Romney's first campaign ad

How high unemployment lingers

Increasingly long periods of high unemployment have followed the US recessions of the last two decades. From 1945 to the 1980s, employment rebounded roughly six months after GDP did. But in the wake of the 1990–91 and 2001 recessions, it recovered 15 and 39 months, respectively, after GDP had returned to the prerecession peak. At recent rates of job creation, the lag this time will be upward of 60 months. To learn more, read “The growing US jobs challenge” from the Mc Kinsey Quarterly.

The Rising Age Gap in Economic Well-Being

The older prosper relative to the young. Households headed by older adults have made dramatic gains relative to those headed by younger adults in their economic well-being over the past quarter of a century, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of a wide array of government data. Read the complete analysis here.

The debt challenge explained by a 10-year old

Busting the budget myths

Opinion writer Samuelson tries to banish the budget fictions of left and right. Read the complete article in The Washington Post here.

U.S. students’ scores go up, but racial gaps persist

U.S. students are making progress in reading and math, but the advances continue to be clouded by stubbornly high gaps between scores for white children and their black and Hispanic counterparts, according to a major new survey Tuesday from the National Center for Education Statistics. Read the complete article in The Washington Times (not the post this time!) here.

Pendulum swings on American oil independence

China will become increasingly dependent on energy imports compared to the US that is witnessing a new oil boom. Will energy become the determining factor in America's globalo economic dominance? Read the article in the Financial Times here.

No big bazooka

Do we need a United States of Europe, or get real about the straddle between the EU's political project and its economic feasability? A very interesting overview of Europe's response to the sovereign debt crisis by The Economist.

Are Law Schools and Bar Exams Necessary?

The old college battle between lawyers and economists is also being fought on the opinion pages of the New York Times. Interesting article!

Moving From the Post-Bubble, Post-Bust Economy to Renewed Growth and Competitiveness

Notwithstanding repeated attempts at monetary and fiscal stimulus since 2009, the United States remains mired in what is by far its worst economic slump since that of the 1930s. This paper lays out a three-pillared recovery plan that Daniel Alpert (Westwood Capital), Robert Hockett, (Professor of Law, Cornell University) and Nouriel Roubini (Professor of Economics, New York University) have designed. Read the executive summary and the full paper here.

Lightness of being

Americans are not as gloomy as economic data may suggest, The Economist writes.

World competitiveness in 2011 and beyond with Stéphane Garelli (IMD)

The long-term unemployed: The ravages of time

One might expect unemployment to carry less stigma after a deep recession—bad times, rather than personal shortcoming, being the more likely reason for a sacking. Yet a worker’s lifetime earnings are hurt more by a job loss in a weak economy. An experienced worker laid off when unemployment is at 9% faces a reduction in lifetime earnings nearly twice that of someone sacked when the rate is 5%: a loss of 20% on average, writes The Economist.

Health insurance costs on the rise in the US

Read the complete Kaiser Family Foundation report here, or the article in the NYTimes here.

Whose baby is Solyndra?

The GOP is more responsible than it’ll admit, writes Dana Milbank from The Washington Post.

The Financial Crisis and the Well-Being of Americans

The Great Recession was associated with large changes in income, wealth, and unemployment, changes that affected many lives. Since January 2008, the Gallup Organization has been collecting daily data on 1,000 Americans each day, with a range of self-reported well-being (SWB) questions. Angus Deaton uses these data to examine how the recession affected the emotional and evaluative lives of the population, as well as of subgroups within it. Read the abstract or read the complete NBER report here.

Why Is the U.S. Losing the Green Race?

The world will need 50 percent more energy by 2035. To compete in the world economy and generate manufacturing jobs in the coming decades, the United States needs to both nurture a green economy and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. Read the complete article on the New America Foundation website here.

America's economy: An uncertain outlook for Main Street, USA

Putting struggling small businesses back to work has been placed at the heart of the quest for growth - and for a president under pressure, the political stakes are as high as the economic ones, writes Financial Times correspondent Hal Weitzman in a long article.

Game theory in practice

Computing: Software that models human behaviour can make forecasts, outfox rivals and transform negotiations. Read the complete article in The Economist here.

How to Really Save the Economy?

Read Robert Barro's (Harvard and Hoover Institution) answer in The New York Times here.

Read Krugman's answer here.

China vs. America: Which Is the Developing Country?

From new roads to wise leadership, sound financials and five-year plans, Beijing has the winning approach, says Robert Herbold, the chief operating officer of Microsoft, in the WSJ.

America Reaches Its Demographic Tipping Point

Read the Brookings newsbrief here.

Event in Brussels: The making of America's debt crisis and the long recovery

The U.S. economy lost the first decade of the twenty-first century to an ill-conceived boom and subsequent bust. It is now in danger of losing another decade to the stagnation of an incomplete recovery. How did this happen? In their forthcoming book, which will be presented at this event, Jeffry A. Frieden (Harvard) and Menzie D. Chinn explain the political and economic roots of this crisis, as well as its long-term effects. They explore the political strategies behind the Bush administration’s policy of funding massive deficits with foreign borrowing. In addition, they show that the crisis was foreseen by many and was avoidable through appropriate policy measures. Finally, they examine the continuing impact of the huge U.S. public debt in the ongoing slow recovery from the recession.

Subscribe for this event in Brussels here.

Time for a double dip?

A lousy debt deal, rising fears of a recession, the danger of longer-term stagnation: America’s outlook is grim. Read the complete article in The Economist here.

Visualize the US debt

Visualize the US debt here.