Bill McLaughlin, Egide Nimubona, Jason Schulist, and I spent a week in the Netherlands in October 2025 to see how the Dutch handle various contemporary global challenges. We met with numerous people and discussed a variety of topics to gain a sense of how potential change is addressed and implemented. This brief posting will not … More Amsterdam 2025
“Cheap money can’t buy a strong economy” – R. Samuelson This posting argues that the monetary policy implemented by the Federal Reserve has limited influence on the level of employment in the economy. First, here’s some background. A few years ago, Mohammed El-Erian, author of The Only Game in Town, argued that pressure was being … More Is The Federal Reserve The “Only Game In Town”? If So, How Effectively Can It Play Its Limited “Cards”?
Below you will find summaries of six short essays published by Project Syndicate evaluating the potential decline of the U.S. dollar as a global reserve currency and some of the resulting implications. Below each summary, I note (in italics) other important points made in the essay. May 14, 2025 PROJECT SYNDICATE‘S EDITORS“If we lost the … More The U.S. Dollar’s Fall From Grace
In an April 2024 piece published in Project Syndicate, Dani Rodrik addresses this question. My posting, based on Rodrik’s article, adds information to support the following primary claim that Rodrik makes: It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that boosting manufacturing employment is like chasing a fast-receding target. The world has moved on, and the … More Why Are Policy-Makers So Fascinated by Manufacturing?
The economics profession lost one of its most respected members this past week. Robert Solow became well known for formalizing analysis of the economics of growth as well as for making complex ideas understandable to non-economists. In a recent piece in the Conversable Economist, Tim Taylor highlights what distinguished Solow from other economists, trained in the neo-classical … More Robert Solow (1924-2023)
I just sent letters to two Republican Congressman (6th and 8th districts in Wisconsin) as well as to both Wisconsin Senators regarding raising the debt ceiling independent of future plans for spending and taxation. Below the letter, I’ve included some information regarding foreign holdings of US securities, both private and public. Feel free to copy … More Great Powers Don’t Default
In a February 2015 Povolny Lecture at Lawrence University, I talked on the subject “China Ranks Number One or Does It? Should We Care?” It’s time for an update. In that talk, I raised the following five questions: In this posting, I will indicate how I answered these questions in 2015 and my answers today. … More China as an Economic Competitor
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?
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
No Con Economics 