Economists

That's the view of a small group of heterodox economists – self-described the “deficit owls” – who say that the deficit does not pose a problem, and that the proposals to rein in the deficit represent the real threat to the nation's well- being. Deficit spending, they say, has given the government extra money to ...

A group of economists, convened by the National Taxpayers Union, are taking the parallels between Smoot-Hawley and Trump's tariffs even further. They are recycling a letter signed by 1,028 economists, sent to president Herbert Hoover in 1930 to protest the original bill, to warn the current White House ...

Economists broadly agree that Arizona's economy is growing and likely will pick up steam, but some people doubt the growth will be enough to fund the ambitious teacher pay raises Gov. Doug Ducey pitched amid pending walkouts at public schools. The governor on April 12 announced a plan to alter his ...

The Lamppost Theory dominates economic policy-making: Politicians use economics the way a drunk uses a lamppost — for support, not for illumination. Perhaps the best illustration of the theory is the headlines these days: the starkly different economic versus political attitudes toward international trade.

Politicians routinely ignore the best advice of economists. It's politically naive, they complain, or too complicated, or simply sounds wrong. And since politicians, not economists, make the decisions, our economic policies reflect what I call the Lamppost Theory: Politicians use economics the way a drunk uses ...

Downturns come often enough to be a serious irritant, but not often enough to give economists sufficient data for rigorous statistical analysis. It is hard to distinguish between short-run swings and structural economic changes resulting from demography or technology. Most classical economists were ...

The study by Marina Della Giusta and colleagues from the UK-based University of Reading shows that the most popular economists tend to tweet less, mention less, and mention fewer users than a comparable group of experts in the sciences. Giusta and her co-authors also show that economists use less ...

Economists say that the chances of an interest rate cut have increased and expect a drop of 25 basis points. This would lower the repo rate to 6.5% and the prime lending rate to 10%. Citi Bank's South Africa economist Gina Schoeman says that since the last MPC meeting, the country's economic prospects ...

Increasing milk production in the U.S. and Europe, relatively high stocks of U.S. dairy products and trade uncertainties are a few, according to economists at the University of Wisconsin. U.S. milk production was up 1.8 percent in January and February year over year, and that's a lot of milk, Bob Cropp, ...

Most economists, of various political leanings, are a lot less worried about the trade gap, which totaled $568 billion last year. "I don't think it's a problem for the U.S. to have a large trade deficit," says Veronique de Rugy, senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. The United ...

Scotland's growth is being held back by the clutter of initiatives coming from the Scottish government, according to a leading economic think tank. The Fraser of Allander Institute (FAI) has criticised the number of different strategies and advisory groups looking at Scotland's economy. It has warned they can ...

When it comes to fiscal policy, it might seem like politicians and economists would work in lockstep. But in many cases, the politics come first — and that tends to lead to policies with not-so-sound data backing it up. And according to Princeton economics professor Alan Blinder, the fault might lie with ...

Yes, but: Economists are ringing alarm bells that a recession may soon follow. Mark Zandi, Moody's Analytics' chief economist, told Bloomberg that 2020 is a "real inflection point." In the short-term, some economic forecasters believe the American economy will experience historically low unemployment and rising wages, ...

Business economists are confident about growth in the U.S. economy this year, according to a new survey. The National Association for Business Economics projected the economy will expand 2.9 percent in 2018, compared to a 2.5 percent projection in December. “NABE Outlook panelists are more ...

Two major Australian financial institutions claim it is time for an uncomfortable economic reality check. Key points: Economists say wage growth and better working conditions are unlikely to improve; Underutilisation rate (number of Australians who want more work) is too high at 14 per cent; Nearly 20 per ...

Facebook's (FB) latest troubles with regulators may be the canary in the coal mine warning of the looming collapse of the tech bubble, say economists from BNP Paribas. The company is facing, among other issues, a lawsuit filed on behalf of 50 million users, Congressional hearings, a probe by the Federal ...

Retail sales growth in January came to 3.1% from the same month in 2016 — half the economists' consensus of 6.2%. In current prices, retail sales fell to R78bn in January from R117.5bn in December, Statistics SA reported on Thursday. Retail sales in January tend to drop sharply from the annual ...

MANILA, Philippines – Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana briefed some of the country's top economists on the national security situation on Wednesday night, March 21. Lorenzana gave an off-the-record security briefing to members of the Foundation for Economic Freedom, a group of economists chaired ...

