I’ve been swamped all week and thus unable to sit down and plot the economic data of the moment. I might get to that later, but until then, here’s a quick, informal assessment of current conditions. –The bottom line is that we’re slogging along at trend–about 2% of GDP–and probably will be for the near… Read more
Archive for the ‘Energy’ Category
The Role of Government
The President and Gov Romney gave dueling speeches in the swing state of Ohio yesterday, laying out broad economic themes, so it is incumbent on OTE to look under the hoods. Here’s what I’ve got. It is, of course, impossible for politics to be anything but deeply political right now. By that cryptic statement, I… Read more
North Dakota Rejects Supply-Side Silliness…Wins First OTE “State of the Month” Award!
We at OTE may bemoan the dysfunction here inside the DC beltway, but when good things happen elsewhere, we try to be all over it. As my CBPP colleague Michael Leachman points out here, the idea that you could eliminate your property tax and make up the lost revenue through the subsequent growth–the usual supply-side, trickle-down alchemy–was… Read more
Does Oil Upside Cancel Europe Downside?
So I go to get myself a cup of coffee and a colleague asks me, “In terms of the impact on the macroeconomy, will the boost from lower oil prices offset the contagion from European recession?” Lots of moving parts and unknowables, of course, but if the decline in oil prices sticks and Europe doesn’t… Read more
Four Charts
1) Gas has been getting cheaper. The figure shows that oil is down about $10/barrel in recent weeks and the average for a gallon of gas is down around 20 cents. That’s big and if it sticks, it puts more disposable income in people’s pockets (one cent off at the pump aggregates up to about… Read more