Category Archives: Economics

Why the 3,000-mile salad may be here to stay

Posted on August 22, 2008 by NC

Lately, I seem to be reading a lot about the inevitable demise of the “3,000-mile salad”. The logic goes like this. Because of rising fuel prices, it will no longer be economical to truck California produce to the East Coast, … Continue reading →

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House prices by tier

Posted on July 14, 2008 by NC

CalculatedRisk has produced this chart based on data from Standard & Poors: Interestingly, the greatest price run-ups (and, more recently, the most dramatic price falls) are observed in the low-price segment of Los Angeles housing market.

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An afterword to the housing bust

Posted on July 2, 2008 by NC

Source: Ben Inker, “Managing Portfolios in a World of Multiple Bubbles“, CFA Institute Conference Proceedings Quarterly, June 2008, Vol. 25, No. 2: 22-32

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Paul Krugman on oil speculation (or lack thereof)

Posted on June 25, 2008 by NC

Speculation and Signatures Paul Krugman June 24, 2008 (Link to the original) One of the problems in the debate over the role of speculation in oil prices is that hardly anyone, even among the economists, is writing down models. As … Continue reading →

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Impact of oil prices on trade

Posted on June 21, 2008 by NC

Paul Krugman writes: I’ve written before about the CIBC study (pdf — second item) suggesting that high oil prices, by making shipping much more expensive, may reverse a significant amount of globalization. A new NBER working paper by Koopman et … Continue reading →

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On trade and industrialization

Posted on June 13, 2008 by NC

A questionf from Yahoo! Answers: Does trade lead to industrialization? Not necessarily. Trade leads to specialization; countries export what they have comparative advantage in and import what they have comparative disadvantage in. So it’s entirely possible for a trading nation … Continue reading →

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John Irons’ congressional testimony

Posted on June 9, 2008 by NC

John Irons recently gave his testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives, Small Business Committee, on reforming the tax code to assist small businesses.

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The gold bug bites again

Posted on May 22, 2008 by NC

A question from Yahoo! Answers: I have been doing a lot of research on the gold standard. Since hearing Ron Paul talk about it, I have been a supporter of it. Even though this is the case, I still have … Continue reading →

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Paul Krugman reminds me of me

Posted on May 17, 2008 by NC

Paul Krugman writes: The Oil Drum has this nice picture from the Sydney Morning Herald about the percentage of income Sydney area residents will spend on gas — er, petrol — if the price rises substantially. The outer suburbs are, … Continue reading →