There’s plenty of blame to go around for the death of the economic reform project. But was popular resentment of its impacts the ultimate killer?
Economists
Guy Rundle: Rundle: capitalism … finally the pundits are taking notice
By now, the failure of the global economic recovery following the 2008 crash has become so obvious that even economists have started to notice it.
How did the GFC change economics?
Looking back post-GFC and the global recession, the study of economics has changed forever. Or has it? A group of experts debate the topic at the Economist.
Ask the Economists: the sensible Budget
We asked six of our leading numbers wonks for their considered take on this year’s dour piece of electioneering, also known as Wayne Swan’s latest Federal Budget.
The US is still in recession
Officially it has just been declared that the US economy is still in the midst of a recession. But is the negativity true, since most economists think the recession ended last year? Why is the official end so delayed?
Tim Colebatch drinks the house price Kool-Aid
The housing industry has a vested interest in ensuring that the house price myth is perpetuated. Now, respected columnists are joining the party.
Gittins: Economists are crap at predicting the future
This time last year economists predicted an Australian economic meltdown. Instead we had a blink and you missed it crisis. Yet we still keep listening to economists’ forecasts. Why the clueless obsession with the future? asks Ross Gittins.
RIP Paul Samuelson, trailblazing economist
The WSJ plays tribute to Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Samuelson, who died on Sunday, age 94 — a man Ben Bernanke has called “one of the greatest teachers that economics has ever known”.
Economists unite against Anna Bligh
A who’s-who of Australian economists, from all across the ideological spectrum, have sent an open letter to the Bligh government, criticising its proposed asset sales as “economically unsound” and “based on spurious claims”.
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Charting Nouriel Roubini’s horrible stockmarket calls
Nouriel Roubini is usually credited with predicting the Global Financial Crisis. However, the rest of his prognostications have been all over the place, as this handy graph shows.
We’re kidding if we think the GFC scars won’t last
Simon Nasht goes on a world tour of economic carnage caused by the global financial crisis, from Wall Street’s trading floor to abandoned factories in China. Where does the world go to from here?
It’s the leverage, stupid
Steve Keen may have lost his bet with Rory Robertson on house prices, but he’s still right on the fundamentals, he argues: the crisis would have occurred long ago and been far less severe if governments and central banks hadn’t attempted to rescue the system from its own follies.
Where do economists go from here?
Even with all the great economic minds of the world, we didn’t avoid the global financial crisis. Stephanie Flanders speaks to some major economists about the way forward for world economies and the focus we need on behavioural economics.
Aussies, it seems, under Mr Market’s intoxicating spell
The ABS, Australian Property Monitors and RP Data are all indicating that Australian residential property prices are nearing or exceeding record levels, spurred by continued use of debt by many buyers to fund the great Australian dream.
The AFR’s internal culture of favouritism and cushy cliques
The world’s most expensive financial tabloid, The Australian Financial Review, has been accused of many things in its 58-year history, but its internal culture of ruthless favouritism and cushy cliques has for the most part escaped scrutiny, writes Andrew Crook.
NewsHour bumps regular economist for a rapping economist
PBS’s (and SBS’s) NewsHour with Jim Lehrer recently cancelled an appearance by economist Richard Rahn in favour of another economist — not one who was better qualified, but one who was prepared to deliver his points in rap form.
Colebatch: Even economists can’t agree on GFC
Was it too much debt? Too much saving? The Australian Conference of Economists can’t agree on what caused the global recession, or what we should learn from it, says Tim Colebatch. Reassuring…
Has economics stopped working?
Did economists fail to predict the coming financial crisis as Paul Krugman controversially argued? Or was the problem that the research existed — but there wasn’t a way to communicate it to those in power? Joshua Gans takes a look at economic soul searching.
Risk models were cactus, not junk securities
The real sub-prime failure was the quants’ mathematical models of risk that suggested the arcane stuff was safe.
The invisible hand of power: how the Federal Reserve keeps economists silent
The US Federal Reserve’s network of influential and powerful scholars, economists and consultants has the country’s economists too scared to make any real criticisms of the central bank, a Huffington Post investigation has found.
Economist death match: Krugman vs. Ferguson
Economists Paul Krugman and Niall Ferguson are apparently “at war” over how to save the world’s economy, but their spat has descended into petty name-calling and an unnecessarily lengthy debate over the ethnicity of a cartoon cat.
Tackling obesity with economics
Want to solve the obesity epidemic? Instead of relying on the notoriously unscientific diet industry, maybe it’s time to give economists a shot, says Andrew Leigh.
Cage match 2: Steve Keen weighs in on house prices
Economist Steve Keen weighs-in on yesterday’s housing-price cage match, defending a “historical analogy” he made suggesting house prices might fall.
Political snippets: Economists answer a royal question
Economists in Britain defend the honour of their profession to Her Majesty, get ready for a battle between the Adelaide Hilton’s Grange Dining Room and food writer John Lethlean, and more meaty chunks of news from Richard Farmer.
Gen X Reserve Banker: we’re “screwed” by Baby Boomers and Gen Y
Gen X Reserve Banker Guy Debelle calls his fellow Xers “that generation which is unfortunately screwed” by both Baby Boomers (whose debt they’re paying), and Gen Y (who’ll cut their pensions).
