Are Services the New Manufacturers?

By Dani Rodrik.

The U.S. and China Both Need Economic Rehab

'Chimerica' has become addicted to ultra-loose financial conditions.
From WSJ by Ferguson and Schularick.

The Economic Recovery: A Novel Perspective from Ed Leamer

The Fed Makes a Mistake

My colleague, David, made a comment on the recent decision of the Fed.

Why Americans Won't Do Dirty Jobs

An incredible report in Alabama for its immigration policy change.

Calculated Risk's Links

Calculated Risk collects this wonderful links for economic data source.

Charting the American Debt Crisis

From NYT.

Bullish US Economy

The view from Robert Doll.

President Obama’s Framework for $4 Trillion in Deficit Reduction

Here.

Employment to Population Ratio

What a bad recession we had!

Immigration Bills Rile Farmers

From WSJ. Baloney in the article: They argue that the legislation will drive Mexican workers out of their states, and that there aren't enough American workers willing to pick crops. I think the truth is that these farmers do not want to make less money by paying their fellow unemployed Americans a little bit more wage. So one common-sense solution to our nation's persistent high unemployment is continually cracking down illegal immigrants.

Unsustainable Budget Threatens U.S.

Ten former CEA chairmen agree on this, which is not easy. I hope Congress and the president will do the same.
The document "the moment of truth" is here.

State Pension Value

State pension systems had an estimated funding ratio of 69% for fiscal year 2010, ending June 30, up from 65% for fiscal year 2009.

Are America's Best Days Behind Us?

By Fareed Zakaria from Time.

Jobless Rate and Labor Force Participation Rate

WSJ article and an excellent interactive graph for the labor force participation rate.

The Challenges of Long Term Unemployment

Econbrowser has a good summary for this issue.

Mankiw Wrote to Obama

The letter from Mankiw to Obama: How to Break Bread With the Republicans.
One interesting and important sentence:
"Take care of the ____ run and the ____ run will take care of itself."

Visualizing Economics

A cool website.

Stimulus and Debt Reduction

My colleage sent me this amusing story explaining how the stimulus work for relieving debt:

IT is a slow day in a dusty little Irish town. The rain is beating down and the streets are deserted.
Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.
On this particular day a rich tourist is driving through the town, stops at the local hotel and lays a €100 note on the desk, telling the hotel owner he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night.

The owner gives him some keys and, as soon as the visitor has walked upstairs, the hotelier grabs the €100 note and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.

The butcher takes the €100 note and runs down the street to repay his debt to the pig farmer.

The pig farmer takes the €100 note and heads off to pay his bill at the supplier of feed and fuel.

The guy at the Farmers' Co-op takes the €100 note and runs to pay his drinks bill at the pub.

The publican slips the money along to the local prostitute drinking at the bar, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer him "services" on credit.

The hooker then rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill to the hotel owner with the €100 note. The hotel proprietor then places the €100 note back on the counter so the rich traveler will not suspect anything.

At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs, picks up the €100 note, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, pockets the money, and leaves town.

No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now out of debt and looking to the future with a lot more optimism.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the stimulus package works.

Daily Price Index from online Retailers

The daily price indices covers various countires in the world from online retailers.