Category Archives: Uncategorized

When it comes to peering ahead into the autonomous vehicle future, some crystal balls are better than others. I recommend the recent report written for a group called SAFE by Charles Carson, Erica Groshen, Susan Helper, John Paul MacDuffie, W. David Montgomery,  and Richard Mudge, America�s Workforce and the Self-Driving Future Realizing Productivity Gains andContinue reading “Autonomous Vehicles: Here’s One Crystal Ball”

When the G-7 gatherings originated in the 1970s, the included only finance ministers who typically met with little notice or publicity. They were working meetings. But in the 1980s, they became public events with top government leaders present. As the Council of Foreign Relations has noted, it “The G-7 serves as a forum for highlyContinue reading “G-7, G7+, G20”

Bangladesh has over 160 million people, which makes it the eighth most populous country in the world (just behind Pakistan and Nigeria, just ahead of Russia, Mexico, and Japan). I can’t claim that I’ve been paying close attention to its economy, but I was nonetheless started to see that Bangladesh has shifted (in the WorldContinue reading “Bangladesh Reaches Middle Income Status”

When market forces of supply and demand become involved with parts of the human body, the result can be a high degree of ambivalence.  In the US, for example, a system has evolved where the health care system primarily relies on volunteers for blood, but on paying those who donate blood plasma. Not coincidentally theContinue reading “Blood Plasma: US Paid Donors Dominate Global Market”

Intergenerational economic mobility has two aspects. “Absolute” mobility refers to the difference between one generation and the next. In an economy that grows substantially over time, absolute intergenerational mobility can be widespread–that is, most adults currently in the workforce would have higher income than did their parents at the same age. In contrast, “relative” mobilityContinue reading “US Intergenerational Mobility: An International Perspective”

QALY is an abbreviation for “quality-adjusted life-year.” It refers to gains in health, which combine a time dimension and an adjustment for quality of life. Peter J. Neumann and Joshua T. Cohen offer a quick overview in “QALYs in 2018�Advantages and Concerns,” a “Viewpoint” article written for the Journal of the American Medical Association (May 24,Continue reading “What’s the Value of a QALY?”

I suspect that I am like many economists, in that when I am asked about causes of inflation, I can almost see the words from a 1970 speech by Milton Friedman scrolling across my mind’s eye:  “Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon in the sense that it is and can be produced only byContinue reading “Why is Inflation Stuck so Low?”

One genuine accomplishment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 is that it reduced the share of Americans lacking health insurance. The National Center for Health Statistics has just published the most estimates for 2017 in “Health Insurance Coverage: Early Release of Estimates From the National Health Interview Survey, 2017,” Robin A.Continue reading “Share of US Adults Without Health Insurance”

A large share of the concern over China’s effect on the world economy starts with large Chinese trade surpluses. But in the first few months of 2018, China’s trade balance was negative(using the standard broad measure of the current account balance). That is, China had a trade deficit, not a trade surplus. For example, theContinue reading “China Now Has a Trade Deficit”

The rate of US teachers leaving for other jobs is on the rise. Adam Grundy of the US Census Bureau reports in a short note (May 2018):  “Teachers are leaving their jobs for other careers at a rate that has grown steadily every year in the past three years. … The majority of educators leavingContinue reading “The Rising Number of US Teachers Leaving for Other Fields”