EconWatch.com: May 2006 Archives

EconWatch.com > May 31, 2006

The Battle For Ground Zero, Part 140

[A Blog For All] Lehrer, a construction consultant working with the memorial foundation ”” were overseeing construction of the memorial. The situation changed, they said, when the estimated cost of the memorial shot to nearly $1 billion and it became clear that the memorial design would have to be changed to save money.

SmartEconomist: Global Job Markets

[Economist's View] Global Job Markets and US Leadership: Q&A 7 - Harvard University Professor Richard B. Freeman will answer readers' questions on the relationships among immigration flows, scientific education and the global market for skilled workers, on how they affect US technological leadership, and on their implications for economic policy..

Posted at 05:56 AM

May 31, 2006

The Battle For Ground Zero, Part 140

Posted at 06:01 AM

SmartEconomist: Global Job Markets

Posted at 05:56 AM

May 29, 2006

The Inflow of Capital to America Is Public Sector, Not Private Sector

[Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal] RGE - Martin Feldstein is right: Felstein has argued that more "competitive" dollar would contribute to reducing the US trade deficit, and at least help to slow the rise in the US current account deficit. I agree -- though I would think the case for Asian and Gulf appreciation is stronger than the case for Euro appreciation.

Posted at 05:57 AM

Holes in the Fence

[Economist's View] What does a national border represent in a world of electronic communication, multinational corporations, and increased migration of both labor and business?: Borders Aren't About Maps, by Moisés NaÃm Sunday Outlook. Washington Post: A country's borders should not be confused with those familiar dotted lines drawn on some musty old map of nation-states.

Posted at 05:55 AM

May 27, 2006

Free Trade in College Professors!

[Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal] I tend to agree with the consensus in the economics profession in general, and with Alex Tabarrok in particular, in the current immigration debate. But this is a bridge too far for me: "Economists are probably also more open to immigration than the typical member of the public because of their ethics -- while economists may be known for assuming self-interested behavior wherever they look, economists in their work tend not to distinguish between us and them." That's a mighty generous self-interpretation.

Posted at 06:03 AM

The Battle For Ground Zero, Part 141

[A Blog For All] Gretchen Dykstra, who leads the WTC 9/11 Memorial Foundation, has quit."There is general agreement that the multiplicity of authorities and the unclear roles has made it difficult for anyone to move expeditiously," she wrote in a letter to Thomas S. Johnson, the chairman of the foundation's executive committee.

Posted at 06:02 AM

May 25, 2006

The Battle For Ground Zero, Part 139

[A Blog For All] A new park with seating space, a fountain, and a sculpture by Jeff Koons was also unveiled by Larry Silverstein. While the new building and park has all the luster, the hulking remains of Fiterman Hall continues to be a sore spot.

Posted at 06:00 AM

Paul Krugman: Once and Again

[Economist's View] Once and Again, Paul Krugman, Commentary, NY Times, January 2, 2000: CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Beginnings are always difficult: even the most tough-minded writer finds it hard to avoid portentousness.

Posted at 05:57 AM

May 23, 2006

La Journada (Mx) [translation]: Joseph Stiglitz On The Nationalization Of Bolivia’s Hydrocarbon Sector

[My Buffalo River Home] he will work with Repsol-YPF, a company affected by the nationalization of hydrocarbons in the Andean country, from which the Spanish government again demanded legal safeguards.

Posted at 05:56 AM

Outsourcing Surgery and Other Medical Services

[Economist's View] Miller joined the swelling ranks of medical tourists. As word has spread about the high-quality care and cut-rate surgery available in such countries as India, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, a growing stream of uninsured and underinsured Americans are boarding planes not for the typical face-lift or tummy tuck but for discount hip replacements and sophisticated heart surgeries.

Posted at 05:54 AM

May 21, 2006

A Different Sort of Trade Agreement”¦

[ LibrarianActivist.org] Article 4: The countries shall work together, in coordination with other Latin American countries, to eradicate illiteracy in these nations, using efficient, tried and tested methods of mass application, which have been successfully used in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

Posted at 06:00 AM

Trade Balances - What is Fair?

[Somewhere out there!] If the IMF is to be even-handed, should it criticise American farm policies or China’s exchange-rate policies?

Posted at 05:58 AM

May 19, 2006

The Battle For Ground Zero, Part 137

[A Blog For All] The governor said he had appointed Kevin M. Rampe as the chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the same organization he once served as president, to complete the design guidelines for the 16-acre World Trade Center site and to coordinate the redesign and construction of the memorial by Sept.

Posted at 05:57 AM

New GATS and Libraries Activity

[ LibrarianActivist.org] What is new is that I just found that the Florida Fair Trade Campaign has posted the Maine story to its site and I wonder if other states are doing the same”¦ But here I have to admit that I don’t know much about how the Fair Trade groups work - and I’ve never come across anything like them in Canada (someone correct me if I’m wrong). That Maine wants to pull itself out of the WTO could set a great precedent for folks in other states who think the trade agreements might be a bad idea.

Posted at 05:56 AM

May 15, 2006

Good News on the March Trade Deficit: $62 Billion ($744 Billion a Year)

[Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal] RGE - Not quite as good as they look (the March trade numbers): Not quite as good as the headline fall suggests. That is my initial take on the March US trade numbers....

Posted at 05:55 AM

Morning Coffee Videocast: Immigration Is a Good Thing

[Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal] I am who I am not only because I am engaged in the lifelong task of becoming the person I want to be but also because I can identify myself with groups of people engaged in similar ''life-projects'': secular Jews, people with kids, people raised in Iowa City, to mention three personal instances. Appiah stresses that the life-project I am carrying out, the story of my self that I'm struggling to tell, can't be separated from the affiliations in which that project was formed and to which it refers.

