Why Companies Won't Hire
In my column for CNN, I discuss some of the reasons why very few companies are currently hiring: Even if we avoid a second recessionary dip, we're stuck on a very, very disappointing path. Call it the 1936 parallel. From 1933 to 1936, the U.S. economy grew strongly, almost 10% a year. When …Obama's Self-Destructive Optimism
A simple theory of why Obama didn't come out fighting in 2009: he expected an economic turnaround in four years. My co-bloggers John Sides and Josh Tucker responded yesterday to a recent newspaper article in which psychologist Drew Westen argues that Barack Obama made a mistake by making …
What the Voters Want
Do Americans want more money from Big Government? Mickey Kaus insists no , citing a column by Michael Barone, who in turn relies on research by Stanley Greenberg . But as the evidence passes from Greenberg to Barone to Kaus, a fascinating game of broken-telephone is played. Greenberg …
Canada's Uneasy Quiet
My column in today's National Post expresses worry whether Canada's relative prosperity can continue to survive global economic turbulence: Canada increased its exports by $26.7-billion in 2010 over 2009. Almost 80% of that increase was driven by sales of automotive products into the U.S. …My Life at the Bottom of the Food Chain
I have a friend who has recently graduated from the University of Toronto with a B.A. in History. I've been living with him this past summer, and he has been unemployed for most of it. About a month ago, he came home happy. He had found a job at an upscale restaurant in the city. After a bit of …
Another Conservative Economist Goes Rogue
Carmen Reinhart is the co-author with Kenneth Rogoff of the immensely important history of financial crises, This Time It's Different . (Read it!) She's married to AEI Senior Fellow Vince Reinhart, the former senior Fed official cited in this space yesterday . If the words "free-market …
Yes, Obama is to Blame
David Frum has challenged conservatives to identify which of President Obama’s policies have prolonged and worsened the recession. David focuses on what has happened, or not happened, without considering that people in the real economy (beyond the federal government and Washington punditry) …
Less Politics, More Economics
Over the past few days, I've written on this site about the inadequacy of conservative thinking about the economic crisis that has beset the United States and the world. I've argued in particular that conservatives often overstate President Obama's culpability for the severity of the …
Is it 1937 Again?
Ezra Klein asks a good question : Where will the recovery come from? The problem is that no one has an answer. And as one hopeful hypothesis after another is dashed, the markets are beginning to panic. It won’t come from the United States. Our recovery has slowed, and updates to the …