Submitted by CARPE DIEM

The U.S. economy continues to be positively awe-inspiring compared with the competition. The value of U.S. imports in 2006 was roughly the same as the entire GDP of France. The U.S. is the world’s largest exporter; indeed, if all U.S. exporters seceded from the country, they would have the eighth-largest GDP in […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM

Thomas Sowell, on the subprime credit crisis:

The government has brought on the housing problem, partly by highly restrictive building policies, which have caused housing prices to skyrocket artificially.

From today’s Seattle Times, confirmation of Sowell’s point:

An intriguing new analysis by a University of Washington economics professor argues that home prices have, […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
I’m not making it up:

Global warming blamed for unusual cold spell

Cold wave in India attributed to global warming
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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Until recently economics was considered a subject without much popular appeal, but a new generation of economists has dragged into the heart of our messy everyday lives.

Tim Harford’s “Logic of Life: Uncovering the New Economics of Everything” is the latest addition to the growing body of work attempting to popularize the subject […]

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Submitted by Businomics Blog
The latest figures from the International Energy Agency show that last year’s growth of oil consumption was pretty modest.  Here’s a chart comparing oil demand with the IMF’s estimates of world GDP growth:

Slower growth of oil consumption in 2006 and 2007, without a comparable drop in GDP growth, shows conservation effects.  A […]

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Submitted by Businomics Blog
I posed that question to noted real estate economist John Kilpatrick of Greenfield Advisors in an interview for the Businomics Audio Magazine.  You can listen to the interview here for free.  We ended with the question, “Is this the time for an investor to go bottom fishing?”  If you thinking about getting […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
The chart above shows the 6-month moving average of the series for real retail sales, adjusted for inflation by the St. Louis Federal Reserve using the CPI, through December 2007. Several comments on this recent CD post mentioned that retail sales were not adjusted for inflation, and the graph above is in […]

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Submitted by The Capital Spectator
Today’s update on weekly jobless claims is encouraging, but no one should confuse last week’s sizable decline in new filings for unemployment benefits with the all-clear signal for the economy. There are still too many risk factors bubbling to convince us that full-bore optimism is now the sentiment of choice.
The Labor […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Financial Post: Billable-hour rates for lawyers are skyrocketing.
One U.S. firm recently broke the sacrosanct $1,000-per-hour barrier and it can cost anywhere from $500 to $800 an hour for top Canadian legal talent. Salaries of associates and student interns — those who do the legal grunt work — are escalating, hitting $100,000 and […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM

Record Cold for Northern Minn.: 40 Below

China battles “coldest winter in 100 years”
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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The gap between the nation’s imports and exports narrowed in December, according to a government report today, leaving the gap for the year sharply lower and ending a five-year streak of record annual trade deficits (see chart above).

A weak dollar during the year lifted exports, which allowed the […]

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Submitted by Econbrowser
The tax policy chapter of the ERP is quite interesting, in part because I have a sense of deja vu [1], [2] when reading the cross-country/international sections.

From Chapter 6 of the Report [large pdf!] (p. 135):
The efficiency of the business tax structure in the United States is particularly important as other countries undertake […]

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Submitted by Businomics Blog
Jim Picerno over at Capital Spectator has interesting charts about how risk is priced.  Here’s one:

Yes, risky assets now have a much wider spread over treasuries than they did last year.  But that was almost entirely because risk earned such low returns last year.  Read Jim’s comments about what Mr. Market is–and […]

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Submitted by A Dash of Insight
Today marked the signing of the stimulus package.  It has been accompanied by a lot of commentary and criticism.  One of our thoughtful readers recently asked if there was a book to read to understand government and economic policy.  A good question, but not an easy one.
The problem is that […]

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