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Why Foreign Direct Investment Was Already Sagging
Foreign direct investment (FDI) involves a management component. In other words, it\’s not just a financial investment in stocks and bonds (\”portfolio investment\”), but involves partial or in some...
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Stock Buybacks: Leverage vs. Managerial Self-Dealing
Consider a company that has been earning profits, and wants to pay or all of those earnings to its shareholders. There are two practical mechanisms for doing so. Traditionally, the best-known approach...
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Every Day is a Bad Day, Say a Rising Share of Americans
The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) is a standardized phone survey about health-related behaviors, carried out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). One question...
View ArticleAdvice on Writing from Ruth Bader Ginsberg
David Post offers some personal reminiscences about Ruth Bader Ginsberg at the Reason website (\”RGB, R.I.P,\” September 18, 2020). As someone who has worked as an editor for a long time, several...
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An Overview of Emergency COVID-19 Lending from the Fed
The Federal Reserve, like central banks everywhere, view providing financial liquidity during a crisis (being the \”lender of last resort\”) as one of their core functions. What has the Fed done so...
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Where Federal Debt is Headed and Staying Off the Interest Payments Treadmill
By now, it\’s old news to anyone paying attention that the federal debt, based on current law, is on a trajectory to rise in an unsustainable way over the next few decades. What is less well-known, I...
View ArticleInterview with Joshua Gans on Pandemic Economics
Like many of us, Joshua Gans found himself stuck at home in March. Unlike many of us, he decided to write a book about the pandemic. In fact, MIT Press put the first draft of the book up online for...
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How the US Start-Up Industry is Faltering
One of the long-term strengths of the US economy has been that it fostered the growth of new businesses. Some provided employment for only a few, while others grew into giants. But that dynamic process...
View ArticleWhen Local Governments Subsidize Firms: Some Guidelines
Certain cities and metropolitan areas have been lagging in economic growth for decades, while others have surged ahead. US regions used to be converging in economic terms, but this pattern has halted....
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Checking on COVID-19 Economics Research: BPEA Fall 2020
It would be a full-time job to keep up with the flow of economics research on aspects of COVID-19. Those who wish to take a closer look might begin with COVID Economics, a quick-turnaround journal...
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