 09, Categories: Macro

Suppose that in 2000 a friend laid out this hypothetical scenario for you. a) Over the next five years, real wages will basically not rise. b) over the next five...

Brad Setser on Intangibles

Posted by: Michael Mandel on February 06, Categories: Trade

Brad Setser does a long and thoughtful post on my cover story. I will have a longer response later, but here are my immediate reactions. Brad writes: I do not...

Intangible booms and busts

Posted by: Michael Mandel on February 05, Categories: Macro

One of the really interesting things about putting intangibles into GDP is that the booms get bigger and the busts get deeper. Take a look at this chart (taken from...

Unmasking the Economy

Posted by: Michael Mandel on February 02, Categories: Growth

My new cover story is now up on the website here. Let me know what you think....

Another Economic Perversity (and another preview)

Posted by: Michael Mandel on February 02, Categories: Macro

Here's another question for you all (and another preview of the coming cover story): In his State of the Union speech, President George Bush proposed to boost spending for basic...

An Economics Paradox and a Preview

Posted by: Michael Mandel on February 02, Categories: Labor Market

Here's a question for you all: Company A has an R&D staff of 1000 engineers designing innovative new products for the future. In a fit of cost-cutting fervor, the management...