International Economics and Global Affairs

GMU Economist Don Boudreaux makes a great point regarding international trade:

“Recognizing that moving from protectionism to free trade (or vice versa) has no long-run impact on the total number of jobs in the economy strikes the non-economist as odd. This recognition, however, is nearly universally shared by economists. The reason is straightforward: Economists understand that most of what is popularly believed to be unique to international trade is, in fact, not unique to international trade.

A change in the volume of trade that crosses political borders is merely one among countless different changes that occur constantly in modern economies. And this change -- like the great majority of other changes -- is driven by voluntary consumer choices.”

Greg Mankiw - Cautionary Tales from Abroad:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/business/financial-lessons-from-four-nations.html

The Global Race for Talent:

http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/us-falls-behind-global-race-talent

STEPHEN M. WALT on US Exceptionalism

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/10/11/the_myth_of_american_exceptionalism?print=yes&hidecomments=yes&page=full

Structural Unemployment

An Example of Structural Unemployment:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/13/usa-economy-jobs-idUSN1E79B23O20111013

“Most of the jobs hard to fill are for skilled trades, Internet technology, engineers, sales representatives and machine operators.

Yet American colleges are producing fewer math and science graduates as students favor social sciences, whose workload is perceived to be manageable, leading to a skills mismatch.

Math, engineering, technology and computer science students accounted for about 11.1 percent of college graduates in 1980, according to government data. That share dropped to about 8.9 percent in 2009.”

Fiscal and Monetary Policy Debates

Tax Reform Proposals

Arthur Laffer on the 9-9-9 Plan

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204346104576637310315367804.html

Kotlikoff’s Purple Tax Plan

http://www.ncpa.org/pdfs/st336.pdf

Bernanke on the Evolution of Monetary Policy

http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/bernanke20111018a.pdf

Investing During Uncertain Times

The Economist looks at investing during a crisis:

http://www.economist.com/node/21532286

http://www.economist.com/node/21532276

Economics at the Center of Foreign Policy

Economic Statecraft - Hillary Clinton puts economics at the center of US foreign policy:
http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2011/10/175552.htm

"Making Monetary Policy"

The President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Narayana Kocherlakota, provides an excellent overview of how the Fed conducts monetary policy:

http://www.minneapolisfed.org/news_events/pres/nrk10-13-11.pdf

Recession Math

US Economy - Recession Math
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/the-simple-math-of-recession/2011/10/12/gIQAszvWiL_print.html

Also, economic slowdown reaches Asia: