From Zeit Online (clunky translation mine):
In Germany the government-promoted auto boom is gradually coming to an end. Thanks to cash for clunkers (Abwrackprämie) the number of new-car sales in July was, at 340,000 vehicles, still 30% higher than the previous year’s level, reported the Federal Motor Vehicle Office
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Economist Dick Thaler has a new FT opinion piece that says nice things about (and quotes extensively from) The Myth of the Rational Market. (Thanks, Dick!) In it, he makes the case that the efficient market hypothesis consists of two main ideas, “No Free Lunch” and “The Price is Right,” that have met very different fates over the past …
For my previous post on the economics of cash for clunkers, I tried to get Alan Blinder’s take—since the whole danged thing was his idea—but didn’t hear back from him on time. Now I’ve just gotten this e-mail from him:
I always thought that cash for clunkers would be an effective stimulus, but it seems to have exceeded expectations.
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It all began a year ago with a suggestion from a prominent economist. Wrote Princeton University’s Alan Blinder in the July 27, 2008 New York Times:
Economists and members of Congress are now on the prowl for new ways to stimulate spending in our dreary economy. Here’s my humble suggestion: “Cash for Clunkers,” the best stimulus
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The talk of the Twittersphere tonight is Damian Paletta and Deborah Solomon’s WSJ story about Tim Geithner cutting loose on Ben Bernanke, Sheila Bair, Mary Schapiro et. al. in an “expletive-laden critique last Friday as frustration grows over the Obama administration’s faltering plan to overhaul U.S. financial regulation.” He’s …
Floppy-haired neopuritan Kurt Andersen has commenced blogging this week for TIME.com to promote his new book Reset: How This Crisis Can Restore Our Values and Renew America, which is based on his excellent TIME cover story of a few months back, “The End of Excess: Why this crisis is good for America.” He is attacking the assignment with …
My Shanghai-based colleague Bill Powell has an excellent cover story in the Asia edition of TIME asking the big question: “Can China Save the World?” His answer is no, its economy just isn’t big enough. But that’s changing fast:
If Beijing can come through the global crisis without an economic meltdown of its own, its leaders’ reputation
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Henny Sender has a story in the FT about the fact that Wall Street firms have been making lots of money trading with the Federal Reserve. I can think of two valid reactions to this:
1) No duh! Ensuring the health (a.k.a. profitability) of the financial system is a major responsibility of the Fed. The financial system was near collapse …
Holey moley. I missed this when economist Willem Buiter posted it on his FT.com blog a few days ago. He says the front-runners for the Fed chairmanship when it comes open next year are incumbent Ben Bernanke, SF Fed President Janet Yellen and Larry Summers, then writes:
Both Bernanke and Yellen are qualified for the job. Summers is
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My new column, on Washington’s campaign to regulate executive and Wall Street pay, is online. It’s got a lot of Lucian Bebchuk in it, and this morning Bebchuk is at it again, with a WSJ.com op-ed (co-authored with his Harvard Law School colleague Alma Cohen) making the case that it appears banks have actually gotten more generous in …
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis released its “advance” estimate for second-quarter gross domestic product this morning. GDP shrank at just a 1% annual rate in the quarter (adjusted for inflation). The consensus forecast among the sad folk who while away their days predicting quarterly GDP numbers had been for a 1.5% …
In working on my column last week about the good times at Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, I had interesting conversations with a couple of people who know a lot more than I do, MIT economist Simon Johnson and Brookings Institution/Kauffman Foundation economist/lawyer/all-around-policy-wonk Robert Litan. Sadly, none of their quotes made …