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The British statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke gave a “Speech on Conciliation with the Colonies” on March 25, 1775. He sought to explain why those pesky Americans were so strident and obsessive about their love of freedom and liberty. He said: “In this character of the Americans, a love of freedom is the predominating featureContinue reading “Edmund Burke: Six Reasons Why Americans Love Liberty”

Black-white gaps in income and in wealth have been fearsomely persistent over time. Here, I’ll mention some main themes from two studies, one focused on income differentials and one on wealth differentials.   On the topic of income differentials, Raj Chetty, Nathaniel Hendren, Maggie R. Jones, and Sonya R. Porter have written a research paper, “RaceContinue reading “Black-White Income and Wealth Gaps”

There’s one event that very often turns college enrollment into a poor financial decision with a negative payoff: not completing a degree. Then that happens, the student has spent both money and some years of time in a program that not only offers little financial payoff, but may also leave them saddled with student loansContinue reading “The Problem of College Completion Rates”

Homeownership rates in the US rebounded a bit in 2017, but remain near historically low levels. This is a source of concern for a number of reasons: homeownership is a savings vehicle that has worked for a number of households over time; being a homeowner encourages people to look after and contribute to their neighborhoods;Continue reading “US Homeownership Patterns”

Renee Haltom interviews Jes�s Fern�ndez-Villaverde in the most recent issue of Econ Focus, published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond (First Quarter 2018, pp. 22-27). As noted in the introduction before the interview, Fern�ndez-Villaverde is best known for work in building and solving formal macroeconomic models. However, “[i]n recent years, he has studied how politicsContinue reading “Interview with Jes�s Fern�ndez-Villaverde: Macro Topics”

The debate over the extent to which uninsured medical costs lead to personal bankruptcies is interesting for a couple of reasons. In terms of social science, it shows the difference between a naive reading of survey data and an actual research design. In terms of politics, it shows the allure of a more glamorous andContinue reading “The Medical Bankruptcies Debate”

The utilititarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham wrote of a “sacred truth � that the greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation.” The World Happiness Report 2018   is edited by John F. Helliwell, Richard Layard and Jeffrey D. Sachs, with chapters by various scholars. It takes insights about happiness seriously. In thisContinue reading “Happiness Around the World–And For Migrants”

Overall world debt in the last year or two is at its all-time high as a share of world GDP. But there is common pattern that as countries grow and their financial markets develop, their level of debt also tends to rise. Perhaps even more interesting is that the importance of the components of that debtContinue reading “The Dramatic Expansion of Corporate Bonds”

Douglas Clement has an “Interview with Marianne Bertrand,” subtitled “University of Chicago economist on the glass ceiling, implications of growing inequality and the trouble with boys” (The Region, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, online June 19, 2018).  Here are a few of the comments that especially stuck with me, but there’s more at the interview. TheContinue reading “Interview with Marianne Bertrand: Inequality, Gender Norms, Skills”

Richard Thaler won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2017  “for his contributions to behavioural economics.  He tells the story of how the field evolved from early musings through small-scale tests and more comprehensive theories and all the way to public policy in his Nobel prize lecture, “From Cashews to Nudges: The Evolution of Behavioral Economics.”Continue reading “Thaler on the Evolution of Behavioral Economics”