In November 2021, after being a guest on Josh Dukelow’s Fresh Take program, I posted two related pieces: one on whether inflation was temporary or not and a second on the role of monetary policy. It’s time for an update, especially since the inflation rate has risen significantly since November 2021 (see the below chart) … More Sustained Inflation: Is a Monetary Policy Response Needed?
A visit to my son’s family often provides me with an opportunity to read a book from my bucket list. This time it was Climate Shock (2015), authored by the late Harvard economist Martin Weitzman and Columbia economist Gernot Wagner. I found this short (152 pages of formal text) book to be both informative for … More Climate Shock: The Economic Consequences of a Hotter Planet
This posting is largely a response to “Degrowth can work – Here’s how science can help,” authored by Jason Hickel and his colleagues. It relates to alternative strategies to reduce CO2 emissions and concentration. I agree with the authors’ notion that not all income growth has equivalent value, but that doesn’t mean that developed economies … More Degrowth: A Flawed Strategy to Address Climate Change
In a February 16th posting on the Resources for the Future blog, Burtraw and Fischer summarize key aspects of the Mistra Carbon Exit Swedish research project. This posting emphasizes three key observations in the report and then indicates why the US is unlikely to adopt the Swedish approach. To put the Swedish project in context, … More Will the US Follow Sweden’s Approach to Zero Carbon Emissions?
Recently, I posted an expanded version of my Fresh Take interview. In that piece, I focused on various facets of inflation, but did not address the role of monetary forces. On November 23rd, two prominent economists – Paul Krugman and Raghuram Rajan – provided contrasting views of how the Federal Reserve Bank (FED) should respond … More Inflation and Monetary Policy
Inflation, Government Spending and Modern Monetary Theory On Tuesday, November 16th, I was a guest on Josh Dukelow’s Fresh Take program . We discussed a variety of topics related to inflation including governmental spending and modern monetary theory. Since I put together a set of notes for the program, I decided to take this opportunity … More Inflation: Temporary or Sustained ?
In Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy (1942), Joseph Schumpeter argued that economies grow through a process of creative destruction; that is, new ideas, products, and services drive out old versions since they offer better value. Schumpeter characterized capitalism as founded on such a process, but he concluded this book with the argument that eventually the process … More The Power of Creative Destruction
In The End of Power (2014) Moises Naim addresses the history and sources of power from the observations of Machiavelli (1513) and Hobbes (1651) through Nietzsche (1885), Weber (1922), Schumpeter (1942) and Mills (1956) to contemporary visionaries/pundits/exploiters such as George Soros, Silvio Berlusconi, and Rupert Murdoch. Naim argues that the More, Mobility, and Mentality revolutions … More The Fragility of Power
In an August 5, 2021 posting, Diane Coyle makes the case for action on climate change. The UN Food Systems Summit in September and the UN climate conference (COP26) in Glasgow in November are obvious opportunities to move from incremental reform to significant progress…The challenge is really one of leadership: a small group of global … More Climate Change and Its Economic Implications
Previously, I reviewed Kimberly Clausing’s recent book Open: The Progressive Case for Free Trade, Immigration, and Global Capital. She was recently appointed by the Biden administration to be Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Tax Analysis. Yesterday, she testified before the Senate Committee on Finance. Her remarks highlight many of the points that she … More Global Corporate Tax Reform
No Con Economics 