Clark Center Forum

 

In today’s New York Times International edition, Francesco Giavazzi and Anil Kashyap give guidance for how the European Central Bank needs to organize its upcoming bank stress tests if they are to succeed. “Europe is lurching toward an overhaul of its banking system. Later this year, the European Central Bank is set to assume the […] 

This week’s IGM Economic Experts Panel statement:

Future innovations worldwide will not be transformational enough to promote sustained per-capita economic growth rates in the U.S. and western Europe over the next century as high as those over the past 150 years. 

This week’s IGM Economic Experts Panel statement:

Informed postmortems of Ben Bernanke’s Fed chairmanship will judge favorably the Fed's creative and aggressive policy initiatives from autumn 2008 through early 2009. 

This week’s IGM Economic Experts Panel statement:

Using surge pricing to allocate transportation services — such as Uber does with its cars — raises consumer welfare through various potential channels, such as increasing the supply of those services, allocating them to people who desire them the most, and reducing search and queuing costs. 

Our musical tribute to Ben Bernanke, shared with him at the American Economic Association (AEA) Annual Meeting today, January 3rd, 2014. View video> Kashyap’s comments> 

The University of Chicago asks a group of academics about gift-giving and the holidays. Their responses will melt your heart. Cash is the most efficient gift, according to economists. Cash is also a terrible gift, according to economists. By guaranteeing that the recipient can buy exactly what she wants, you guarantee that the recipient will […] 

This week’s IGM Economic Experts Panel statement:

Giving specific presents as holiday gifts is inefficient, because recipients could satisfy their preferences much better with cash. 

This week’s IGM Economic Experts Panel statements:

A: The average US citizen would be better off if a larger number of low-skilled foreign workers were legally allowed to enter the US each year.

B: Unless they were compensated by others, many low-skilled American workers would be substantially worse off if a larger number of low-skilled foreign workers were legally allowed to enter the US each year. 

This week’s IGM Economic Experts Panel statement:

In general, absent any inside information, an equity investor can expect to do better by choosing a well-diversified, low-cost index fund than by picking a few stocks.