Economic Policy

According to the NYT, Massachusetts has started a new research program that will provide $1 billion over 10 years (@$16 per person per year) to finance stem cell research. The article does not tell readers what will happen to the patents that result from this research. This is a big issue. If the researchers or […]

The economics profession has produced endless studies estimating the losses from 10 percent tariffs on shoes and 15 percent tariffs on shirts. They have worked hard to ensure that all right thinking people believe that such barriers to trade are crimes against humanity. For some reason economists don’t show the same zeal in documenting the […]

The NYT tells us about the battle among House Democrats over trade policy and some of the comments attributed to the “free trade” side are absolutely bizarre. For example, Washington representative Jim McDermott reportedly “believes many voters are ‘re-evaluating’ the idea that ‘everybody wins with trade.’” Huh? “Everybody wins with trade,” who ever said anything […]

BTP is back after the gods of cyberspace silenced it for the weekend. I’ll start with leftover business from the weekend. Alan Blinder, a Princeton University professor and former Clinton administration economist, had a lengthy piece in the Washington Post Outlook section that told readers that offshoring “rattles” him. After reading this, and other pieces […]

The web wizards at the American Prospect are overhauling the website at present. So save those brilliant insights. A new and improved Beat the Press site will be up and running on Monday morning. –Dean Baker

The articles reporting on first quarter productivity told us that it was better than it expected, coming in at a 1.7 percent annual rate. Count me among the surprised. I was expecting a number close to 0.5 percent based on 1.4 percent growth in output and a 1.0 percent increase in hours worked. The Bureau […]

The Post editorial on a bill that would authorize drug reimportation suggests that they don’t. The Post tells readers that if people in the United States started importing more low priced drugs from Canada, the drug companies would stop selling their drugs to Canada at low prices. Perhaps, but is that the end of the […]

There’s a small group of people in the United States who follow house prices. According to an obscure discipline known as “economics,” an excess supply of an item usually leads to a reduction in price. A little known government agency, the “Commerce Department,” reported last week that the vacany rate for ownership units hit yet […]

The Post ran a good follow-up story today, telling readers about Circuit City’s latest business problems. It seems that its sales of big ticket items have plummeted. Undoubtedly part of the decline is attributable to a general weakening of the economy. But part of the falloff is likely attributable to factors specific to Circuit City, […]

Diane Rehm often has very good shows with guests who present clearly distinct political perspectives. However, when it comes to talking about the problem posed by the budget deficit, balance is thrown out the window. Yesterday, she had investment banker Robert Hormat present a diatribe about the need to eliminate the budget deficit. There were […]