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.

Structural vs Cyclical Unemployment Debate

Christina Romer has a good column in the New York Times on the current debate over the rise in the natural rate of unemployment and whether the current unemployment problem is cyclical or structural. Romer does a good job showing that most of the current unemployment problem is the result of cyclical issues and not structural (mismatch of job creation to the skills of the unemployed or a "housing lock" of people tied to underwater mortgages). However, she also makes the case for why the government should be concerned with increases in structural unemployment.