Volume 8, Issue 1

We’re suffering an epidemic of deflation dread disorder, according to Edward Leamer of UCLA who takes on the New York Times and leading talking heads. Leamer's contention is that deflation is not so bad and maybe not coming.

Christophe Chamley of Boston University and Brian Pinto of the World Bank use recent events in Greece to illustrate that official bailouts tend not to work when countries have fundamental fiscal (‘insolvency’) problems and construct a two-period numerical example to explain why this should not come as a surprise.

J. Bradford DeLong, of UC Berkeley, is baffled by the presidents and prime ministers in the North Atlantic. Why, he wonders, do the powers that be insist on inflicting further economic misery?

Gregory Rosston of Stanford University and Scott Wallsten of the Technology Policy Institute argue that the switch from voice to broadband services provides a rare opportunity to reform universal service programs. Rossten and Wallsten offer an alternative design to deliver services in an efficient and politically-palatable manner.

In his 2011 State of the Union address, President Obama stressed investment in infrastructure, education and clean energy in the U.S. economy to "win the future." Edward Barbier of the University of Wyoming argues that to track the progress of such an investment strategy will require replacing GDP per capita as the main economic indicator with a Net Domestic Product (NDP) measure that is "adjusted" for real depreciation or appreciation in the reproducible, human and natural capital stock.

No one calls the home mortgage deduction an "individual mandate" to buy a home, so why should Obama's "mandate" to obtain health care under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) be unconstitutional, asks Edward Song of The Song Law PC.

Shiller’s trills might prevent the flight of capital from developing to developed countries, according to Hammad Siddiqi of Lahore University of Management Sciences, who suggests they could be used to realign the objectives of developing nations and international lending agencies such the World Bank and the IMF.

Barbara Bergmann of the University of Maryland and American University provides a political economy hypothesis to explain Brad Delong's mystery: The pain has a purpose, namely, higher profits.

A proper income tax base should allow a deduction for mortgage interest expense, according to Richard Gordon of Case Western Reserve University.