Author: DailyWestern

There are different ways to think about the economy. Economic reality will routinely present any policymaker with challenges that require actions in the short term: crises that motivate cyclical responses, for instance. But it is notable how the muscle memory of many European economic policymakers has been re-programmed over the last two decades: policies for long-run economic growth no longer come naturally to them. Even when presented with a long-term problem, most leaders now go for a short-term response. Yes, the rhetoric is of course there: Ursula von der Leyen and every other European leader want all the other stuff…

by Calculated Risk on 6/05/2025 02:59:00 PM The U.S. hotel industry reported negative year-over-year comparisons, according to CoStar’s latest data through 31 May. …25-31 May 2025 (percentage change from comparable week in 2024):• Occupancy: 61.0% (-1.6%)• Average daily rate (ADR): US$151.48 (-0.3%)• Revenue per available room (RevPAR): US$92.45 (-1.9%) emphasis addedThe following graph shows the seasonal pattern for the hotel occupancy rate using the four-week average.Click on graph for larger image.The red line is for 2025, blue is the median, and dashed light blue is for 2024.  Dashed purple is for 2018, the record year for hotel occupancy. The 4-week average…

Fittingly enough after writing an extended review about a book about the pitfalls of rules that don’t allow for exceptions, I came across a recent news story about a recall issued for the recent ID.Buzz electric van from Volkswagen. Vehicles can be recalled for all kinds of reasons, of course. A vehicle I bought a couple of years ago recently had a recall issued to address a software bug that could make cruise control unexpectedly accelerate to dangerous levels in rare cases. This was clearly a good basis for a recall and for a fix to be issued. So, what…

WEI continues to decline. Figure 1: Weekly Economic Index (blue), and Baumeister, Leiva-Leon, Sims Weekly Economic Conditions Index plus 2% (tan), both annualized %. Source: NY Fed via FRED, Baumeyster et al. I think that the tumult due to the on-off-on again tariffs provides a cautionary note about using past correlations to infer current conditions. Note that the Weekly Economic Index (Lewis-Mertens-Stock) jumps around “Liberation Day”; did this represent actual higher production sales? I think partly no, insofar as the weight on railroad freight is 0.3, and so part of the movement in WEI is due to front-loading imports and…

About Me Name: Greg Mankiw Location: United States I am the Robert M. Beren Professor of Economics at Harvard University. I use this blog to keep in touch with my current and former students. Teachers and students at other schools, as well as others interested in economic issues, are welcome to use this resource. View my complete profile

Millions would lose Medicaid coverage. Millions would be left without health insurance. Signing up for health plans on the Affordable Care Act marketplaces would be harder and more expensive. President Donald Trump’s domestic policy legislation, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that cleared the House in May and now moves to the Senate, could also be called Obamacare Repeal Lite, its critics say. In addition to causing millions of Americans to lose their coverage under Medicaid, the health program for low-income and disabled people, the measure includes the most substantial rollback of the ACA since Trump’s Republican allies tried to…

Few Democratic lawmakers have been as publicly vocal in their criticism of the Trump administration’s first six months as Ro Khanna. The congressman representing California’s 17th District—which includes much of Silicon Valley, including tech giants Apple and Nvidia—has been hosting town halls with voters in Republican districts and rallies around the country at a cadence that has already started fueling speculation of a 2028 presidential run.  He’s also publicly feuded with former Silicon Valley darling and his onetime friend Elon Musk, who aligned himself closely with U.S. President Donald Trump for much of the last two years and recently left…