January 04, 2009
Forecasted GDP in the New Year
The description of the consensus that growth will resume around mid-year -- while accurate -- does not convey much information about what is the consensus regarding the depth of the recession. Nor does it convey the degree of disagreement regarding the timing and strength of the recovery. To provide some isnight , here is the mean forecast for GDP into the new year, according to the WSJ's December survey.
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January 02, 2009
The oil shock and recession of 2008: Part 2
In my previous post, I presented evidence that the oil price increase over 2007:H2-2008:H1 made a significant contribution to the slowdown in consumption spending in general and decline in spending on domestic automobiles in particular. Here I discuss why this should be regarded as a key development that turned the slowdown in growth into a recession.
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January 01, 2009
"Trade finance is collapsing"
...said Victor K. Fung, the chairman of the Li & Fung Group, the giant supply chain management company that connects factories in China with retailers in the United States and Europe. "We've got orders we can't ship right now."
Source: "As Trade Slows, China Rethinks Its Growth Strategy," NYT Jan 1, 2009.
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December 31, 2008
The oil shock and recession of 2008: Part 1
This is the first in what I'm planning will be a series of posts discussing the contribution that the energy price spike of 2008 made to our present economic difficulties. In this first installment, I revisit a very interesting research paper on the response of consumer spending to energy price increases written by Lutz Kilian (Professor of Economics at the University of Michigan), and Paul Edelstein (Senior Economist for Decision Economics). I first brought this paper to the attention of Econbrowser readers in the spring of 2007. I thought now would be a good time to take a look at how well the equations in Edelstein and Kilian's paper can describe what we saw happen in the later part of 2007 and first half of 2008.
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December 29, 2008
Aggregate Demand and Finance and the Collapse in Trade
From "Trade-Finance Pinch Hurts the Healthy," WSJ, 12/22/08:
The global financial crisis is drying up the financing that firms depend on for trade. That's making the global recession nastier and deeper than it otherwise would be.
As with all kinds of credit these days, financial institutions are making less trade finance available and charging more for it. But the squeeze in trade stands out because it pinches otherwise healthy companies that should be driving a recovery in global commerce. Already, the World Bank predicts trade will contract next year for the first time since 1982.
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December 25, 2008
"Stuff Happens": the Bush Administration's Economic Stewardship
As we near the end of the year, and the end of eight years of Bush economic policy, I think it's useful to look back. The White House has recently tangled with the NYT regarding what got us into the current economic crisis [0] (see also [1]). This comes on the heels of the Paulson argument that he would not have done anything different, had he known the full extent of the looming crisis. This leads me to wonder how we should view the Bush Administration's stewardship of the economy.
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December 24, 2008
Links for 12-24-08
Today I outsource to a couple of links I found interesting:
Dave Cohen on oil prices.
Stephen Gordon on economists' fatal flaw.
James Morley on the need for a new Fed-Treasury accord.
Posted by James Hamilton at 10:44 AM permalink | Comments (14) | digg this | reddit
December 22, 2008
ZIRP and the exchange rate...and other macro variables
Several months ago, I discussed the implications of a model of the exchange rate wherein Taylor rule fundamentals -- the output [0], inflation and exchange rate gaps -- were central (post). In that paper [pdf], I showed that Taylor rule fundamentals outperformed purchasing power parity, interest rate parity, and the monetary model of exchange rates in terms of in-sample fit, at least insofar as the dollar/euro exchange rate is concerned.
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December 21, 2008
Federal Reserve balance sheet
Here I survey how we got here, where things currently stand, and what it all means.
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December 19, 2008
Fiscal stimulus: the case for block grants
A few thoughts on how the federal government might best implement a fiscal stimulus.
