Take a look at this Washington Post article by Jonathan Weisman, which the big blogs have justly pounced on. The initial framing of Weisman’s article is just way, way off. Social security in no way…

That is a phrase from the Washington Post’s oped on Social Security.I think it goes a bit too far, so I want to dispute the "undisputed unaffordability" of Social Security.I do not dispute that there…

If the US wanted to fund its current account deficit by selling equity, it would need to sell off the equivalent of 40 Unocal’s a year -- whether Chinese state firms, European firms, Japanese insurer…

OK, not a true Wall Street Journal style Econoblog.   But Sebastian Mallaby of the Washington Post noted my response to his October 31st column, and has agreed to allow me to publish our email exchan…

Sebastian Mallaby had an interesting column in last Monday's Washington Post.   Mallaby highlights what he calls the biggest economic argument of the day -- namely, what role does the government …

It is pretty obvious that the US October trade deficit was quite large, even by recent American standards.   Taking into account expected valuation changes (US assets in Europe are currently on the b…

Some would say it never really went away.Emerging market economies did not stop accumulating reserves in 2005.  Best I can tell, adjusting for valuation effects and including all the foreign assets o…

With the 2004 paper on US external sustainability, there is at least some possibility that Nouriel's and my dire forecasts will prove to be right.   The core argument of that paper is that the co…