[enlarge]Let's see, should I sit in my hotel room and blog to make up for not writing much over the last few days, or go wander around Munich. See ya.

What’s Wrong with Modern Macroeconomics? CESifo Conference Centre, Munich 6 - 7 November 2009 Programme Friday, 6 November 2009 Session I Chair: Gerhard Illing 09:00 – 09:50 The Roles of Ideology, Institutions, Politics and Economic Knowledge in Forecasting Macroeconomic Developments...

Martin Feldstein joins those arguing that China must let the value of the renminbi rise: Why the renminbi has to rise to address imbalances, by Martin Feldstein, Commentary, Financial Times: Global leaders have agreed reducing global imbalances is a priority....

Daniel Little looks at different approaches to "understanding society": Demystifying social knowledge, by Daniel Little: There seem to be a couple of fundamentally different approaches to the problem of "understanding society." I'm not entirely happy with these labels, but perhaps...

Good news for those worried about inflation: A new measure of inflation expectations indicates that "longer-term inflation expectations remain near historic lows, in the neighborhood of 2 percent": A New Approach to Gauging Inflation Expectations, by Joseph G. Haubrich, Economic...

Yet Another Budget Commission? - Forbes.com Why not a WPA? - Paul Krugman Nominally misguided (wonkish) - Paul Krugman 9.5% productivity growth. How unusual? - Antonio Fatas What is systemic risk, anyway? - macroblog

The failure to give the economy the fiscal stimulus it needs may be costly Democrats: Obama Faces His Anzio, by Paul Krugman, Commentary, NY Times: Remember those Republican boasts that they would turn health care into President Obama’s Waterloo? Well,...

Kenneth Rogoff doesn't expect a "sustained sharp" worldwide recovery: The Great Contraction of 2008-2009, by Kenneth Rogoff, Commentary, Project Syndicate: A popular view among economic forecasters and market bulls is that “the deeper the recession, the quicker the recovery.” They...

Globalization from a different perspective: A modern world-system?, by Daniel Little: Immanuel Wallerstein created a huge stir in the 1970s with the publication of The Modern World-System: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century...

Has internet search technology achieved its promise of frictionless commerce? Search Technologies and Retail Competition, by Glenn Ellison,* NBER Reporter: When the Internet first came into wide consumer use, one heard a lot about the promise of “frictionless commerce.” New...

How to fill the gaps left by dollar decline - FT.com Time for a debate on immigration - Martin Wolf Greenhouse Gas Emissions Are Down in the Recession. So, Then, Is “Green GDP” Up? - Jeff Frankel Winners and Losers...

Eugene Fama defends the efficient market hypothesis against the charge that it helped to cause the financial crisis. He says the EMH couldn't have caused the crisis because hardly anyone believes it (of course he still says it's true "for...

The travel references are referring to this. (My first trip to Germany - I set up a bunch of posts before I left - through Sunday just in case - but will add what I can.)

James Surowiecki looks at the latest price war: Priced to Go, by James Surowiecki: In the spring of 1992, the airline industry ... found itself in the middle of a full-fledged price war. In a matter of months, the airlines...

One more time, is CEO pay justified?: Banker Bonus Rain, by Nancy Folbre, Economix: ...Wall Street firms have always been famous for their generous bonuses to managers and traders — their so-called “rainmakers.” The graph ... shows that employee bonuses...

Why is there so much controversy over short selling?: Selling stocks short: Ever controversial, by Gerald P. Dwyer, Macroblog: Selling securities short has been a controversial practice as long as financial markets have existed, and the recent financial crisis brought...

The economics of open-air markets - voxeu.org With tax break, a big carbon footprint - Glaeser The GOP should dump the neocons -- latimes.com Increasing returns in a comparative advantage world - Paul Krugman David Leonhardt, Wilkins Micawber and the...

Brad DeLong says government action during the crisis may have prevented another Great Depression: Slouching Toward Sanity, by J. Bradford DeLong, Commentary, Project Syndicate: In America today ... the Republican congressional caucus is just saying no: no to short-term deficit...

Political philosopher Michael Sandel: ...Citizens generally who looked at this - at the bailouts and the bonuses and have been outraged - they believe there is a difference between greed and self-interest. But here's no way of capturing that intuition...

Do tax cuts spur economic growth? Tax Cuts and Recoveries, by David Leonhardt, Economix: One big question about the 1983-84 economic boom (a boom I mention in my Wednesday column) is: Was it the tax cut? Ronald Reagan signed a...

NY Times Leonhardt: The Optimistic View - Calculated Risk Looking Past a Cloud of Pessimism as a Recession Ends - NYTimes.com Has there really been a housing boom? - Bluematter Why Nobel Economics Laureates chose economics? - Mostly Economics On...

Thomas Palley says China's currency policy must change: Death by Renminbi, by Thomas I. Palley, Commentary, Project Syndicate: Over the last several weeks, the dollar's depreciation against the euro and yen has grabbed global attention. In a normal world, the...

Barry Ritholtz: Stiglitz: U.S. Paying for Not Nationalizing Banks, by Barry Ritholtz: “We have this very strange situation today in America where we have given banks hundreds of billions of dollars and the president has to beg the banks to...

Mark Zandi joins those calling for the government to do something to help to stimulate employment: Help Small Businesses Hire Again, by Mark Zandi, Commentary, NY Times: ...It is no accident that the recession ended just as Washington’s fiscal stimulus...

Help Small Businesses Hire Again - NYTimes.com Employment under Differing Econometric Specifications - Econbrowser Inflation Expectations and the Risk of Deflation - FRBSF Economic Letter CRE and the CRA - Paul Krugman A fruitless clash of economic opposites - Edmund...

Following up on the post below this one on poverty, I hope we realize the importance of social insurance for children. Our social insurance programs for children are not as good as they should be, but what we do have...

Five myths about social mobility from Isabel V. Sawhill and Ron Haskins of Brookings: Five Myths About Our Land of Opportunity, by Isabel V. Sawhill and Ron Haskins, Brookings: Americans have always believed that their country is unique in providing...

We need to do more to stimulate employment and the economy, but the political climate is unfavorable: Too Little of a Good Thing, by Paul Krugman, Commentary, NY Times: The good news is that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,...

Get Americans Back to Work - Robert Reich Assurance game - UnderstandingSociety The trade collapse: The role of product quality - voxeu.org Misunderstanding Randomness - Aid Watch The Amazon Wal-Mart price war - The New Yorker What The Woman Lived...

I have something at Room for Debate (written last Friday) on the the extent to which the recent improvement in GDP growth can be attributed to the stimulus package, and whether more stimulus is needed ("Did the Stimulus Work?"). The...

Daniel Klein, Professor of Economics at George Mason University and Editor of Econ Journal Watch, asks: What probably would you put on the truth of a broad hypothesis of deliberate centrality? Here's more background on the question: In a Word...

Can Citigroup Carry Its Own Weight? - NYTimes.com Did the Lehman Failure Do It? - Arnold Kling How Health Plan Turns Supply-Side Ideas Upside Down - Mankiw - NYTimes.com Why do central banks have assets? - Worthwhile Canadian Initiative Democrats...