The front page of this morning’s New York Times carried an obituary for Dr. Frances Oldham Kelsey. The name wasn’t familiar to me, but I knew the story for which she was famous: blocking the approval of thalidomide for use in the United States. As the Times points out, by September 1960, “The drug had already been sold to pregnant women in Europe for morning sickness, and the application seemed … [Read more...]
Secular stagnation: What is it? Should we care?
Why is the economy growing so slowly? Is this a temporary phenomenon or a new normal? Chris Farrell and Steve Cecchetti had a nice discussion about these questions this morning on Minnesota Public Radio (MPR). Larry Summers first applied the term "secular stagnation" to these questions and there's been much debate about the idea ever since. (VoxEU published an e-book on the subject that is … [Read more...]
Insights from current economic research
Every Monday I watch for an e-mail with the subject line “The Latest NBER Research.” Inside there are links to new working papers from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) across all of the topics economists analyze. I always learn something interesting, especially with regard to real-world policy making. I’ve often wondered, why doesn’t someone summarize the cool stuff in these … [Read more...]