The failure of unregulated markets. [HT: Simon Johnson] MIT’s Daron Acemoglu has written one of the best essays on the financial crisis and what it means for economics that I have read. He argues, convincingly, that forgetting about what drives economic growth when formulating policy is a big mistake. Importantly, it has been all too easy to forget about how…
Category Archives Economics
U.S. Plan Sees Easing of G.M. to Bankruptcy. The government hopes to avoid court chaos by persuading at least some creditors to agree to a plan that would cleave General Motors into two pieces. [NYT > Business]
OECD figures show 'flash flood' stimulus not working. The Federal Opposition says the latest report on the world economy by the OECD shows that the United States is the only country to have spent more than Australia on economic stimulus packages. [ABC News: Breaking Stories]
Tidal power divides the greens. One single project could provide an enormous boost to Britain's renewable energy problems. Engineers have long fantasized about harnessing all the energy from the river Servern--and with climate change and energy security now pressing political problems, ministers are beginning to take them seriously. [Environmental Health News]
What is school for? Seth Godin Seems like a simple question, but given how much time and money we spend on it, it has a wide range of answers, many unexplored, some contradictory. I have a few thoughts about education, how we use it to market ourselves and compete, and I realized that without a common place to start,…
Message to the Coalition: people respond to incentives. I was listening the other day to Tony Abbott claiming that the price elasticity of petrol is zero (Joshua Gans quotes the Coalition’s Greg Hunt making the same claim). It was perhaps the first time that I had heard a politician use the word ‘elasticity’, and it made me wonder whether Abbott…
The debate is over.... Shell Oil, Energy Resources and Global Warming. John Hofmeister, President of Shell Oil, USA, speaks about Shell's position on energy conversation and Global Warming. The speech was made at the Washington University, St. Louis, USA in September 2006. [The Whalesong Project: Whalelog]
Means testing the baby bonus. I had vowed to not say another word on the baby bonus but the renewed speculation that something might be done has drawn me out. The talk now is of means testing it. As Andrew Leigh notes, this would have to be done with plenty of care but nonetheless would be a good step forward.…
Another good one from Andrew Leigh. As we draw near to budget time, there has been plenty of talk about what “middle Australia” will get. But where exactly is the middle? To provide a more precise sense, I’ve tabulated the pre-tax annual income distributions for individuals and households, in the 2008-09 tax year. My raw data is the 2006 HILDA…