Category Archives: Macroeconomic policy

How to escape currency volatility and contagion in the globalized world of finance

By Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns. This is a modified version of an article I posted yesterday at the Big Picture based on two recent articles I wrote on currency news in the Baltics and the Middle East. The question I ask is this: now that finance is global and capital can move in and […]

Guest Post: Larry Summers Is Like a Guy Who Yells That the Sun Really DOES Revolve Around the Earth and that the Current Orbit is Just a Temporary Aberration . . . and That If We Just Wait a Little While, “Everything Will Return to Normal”

Two leading White House economic advisors – Larry Summers and Christina Romer – are giving very different views on the economy. As Fox news summarizes: “Everybody agrees that the recession is over,” said Larry Summers, director of the National Economic Council. “Of course not,” countered Council of Economic Advisers Chairwoman Christina Romer in a separate […]

Meredith Whitney: The government is “out of bullets”

By Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns I am not sure I buy Meredith Whitney’s assertion that the government is “out of bullets” in its quest to prop up the economy. It’s a matter of political will more than anything else. Nevertheless, I do agree with her basic premise in the CNBC video below that the […]

“Let’s Deport Poor People! A Modest Proposal for the Unemployment Problem (with apologies to Swift)”

By Marshall Auerback, a fund manager and investment strategist who writes for New Deal 2.0. In 1729, Jonathan Swift wrote an essay — “A Modest Proposal” — satirically suggesting that the impoverished Irish ease their economic troubles by selling children as food for rich gentlemen and ladies. In that spirit, we would like to assist […]

Barack Obama gets it

By Edward Harrison This quote from President Obama comes via Brad DeLong: We’ve got a long- term structural deficit that is primarily being driven by health care costs, and our long-term entitlement programs. All right? So that’s the baseline. Now, if we can’t grow our economy, then it is going to be that much harder […]

Guest Post: Questions for Bernanke’s Senate Confirmation Hearing

The Senate Banking Committee will be chatting with Ben Bernanke this Thursday to vote on his reappointment. Demand that the Committee ask the following questions for our esteemed Esteemed Chairman (and contact your own Senators also and demand that they find out the answers to the following questions). If you are a Senate aide, please […]

Buiter has concerns other than Dubai, warns of sovereign debt delusion

By Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns Willem Buiter has just taken on a new role at Citi. The news of Willem Buiter’s role as Chief Economist at Citigroup comes via DealBook at the New York Times below. Afterward, I have some comments about Dubai contextualizing Yves’ recent post detailing a reluctance by the government to […]

Guest Post: The Tax Code ENCOURAGES Leverage

Among the most prophetic voices prior to the economic crash was UCLA economics professor Harold H. Somers, who warned in 1991 that revisions to the tax code would increase leverage, which could lead to economic disaster: The result is to tilt the well-worn playing field even more in favor of leveraging, leading to the possibility […]

Guest Post: Instead of Fixing the U.S. Economy or Creating Jobs for AMERICANS, Obama Will Spend The Money in Afghanistan and Iraq

America is in the most severe unemployment crisis since – and perhaps including – the Great Depression. And yet Obama, like Bush, has done virtually nothing to create more jobs. Instead, they both gave trillions to the biggest banks (who are not loaning it out to the little guy) and for waging wars in Afghanistan […]

A few thoughts about the limitations of government

By Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns. In this post: A few thoughts about the limitations of government Our founding fathers How large should government be? How policy helps frame the debate Where we are headed In a recent post, “Stop the madness now!” I voiced my growing concern with the direction in which the country […]

“Does US need a second stimulus to create jobs?”

Reader Doug Smith was not happy with an article in the Christian Science Monitor yesterday, titled, “Does US need a second stimulus to create jobs? His remarks: Could you, Edward or someone consider reading this article and responding to it? My sense is that it perfectly captures ‘conventional wisdom’ and, in that sense, is a […]

Obama: Debt could cause a double dip recession

By Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns Barack Obama has now come clean about his thinking on why his administration has decided to focus first on reducing the deficit and next on jobs. He fears a double-dip recession will occur if foreigners lose confidence in the U.S. dollar, causing interest rates to spike. This is nonsense […]

“Should America Kowtow to China?”

By Marshall Auerback, a fund manager and investment strategist who writes for New Deal 2.0. Another Presidential junket to Asia and another one of the usual lectures from China, decrying our “profligate ways”. Today’s Wall Street Journal reports:, “China’s top banking regulator issued a sharp critique of U.S. financial management only hours before President Barack […]

Guest Post: “War ALWAYS Causes Recession”

By George Washington of Washington’s Blog. PhD economist Marc Faber predicts that the U.S. will launch a war to distract people from the bad economy. China’s largest media outlet – Sohu.com – wrote in October 2008 that the Rand corporation, a leading U.S. military advisor, lobbied the Pentagon for a war to be started with […]