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Posted by James Hamilton at 06:21 PM permalink | Comments (28) | digg this | reddit
December 18, 2008
Credit Crunch or Not
One of the debates regarding the current financial crisis is whether in fact there is a crisis, or whether in fact the financial system is operating normally. I've been skeptical myself of the "times are normal view", but here is some evidence that the credit crunch is real. The findings also reinforces my view that un-nuanced reliance on highly aggregated volume statistics (e.g., Chari et al. 2008) is likely to result in misleading inferences (See the rejoinder from the Boston Fed's economists). From the conclusion to Tong and Wei (2008) ungated version of Tong and Wei:
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December 17, 2008
The other shoe begins to drop
Chrysler LLC, awaiting a federal rescue as its cash dwindles, will shut all 30 of its plants for at least a month starting Dec. 19 as unsold cars and trucks pile up at showrooms.
Ford Motor Co. said it will idle most of its North American assembly plants for the first week of January, while General Motors Corp. said a new factory making engines for the Chevrolet Volt electric car is being delayed to conserve cash.
The cutbacks showed how far automakers are going to save money and prune output in a year in which industrywide U.S. sales are poised to fall to their lowest levels since 1991. GM and Chrysler say they may run out of operating funds in just weeks without emergency U.S. aid.
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December 16, 2008
Quantitative easing
Today's announcement from the Federal Reserve marks the end of the road for Plan A (fighting the recession by lowering interest rates), and the beginning of ... what?
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High Frequency Estimates and Forecasts of GDP
High frequency estimates are falling, while consensus forecasts are for a turnaround in 2009H2. First, consider two estimates of GDP released today.
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Posted by Menzie Chinn at 05:25 PM permalink | Comments (3) | digg this | reddit
December 15, 2008
Finding the exit
How you think we might get out of our current economic problems has something to do with how you think we got into them in the first place.
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Posted by James Hamilton at 05:19 PM permalink | Comments (56) | digg this | reddit
The Global Economic Crisis
Here's the video from a panel convened by the University of Wisconsin's Center on World Affairs and the Global Economy (WAGE) on November 20, 2008. Presenting were Alison Alter, Associate Director of WAGE; Mark J. Ready, Professor of Finance, Investment and Banking; Darian M. Ibrahim, J.D., Assistant Professor of Law; Menzie D. Chinn, Professor of Public Affairs and Economics; and Mark S. Copelovitch, Assistant Professor of Political Science and Public Affairs, and Edward Friedman, Professor of Political Science.
My powerpoint presentation was posted here if one just wants the slides.
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December 14, 2008
John Taylor on the Federal Reserve
Stanford economics professor John Taylor has a new paper in which he takes aim at recent economic policy, and fires with both barrels, concluding that "government actions and interventions caused, prolonged, and worsened the financial crisis."
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December 11, 2008
Incipient Chinese Yuan Depreciation in Context
Plenty of breathless commentary on how Chinese yuan depreciation against the dollar might trigger conflict. From Barrons:
Reality Check for China
By LESLIE P. NORTON
The currency's decline could dampen foreign speculators' enthusiasm
Last week, China's currency, the renminbi, juddered to its biggest one-day decline against the greenback since Beijing began a managed float in 2005.
Says Win Thin, a currency economist at Brown Brothers Harriman: "The prospect of appreciation is off the table for now." Morgan Stanley now expects China to depreciate its currency by 5% to 10% in the coming year. The current rate is 6.88 to the dollar.
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December 09, 2008
Predicting the trough and a jobless recovery
Michael Dueker is a senior portfolio strategist at Russell Investments and formerly was an assistant vice president in the Research Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Michael is also a member of the Blue Chip forecasting panel. In early February 2008, Michael submitted a piece to Econbrowser that correctly predicted the onset of the current recession, using a model-based forecast. We are pleased that that he is now presenting forecasts from the same Qual VAR model concerning the recession's trough date and the magnitude of a jobless recovery to follow, subject to the disclaimer that the content is the responsibility of the author and does not represent official positions of Russell Investments and does not constitute investment advice.
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December 08, 2008
Comparing recessions
Last week was a tough one for the optimists.
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Posted by James Hamilton at 05:57 PM permalink | Comments (30) | digg this | reddit
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