Random Observations for Students of Economics

Greg,

I was surprised to see you mentioned as the only stimulus skeptic the Obama team could find. If you'd like company, let me add my name to the list.

I'd label myself, if not a skeptic, then at least ambivalent. It's not that I'm convinced stimulus is a bad idea, but that economics isn't a precise science: we don't know for sure that a stimulus... More

from the December 23, 2008 edition

Fairfax, Va. - Gordon Tullock is not a household name. It's a shame that he's not. In contrast, disgraced Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is a household name. It's a shame that he is.

These two men have little in common except that Mr. Tullock, an eminent economist, is the first scholar who systematically grasped and explained why... More

A Toyota Camry Hybrid on the assembly lineThe central Kentucky town of Georgetown, just north of Lexington, used to be known for the state's two main exports: bourbon and horses. Legend holds that in 1789, somewhere nearby, Elijah Craig, a Baptist minister, distilled the first batch of bourbon in charred oak casks. Thoroughbreds graze and trot across fenced fields of trim bluegrass on the horse farms that ring much of the city. But... More

By James P. Moore Jr.Sunday, December 14, 2008; B03

For months now, the nation's economic obituary has been splashed across the front pages of nearly every newspaper in the country. Journalists and pundits alike have warned that America's long-running global dominance has come to a screeching halt, eclipsed by growing markets in such places as China and India and frittered away by our own mismanagement, excesses and myopic... More

Update | 11:56 a.m., December 16: Updated to include new plans from Claudia Goldin, Ann Dryden Witte, Edward L. Glaeser, Nancy Folbre, Laura Tyson, Lori Kletzer and Len Burman, and an update to the plan from Raj Chetty.

President-elect Barack Obama and members of Congress are considering a fiscal stimulus package that’s reportedly in the ballpark of $500 billion. How should that money be spent?

We asked a group of... More

The U.S. Treasury has been creating a massive, but hidden, welfare program. Federal Reserve Chairman More