Alternatives to Austerity
Larry Summers and Christina Romer both argue--convincingly, it seems to me--that Europe's pursuit of creditworthiness through fiscal austerity is failing. More »
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Clive Crook is a senior editor of The Atlantic and a columnist for Bloomberg View. He was the Washington columnist for the Financial Times, and before that worked at The Economist for more than 20 years, including 11 years as deputy editor. Crook writes about the intersection of politics and economics. More
Crook writes about the intersection of politics and economics.
Larry Summers and Christina Romer both argue--convincingly, it seems to me--that Europe's pursuit of creditworthiness through fiscal austerity is failing. More »
In Madrid this past week I've been surprised and impressed to find little resentment towards the European Union and the powers (Germany) that direct its policy. More »
Adding to the outpouring of affection for The Band's drummer, who died last week More »
Jim Yong Kim, the White House nominee to lead the World Bank, has been so busy meeting privately with governments that, unlike the other candidates, he hasn't been able to explain his views on development to anybody else. More »
A new memo from Third Way is worth reading. The authors look at a group of voters they call "swing independents": self-declared independents who have neither strongly favorable or unfavorable views of Obama and Romney. These people are 38% of all independents according to Third Way's poll, and 15% of the electorate as a whole. This crucial segment prefers Obama to Romney, 44% to 38%. The bad news for the president is that they are closer to Romney ideologically.… More »
At a recent meeting organized by Pew's Economic Mobility Project, I took part in a discussion with Harry Holzer, a professor at Georgetown University and an expert on the low-wage labor market. The subject of the disappearing middle came up--the idea, developed by David Autor and others, that the middle-wage part of the income distribution is being hollowed out. Many low-wage jobs that have to be done on the spot--cleaning, gardening, and so on--can't be automated… More »
A great column by Ron Brownstein underlines a crucial point about America's current political dysfunction. It's not that the country is closely divided, or that the parties are so deeply divided. What's frightening is the combination: voters so closely divided that neither side can expect to get its way, and Washington so deeply divided that compromise is out of the question. It's a formula for furious paralysis at a time when paralysis won't do. Brownstein worries… More »
It's hard to think of a more important question, and the book is a brilliant compendium of stories that bear on the issue More »
It's not complicated. And the reason isn't Obama. Prepare to be astonished, but as the invaluable James Hamilton explains, it's all to do with world supply and demand. Current global production and consumption run at about 87m barrels a day. If the price had not risen over the past ten years, demand today would be around 100m barrels a day, Hamilton estimates. It took higher prices to hold demand equal to the available supply. When it comes to global supply, the… More »
Like everybody else I was surprised that the administration's counsel was so poorly prepared to answer questions he must have known he would be asked. Even so I can sympathize with the fellow because his job was never going to be easy. The best reason to rule Obamacare constitutional--the one that makes the answer seem obvious--is a matter of common sense. But that's a case counsel isn't allowed to make. The common-sense case goes like this. Contrary to what… More »
Obama has bungled the World Bank succession. The choice has had a better press than it deserves. More »
It might have been have a mistake to read Bill Easterly's review of Acemoglu and Robinson on "Why Nations Fail" before I finished reading it myself, but Easterly is not to be set aside. More »
The new Brookings Paper by Larry Summers and Brad DeLong, Fiscal Policy in a Depressed Economy, is an important document and should be widely read. It explains the conditions under which fiscal stimulus can be self-financing. In normal times central banks offset the effects of fiscal policy. This keeps the policy-relevant multiplier near zero. It leaves no space for expansionary fiscal policy as a stabilization policy tool. But when interest rates are constrained… More »
I arrive in London in time for tomorrow's budget to find that private finance for public investment--roads, in this case--is back on the UK's political agenda. What does it take to put this perpetual fiscal gimmick to rest? More »
Just because George W. Bush championed the "ownership society" doesn't mean liberals should discard it. More »
Ben Bernanke's unconventional policies were a point of debate at The Atlantic's Economy Summit. More »
Stanley Fish says it's all right to criticize Rush Limbaugh for calling Sandra Fluke a slut but let it pass when Ed Schultz calls Laura Ingraham a slut. More »
