In a commentary posted on April 1, former Council of Economic Advisers chairman Joseph Stiglitz expressed deep concern about growing economic equality in the U.S.
Also on April 1, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York posted a review of a famous financial “bubble”: the Tulipomania in Holland in the 1600s.
A March 31 Gallup poll asked people for ideas on creating jobs. The most popular suggestion was to stop sending jobs overseas.
On March 30, the House Ways and Means committee held a hearing on impediments to job creation. None of the Republican witnesses directly addressed the jobs issue and all asserted that cutting government spending would stimulate growth.
Also on March 30, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta economist John Robertson posted a commentary discussing the downward trend in the number of business establishments in the U.S. and the striking decline in the number of employees per establishment over the last decade.
And in a March 30 commentary, Princeton University economist Alan Krueger says he thinks the economy may still have an unemployment problem even after economic growth returns to normal.
On March 28, the Bank of England published a working paper on the credit ratings industry.
In a March 28 blog post, economist Michael Mandel argued that the published rate of productivity growth from 2007 to 2009 is much too high due to mismeasurement. On March 29, George Mason University economist Tyler Cowen commented. University of North Carolina economist Karl Smith also commented that same day.
On March 24, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta published a working paper which finds that personal computers have increased the material well being of people by 2 to 3 percent of consumption.
Bruce Bartlett is an American historian and columnist who focuses on the intersection between politics and economics. He blogs daily and writes a weekly column at The Fiscal Times. Bartlett has written for Forbes Magazine and Creators Syndicate, and his work is informed by many years in government, including as a senior policy analyst in the Reagan White House. He is the author of seven books including the New York Times best-seller, Imposter: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy (Doubleday, 2006).
