One of my brightest students recently asked if Robert Mundell would be stripped of his 1999 Nobel Prize because of the problems stemming from Greece’s fiscal problems. It won’t happen, but the slow-motion train wreck unfolding in the euro zone…
Wise officials calculate risk as matter of course
Maybe I am overly critical, but a recent headline, “Budgeting for snow clearance is often based on calculated risk,” struck me as silly beyond belief. The article scolded Washington, D.C., for not having snow-removal capabilities equal to Chicago’s, and even…
Creating jobs is not as easy as some people think
Jobs, jobs, jobs! Everybody’s talking about creating jobs, especially in St. Paul and Washington. But few address the underlying question of exactly what government can do to create jobs, perhaps because the answer is discouraging. Whether they voted for Obama…
Fed walking the wire between recovery, inflation
The irony is rich, if unintended. For months, the Obama administration and many others have been urging banks to increase lending, especially to businesses. On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke outlined for Congress new methods to discourage lending by…