Christina Romer does the Five Books interview and one of her recommended reads is a famous article by Peter Temin and Barry Wigmore titled “The End of One Big Deflation.” This is a great choice since it shows that even in a “balance sheet recession” faci

That’s no typo, today I’ll argue that the fiscal multiplier might be bigger than Paul Krugman suggests. Since I’m no Keynesian, this post is actually a sort of question for my Keynesian readers. Here’s Krugman discussing Robert Hall’s work: The Hall appr

(Gerald Herbert/AP) “Three years ago, a newly elected President Obama told America that if Congress approved his plan to borrow nearly a trillion dollars, he would hold unemployment below 8 percent.”

About 11 years ago, James K. “Jamie” Galbraith recalls, hundreds of his fellow economists laughed at him. To his face. In the White House. A discounted poster presenting US dollars bills in circulation is seen in the visitor center of the Bureau of Engra

Let’s talk about the role of fiscal policy, from the perspective of Lester Chandler’s America’s Greatest Depression. Please tell us about the book. This book gives a great description of what went on during the Great Depression. It is especially strong i

One key question surrounding President Obama's planned announcements here Friday morning to enhance American manufacturing is whether they are serious measures or campaign-year window dressing? After all, its easy to come to the Puget Sound and tout the

Image by Dorothea Lange, taken from Wikimedia Commons The former chair of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers says we’ve learned that terrible downturns can still occur, but also that the right policy response can make a huge difference to the

Today in Washington, D.C. - Feb. 16, 2012: Senate resumed consideration of S. 1813, the highway bill. Many amendments have been filed for the highway bill, but there is no agreement on how to work through them yet. Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Harry

It’s obvious why President Obama was drawn to the thriving Master Lock factory in Milwaukee on Wednesday, and not because, as he joked, he is increasingly interested in high-strength door hardware as his two girls approach high school. The factory has an

In another piece of good economic news, new unemployment claims, a week-on-week measure, have dropped to the lowest level in four years. The Wall Street Journal reports: Initial unemployment claims dropped by 13,000 to 348,000 in the week ended Feb. 11,

LOS ANGELES — President Obama is this week heralding the resurgence of American manufacturing as a leap toward an “economy built to last,” and a sign that he deserves a second term.

Via Brad DeLong, more details of how the size of the stimulus package was determined, and how the administration's mistaken pivot to deficit reduction came about: 'The Escape Artist': Christina Romer Advised Obama To Push $1.8 Trillion Stimulus: Scheiber

'The Escape Artist': Christina Romer Advised Obama To Push $1.8 Trillion Stimulus: Scheiber writes…. The $1.8 trillion figure was included in a December 2008 memo authored by Christina Romer (the incoming head of the Council of Economic Advisers) and obt

Dunham, the president's mother, died in 1995. Part of Obama's childhood was spent in Indonesia as she pursued her doctoral work for the University of Hawaii. Two other candidates were cited immediately: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 64, who has no

Now we are treated to the semiannual spectacle of watching Republicans pretend they care about the deficit. They will hammer at this repeatedly as discussion progresses on the president’s budget, which projects a deficit of more than $1 trillion for this

"We're Democrats," Summers harrumphed. "We believe in these things." Besides, both ideas struck him as gimmicks unworthy of a president. To colleagues he complained that "what's really important in life is not to believe your own bullshit." [Top Adviser

I was going to entitle this post “Who is Vincent Reinhart?” Here’s a quote from a Lawrence Ball paper (taken from a post by Marcus Nunes): The analysis starts with a puzzle about Ben Bernanke. From 2000 to 2003, when Bernanke

In one of the most uninformed -- and counter-productive -- op-eds we've read in the last five years, President Barack Obama's first chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisors, Christina D. Romer, just spent 1,200 words arguing that we should do nothi

Last time Dr. Lacy Hunt, the chief economist at Austin, TX-based Hoisington Investment Management was interviewed in these pages, in July, 2009, the rebound in stocks from their crisis lows was only months old — yet he remained firmly in the bull camp —