South By North Strategies, Ltd.

Around The Dial – April 26, 2012

Economic policy reports, blog postings, and media stories of interest:

• Jared Bernstein rounds up evidence on raising taxes on high income households.
• The New Yorker asks if there should be more walls between Stanford and Silicon Valley.
• Working Economics mulls the economic impacts of a federal budget sequestration.
• Paul Krugman checks in on the (lack of) progress in internal devaluation.
• Martin Wolf looks at the dangerous state of European banks.

Manufacturing In The South Atlantic: April 2012

From the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond’s latest survey of manufacturing activity in the South Atlantic (District of Columbia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia):

Manufacturing activity in the central Atlantic region advanced somewhat faster in April following slightly slower growth in March, according to the Richmond Fed’s latest survey. A significant increase in the shipments component pushed the overall index higher, while employment grew at a rate above March’s pace and growth in new orders held nearly steady. Most other indicators also suggested solid activity. District contacts reported capacity utilization grew more quickly, while backlogs grew more slowly. In addition, manufacturers reported that delivery times lessened, while inventories grew at a somewhat higher rate.
…
Looking ahead, manufacturers’ optimism remained in place in April. Contacts at more firms anticipated that shipments, new orders, backlogs, capacity utilization, and capital expenditures would continue to grow at a solid pace in the months ahead.

Fast Facts About Food Stamps

A new infographic from the Congressional Budget Office summarizes key facts about the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as Food Stamps.

Around The Dial – April 25, 2012

Economic policy reports, blog postings, and media stories of interest:

• Off the Charts analyzes the impact of federal recovery aid to state budgets.
• An op-ed in Politico wonders about the “missing” federal mortgage task force.
• Jeffrey Sachs sees “a world adrift.”
• Nancy Folbre argues for “valuing family work.”
• Ed Glaeser considers the future of HUD.

A Good Tradeoff?

Mark Thoma wonders if the greater insecurity faced by American workers enables more dynamic levels of economic growth, at least relative to European countries.

What about the other promised benefit of a general free market approach to managing the economy, a better ability to withstand and respond to shocks? Has the U.S. fared better than European countries during the Great Recession?
…
The U.S. did better than some European countries during the crisis, but worse than others. For example, harmonized unemployment rates from either the Bureau of Labor Statistics or from Eurostat show that the U.S. unemployment rate increased more than most European rates at the onset of the crisis, and that right now the U.S. unemployment rate is higher than in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, and Sweden. But at the same time, the U.S. unemployment rate is quite a bit lower than in Greece, Spain, Ireland, and Portugal, a bit lower than in Italy, and very similar to the U.K.
…
With such a mixed outcome, it’s difficult to support the claim that the free market approach that began in the 1970s has lived up to the promise of a more dynamic, flexible, faster growing economy. And the case is even harder to make when the fact that the deregulation of the economy that helped to produce the housing bubble is factored in.