Monetary Step Backward?

The New York Times has a good article about people in Utah pushing the state to adopt a law that would make it easier for people to buy things with gold and silver coins (based on the value of their weight). This is a Tea Party idea and it seems as if they want to push the idea of allowing states to coin their own money. There are a lot of ways to attack this, but it should be sufficient to say that the idea is a big step backwards and shows just how out of touch the Tea Partiers are with basic economics.

Christina Romer and the Strong Dollar

Christina Romer has a good piece in the New York Times Economic View column about the economics and politics of the dollar - basically, is a strong dollar a good thing? She does a good job explaining how currency markets set the value of the dollar and why having a strong dollar is more of a political issue than an economic concern. This is definitely a good article for students when discussing exchange rates.

Inflation on PBS Newshour

Paul Solman has a good piece on how inflation is measured and what inflation means in this video clip from the PBS Newshour.

Watch the full episode. See more PBS NewsHour.

Total Tax Burden Around the World

The Economist has a good chart comparing total taxation on wage income in different countries around the world. The chart not only has comparable taxes, but bases the taxes on average income in each country.

Four Workers for Every Job

Catherine Rampell covers this in the New York Times Economix blog. The improving job numbers makes everyone think that we are out of the woods in terms of the economy. How far we have to go to get back to normal is still a big number. An indication of this is the number of jobless workers for every employment vacancy (this does not get into whether or not the jobless workers are appropriately skilled for the vacant jobs). The new, and improved number is: four jobless workers for each opening - still not good odds. This graph show this and puts it into historic relevance.

Mankiw's Three Big Questions

Greg Mankiw in the New York Times Economic View column posts the three big questions that are currently perplexing him. They are:

1. How long will it take for the economy's wounds to heal?

2. How long will inflation expectations remain anchored?

3. How long will the bond market trust the United States?

These are good questions, and Mankiw's explanation of why the answers matter are good. If students can understand that these are the important questions to ask, they have learned a lot.

Role of Economics?

Edward Glaeser made his last post to the New York Times Economix blog today and it is worth the read. Glaeser's post explains his view of the purpose and limits of economics in an imperfect world - and what economists can add to the public debate on issues. It is a good short read into the philosophy of economics.