Posted at 05:54 AM

May 13, 2006

The trade deficit narrowed... so what.

[Dismally, as it relates to the markets.] Nice improvement in the trade deficit. However, the dollar has dropped about 5% since the month of March on a trade-weighted basis. Whatever we were buying then, now costs 5% more. [..] But, as the Washington Post points out, our oil imports are declining. Must not be declining too much or the price of oil would be dropping. So, although the improvement of about $3 billion is there for this month, it's already been wiped out if we continue to buy the same amount of products.

Posted at 06:00 AM

A Good Piece by Martin Feldstein About the Coming Rise in U.S. Household Savings

[Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal] Foreign Affairs - The Return of Saving - Martin Feldstein: The savings rate of American households has been declining for more than a decade and recently turned negative. This decrease has dramatically reduced total national savings despite a rise in corporate saving.

Posted at 05:57 AM

May 11, 2006

Exchange Rates

[Economist's View] Louis Fed, but the graphs do not show the pressures that are building for the dollar to depreciate discussed in Brad's post and also discussed recently by others such as Martin Feldstein (Comments on the Economic Report of the President andUncle Sam's Bonanza) and Paul Krugman (Will There be a Dollar Crisis?):

Posted at 05:59 AM

The Battle For Ground Zero, Part 133

[A Blog For All] The fact remains that it was the Pataki's failure of leadership that has made rebuilding at Ground Zero far more difficult since it was his decisions that led us down this path. Instead of Ground Zero being his ultimate triumph, it is his albatross.

Posted at 05:57 AM

May 09, 2006

Mankiw: Outsourcing Redux

[Economist's View] Not to repeat myself from the JKG piece below, but Mankiw and others who marvel that we have experienced a disconnect between productivity and real wages and fail to factor in the power relation always amaze me. Workers aren't capturing their share because the Republicans who control both houses of Congress and the White House refuse to consider increases in minimum wage and have moved decisively against any powers for workers to negotiate better wages.

Posted at 06:01 AM

The Battle For Ground Zero, Part 131

[A Blog For All] That's when contractors began the task of rerouting PATH tracks and various utilities to prepare the area for the enventual foundations for the Freedom Tower. Before the tower's foundation work can begin, engineers and construction workers are relocating the train signaling system for the World Trade Center PATH station, the power system supplying electrical current to the tracks, the water pipes that lead to fire stanchions and the steel conduit providing compressed air to operate the track switches.

Posted at 05:56 AM

May 07, 2006

Hot Under the Blue-Collar

[Economist's View] Blue-collar workers are not optimistic about their futures, something that is reflected in polls showing a divergence between measures of economic performance and worker anxieties. However, neither political party has been able to find a set of policies that address the problems in economically and socially defensible ways so as to attract a wide constituency.

Posted at 05:57 AM

The Battle For Ground Zero, Part 130

[A Blog For All] But unless you've been following the story for long, you wouldn't understand how the memorial fits into the larger mess that remains the Ground Zero rebuilding. The whole memorial and Ground Zero building process is all about compromises built upon what many consider to be a seriously flawed Libeskind master plan, which itself grew out of distaste of plans generated by the Port Authority's designers.

Posted at 05:54 AM

May 05, 2006

World Trade negotiations in crisis

[Atlantic Review] If, as many observers argued, the Doha round on trade liberalization was on life support before highly regarded U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman left last week to become White House budget director, it is hard to imagine what can be done to resuscitate trade negotiations now. (...) The political obstacles lined up to block an agreement in the United States pale compared to what confronts European negotiators and politicians in their homelands.

Posted at 06:03 AM

Krugman: Review of 'Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations,' by David Warsh

[Economist's View] The Pin Factory Mystery, Review of 'Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations,' by David Warsh, Review by Paul Krugman, Sunday Book Review, NY Times: Economic ideas play a large role in shaping the world. "Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences,"

Posted at 05:59 AM

EconWatch.com > May 31, 2006

The Battle For Ground Zero, Part 140

SmartEconomist: Global Job Markets

May 31, 2006

The Battle For Ground Zero, Part 140

SmartEconomist: Global Job Markets

May 29, 2006

The Inflow of Capital to America Is Public Sector, Not Private Sector

Holes in the Fence

May 27, 2006

Free Trade in College Professors!

The Battle For Ground Zero, Part 141

May 25, 2006

The Battle For Ground Zero, Part 139

Paul Krugman: Once and Again

May 23, 2006

La Journada (Mx) [translation]: Joseph Stiglitz On The Nationalization Of Bolivia’s Hydrocarbon Sector

Outsourcing Surgery and Other Medical Services

May 21, 2006

A Different Sort of Trade Agreement”¦

Trade Balances - What is Fair?

May 19, 2006

The Battle For Ground Zero, Part 137

New GATS and Libraries Activity

May 15, 2006

Good News on the March Trade Deficit: $62 Billion ($744 Billion a Year)

Morning Coffee Videocast: Immigration Is a Good Thing

May 13, 2006

The trade deficit narrowed... so what.

A Good Piece by Martin Feldstein About the Coming Rise in U.S. Household Savings

May 11, 2006

Exchange Rates

The Battle For Ground Zero, Part 133

May 09, 2006

Mankiw: Outsourcing Redux

The Battle For Ground Zero, Part 131

May 07, 2006

Hot Under the Blue-Collar

The Battle For Ground Zero, Part 130

May 05, 2006

World Trade negotiations in crisis

Krugman: Review of 'Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations,' by David Warsh

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