Archives: January 2009

The Intangible Stimulus

Posted by: Michael Mandel on January 29, Categories: Labor Market

The Obama stimulus bill favors the intangible sector over the tangible sector. See my story here....

On the 'bad bank' solution

Posted by: Michael Mandel on January 29, Categories: Financial Crisis

Here's a new piece I wrote for the magazine on the "The Bad Bank Solution."...

The Giant Chasm in Macroeconomics

Posted by: Michael Mandel on January 28, Categories: Macro

Faced with an economic crisis, politicians want to know: What would make things better? Or more precisely, they want to know if boosting spending and cutting taxes will help or...

“Stim-Novation”

Posted by: Michael Mandel on January 27, Categories:

A new report from the Informatition Technology & Innovation Foundation argues that investing in research and development can play a key role in economic stimulus. The authors, Daniel Castro and...

The End of the Pound?

Posted by: Michael Mandel on January 22, Categories: Financial Crisis

Back in October, when Iceland went bankrupt, I did an analysis of the overseas debt of major countries. I was surprised to see that the U.S. was in relatively good...

The Tea Bubble

Posted by: Michael Mandel on January 19, Categories: Financial markets

Just a short break in topic. I’m a big tea drinker. I drink 3 or 4 cups a day, some from bags and some brewed (including some strong varieties like...

After the Crisis--Part I

Posted by: Michael Mandel on January 18, Categories: Financial Crisis

What happens after we (hopefully) deal with the current crisis? Will the U.S. and global economies return to their former growth path? Or will the crisis be followed by a...

Acemoglu on Growth and Innovation

Posted by: Michael Mandel on January 14, Categories: Political Economy

Daron Acemoglu, whom I identified here as one of the leaders of innovation economics, has written a paper titled The Crisis of 2008: Structural Lessons for and From Economics. It's...

Retail Sales Plummet: The Consumer Crunch Arrives

Posted by: Michael Mandel on January 14, Categories: Financial markets

I haven't been tooting my own horn very much, because like almost everyone else I missed the magnitude of the downturn. However, I did expect the collapse in retail sales...

American Recession, Chinese Depression? Parallels to 1929

Posted by: Michael Mandel on January 12, Categories: Financial Crisis

Is China today like the U.S. in 1929? This morning brings reports that U.S. imports plummeted in November.Since August non-petroleum imports, adjusted for inflation, are down 10% with no sign...

Why Big Tax Cuts Are Essential

Posted by: Michael Mandel on January 10, Categories: Financial Crisis

Let’s get this straight right away. I’m not a dogmatic supply-sider, who believes that tax cuts are the solution to all economic ills. But I believe that Obama's $300 billion...

The Financial Crisis at the Economics Convention

Posted by: Michael Mandel on January 04, Categories: Financial Crisis

I'm at the annual economics conference in San Francisco. I've been going to these things, on and off, since I was a grad student in the early 1980s. Because of...