Chinese economist Yi Gang has become well known in international economic circles in recent years as deputy governor of the People's Bank of China. Hence it was reassuring that he was promoted to replace retiring Governor Zhou Xiaochuan. Yi's promotion is something of a surprise because he has ...

Economists, by contrast, can't even agree on why the last financial crisis happened, let alone what we should do to prevent the next one – and that's despite the fact that we wrote the rules of finance ourselves. Real sciences make progress. Economics, on the other hand, seems to go round and round in ...

While most agree that the risk of four hikes in 2018 is building, economists generally think the Fed will steer the dot-plot higher only gradually. “The committee, in our view, is more likely to move to four hikes this year at the June meeting, when incoming data affirm that fiscal stimulus is having the anticipated ...

AN UNEXPECTED decline in Singapore's exports last month surprised economists who were hoping for another month of growth amid the ongoing global economic upturn. But it is too soon to tell if the contraction points to slowing export momentum, given that the timing of the Chinese New Year - which ...

In a new study, economist Mickey Levy included a chart illustrating the inaccuracies of Federal Reserve economic forecasts. Levy is with Berenberg Capital Markets and a member of the Shadow Open Market Committee. The chart shows the Fed's year-ahead projections for real GDP (gray bars) and actual ...

President Donald Trump's White House has sparred with porn stars, actors, and even the president's own Saturday Night Live impersonator. Now, the president is fighting with economists from his own alma mater. Earlier this month, the team of economists behind the Penn Wharton Budget Model became ...

California's job growth appeared to slow a year ago but things have picked up since then and economists insist there's no recession on the horizon. Yet economists say the Trump administration's trade and immigration policies could at some point trip up California's economy. A recent report from the state ...

In response to such assumptions or accusations, some of the world's leading economists are attempting to explain #WhatEconomistsReallyDo. This is an important effort. But I think this discussion is also a great opportunity for economists to reflect on their own prejudices, in particular those regarding other ...

Wyoming will have to wait a few weeks to see how many jobs have returned due to increased oil and gas activities, according to state economists. In a snapshot of the state economy, the mining sector continued to show marginal improvements through February, with more rigs out in the oil and gas fields ...

Eliminating gender inequality in the U.S. labor force is a key to unlocking higher and long-lasting economic growth, if only policy makers would take notice, according to economists Beth Ann Bovino and Jason Gold at S&P Global. In a report released to commemorate the International Women's Day on ...

Treasurer Scott Morrison will need to quickly dissect the latest economic growth results to find the good news, with economists predicting an overall sluggish outcome. Wednesday's national accounts - a comprehensive guide to the wellbeing of the economy - are expected to show the economy grew by just ...

South Florida ranks among the least likely metro areas to land Amazon's second headquarters, according to a Zillow survey. Zillow asked 85 housing economists and professors to predict the winner of Amazon's HQ2. Atlanta and Northern Virginia tied as the most likely suspects, according to the survey.

Uber, Airtasker and other parts of the so called gig economy are driving down wages and will keep doing it until the government intervenes, nine of Australia's most eminent economists have warned. The responses in the latest poll conducted by Monash University and the Economic Society of Australia ...

Now we have the opinion of the nation's economists, thanks to a regular survey by the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. According to results published Friday, the survey's panel of 43 economists (conservatives, progressives, and almost every shade in between) is nearly unanimous about ...

Most economists do not see the trade gap as money “lost” to other countries, nor do they worry about trade deficits to a large degree. That's because trade imbalances are affected by a host of macroeconomic factors, including the relative growth rates of countries, the value of their currencies, and their ...

A research paper entitled How the Economics Profession Got it Wrong on Brexit, sent out by the campaign group Briefings for Brexit, found that the decision to take the UK out of the EU will have only a small negative impact on economic growth over the coming years, and is likely to have a minor impact on ...

No longer such a big Trump fan? An appalled Larry Kudlow contemplates the damage done to the markets on Thursday by the president's tariff announcement. It got worse that day, with the Dow falling more than 420 points. (CNBC). Shed a tear for Lawrence Kudlow, Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore.

It was March 2007, China's legislature was wrapping up its annual session and Premier Wen Jiabao was about to speak at the closing press conference. The economy was seeing double-digit growth, a consumer class was rising and Beijing was soon hosting its first Olympics — there was every reason for ...