Monthly Archives: September 2012

Links to Macro Data

Posted on by

Data from Ireland Central Statistics Office

Irish Housing Statistics

National Account Data for EU Countries: AMECO Online

US National Accounts data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

US macro and financial data (and some international data) from the St. Louis Fed’s FRED. Good for charts.

IMF World Economic Outlook database

Cross-Country PPP-comparable data from the Penn World Table.

Jorda-Schularick-Taylor MacroHistory database. Covers 17 advanced economies since 1870

US financial data from the Federal Reserve Board.

The ECB’s Statistical Data Warehouse.

US stock market data from Robert Shiller.

Ken French‘s data on returns for various types of stock portfolios.

Data from the World Bank on health, development, finance and other things.

Another Step Toward A Federal Europe? Talks To Expand EU Budget Could Be Watershed Moment

Posted on by

Newspaper reports today suggest that greater moves towards an EU fiscal union, in the form of an expanded EU budget that could perhaps partially fund unemployment benefits in member states, are being considered.  This is a further sign that Europe is going through a period of historic change. Thoughts on the benefits and problems associated with these proposals are here.

Did Bill Clinton’s Budgets Really Destroy the American Economy?

Posted on by

I think the “sectoral balances” viewpoint of the macroeconomy, which emphasises that income equals spending, is hugely important for understanding what is going on in today’s global economy.  However, an article today by Joe Weisenthal that appeals to this framework to pin the blame for the global financial crisis on Bill Clinton, struck me as incorrect.  My response here.

Data Sources and Websites for International Money and Banking

Posted on by

Data Sources

Asset and Liabilities of US Banks. From the Federal Reserve.

Statistical Data Warehouse. From the ECB.

FRED. The St. Louis Fed. Very good for charts.

The EONIA rate (European Overnight Interest Average)

Volume of overnight unsecured lending in the Euro area.

The ECB’s Balance Sheet.

The Fed’s Balance Sheet (Factors Supplying Funds is Assets, Factors Absorbing Funds is Liabilities)

Selected Interest Rates from the Federal Reserve.

 

Economics Blogs That Sometimes Cover Issues Related to this Course

My blog.

FT Alphaville.  Detailed coverage of financial news stories.

Bruegel. Think-tank covering European economic policy issues.

Economist’s View. Academic Mark Thoma from Oregon offers views and links to articles on the US economy.

Calculated Risk. An excellent site for US economic news, with a particular focus on housing.

Paul Krugman. Thoughts on macro from a Nobel prize winner. Best accessed via Twitter or you’ll run into the New York Times’s 10 articles per month limit.

Econbrowser. US macroeconomic commentary from academics Menzie Chinn and Jim Hamilton.

Mainly Macro. A thoughtful UK-oriented blog from Simon-Wren Lewis of Oxford

Monetary Dialogue with the ECB. Not a blog but lots of papers by leading European economists on monetary policy issues.