As I work on my series of posts on Business Cycles and other related posts, including one that I will write as I read through several of Fischer Black's books and articles (which hopefully won't be too terribly long), I also have other books to read. I haven't completely finished reading and reviewing some of the stuff from the previous months, so this list is perhaps shorter than what it should be.
Econ Books:
1. Exploring General Equilibrium - Fischer Black
2. Business cycles and Equilibrium - Fischer Black
3. Modern Business Cycle Theory - Robert J. Barro (editor)
4. The Analytical Foundations of Marxian Economic Theory - John E. Roemer
Non-Econ Books:
1. The Feynman Lectures on Physics - Richard Feynman (Helps to keep the brain nice and sharp!)
Despite the long delay, the first post on the series of posts on my Business Cycle Series will come out very soon. Keep following!
Thursday, April 30, 2015
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Couple Interesting Blog Posts/Articles
Before I log my first blog post in my series of posts on business cycles, here is a couple of blog posts and articles that I found interesting:
1. Greg Mankiw's blog post on the controversial TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership) free trade deal and the CEA President, Jason Furman's Brookings explanation: What's not heard by the critics is the mathematical and numerical explanations for the TPP. Other interesting articles on this topic include this Financial Times article, a Brookings article on the geopolitical importance of the TPP and another Brookings article on the updates to the TPP. Very interesting as the controversial TPP deal unfolds with the stagnating economic powerhouse of Japan and with the strong opposition here in the States (Progressive groups, Conservative groups, Labor Unions and your usual Protectionist suspects)
2. Article on Asset Pricing and "Misspecified Recovery": A very interesting article by Lars Peter Hansen, 2011 Nobelist and the Rockefeller Professor at the University of Chicago, Jaroslav Borovicka (New York University) and Jose A. Scheinkman (Columbia University, Princeton University) on Asset Pricing. They nickname this phenomenon "Misspecified Recovery", which are misspecified effects on the long-term effects of information on asset pricing. Very interesting article with a particular interesting twist in that the model makes an interesting utilization of the Perron-Frobenius theory in arriving at interesting information about asset pricing.
3. A Journal of Economic perspectives article from Winter 2009 about the liquidity and credit crunch by Markus K. Brunnermeier by utilizing interesting principles of behavioral economics to explore how a possible financial regulatory framework could put together. I have been reading a bunch of articles on related topics to business cycles and this classic article has helped me on determining how the 2007-2008 crisis has effected our possible perceptions and predictions of how the business cycle works.
4. iM's Business Cycle Index: Interesting calculations that this business cycle index makes. A good basic business cycle index for traders.
5. An article in the latest issue of the Journal of Monetary Economics by Hyun Song Shin: It talks about monetary policy and how the US dollar plays a role in global liquidity transmissions. It goes back to an earlier article of mine on the role of the US dollar in being the global reserve currency and the currency that is most commonly transacted role across financial channels.
1. Greg Mankiw's blog post on the controversial TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership) free trade deal and the CEA President, Jason Furman's Brookings explanation: What's not heard by the critics is the mathematical and numerical explanations for the TPP. Other interesting articles on this topic include this Financial Times article, a Brookings article on the geopolitical importance of the TPP and another Brookings article on the updates to the TPP. Very interesting as the controversial TPP deal unfolds with the stagnating economic powerhouse of Japan and with the strong opposition here in the States (Progressive groups, Conservative groups, Labor Unions and your usual Protectionist suspects)
2. Article on Asset Pricing and "Misspecified Recovery": A very interesting article by Lars Peter Hansen, 2011 Nobelist and the Rockefeller Professor at the University of Chicago, Jaroslav Borovicka (New York University) and Jose A. Scheinkman (Columbia University, Princeton University) on Asset Pricing. They nickname this phenomenon "Misspecified Recovery", which are misspecified effects on the long-term effects of information on asset pricing. Very interesting article with a particular interesting twist in that the model makes an interesting utilization of the Perron-Frobenius theory in arriving at interesting information about asset pricing.
3. A Journal of Economic perspectives article from Winter 2009 about the liquidity and credit crunch by Markus K. Brunnermeier by utilizing interesting principles of behavioral economics to explore how a possible financial regulatory framework could put together. I have been reading a bunch of articles on related topics to business cycles and this classic article has helped me on determining how the 2007-2008 crisis has effected our possible perceptions and predictions of how the business cycle works.
4. iM's Business Cycle Index: Interesting calculations that this business cycle index makes. A good basic business cycle index for traders.
5. An article in the latest issue of the Journal of Monetary Economics by Hyun Song Shin: It talks about monetary policy and how the US dollar plays a role in global liquidity transmissions. It goes back to an earlier article of mine on the role of the US dollar in being the global reserve currency and the currency that is most commonly transacted role across financial channels.
Friday, April 17, 2015
Different Approaches to Interpreting Business Cycles and Macroeconomics
As mentioned in my previous posts, I am writing a series of blog posts on the study of business cycles. In this particular blog post, I will illustrate what I will be writing in the series and what to expect from each of the blog posts.
For those not familiar with the study of business cycles, they are downward and upward movement in the aggregate activity levels of Gross Domestic Product, Gross National Income or anything that measures levels of economic wealth. The movements and changes in momentum are often characterized as economic booms or expansions and economic recessions (sometimes depressions). There are many nicknames that could potentially characterize business cycles with the most common one: the boom-bust cycle (The boom being the economic expansion and the bust being the economic recession.) A good, but rather drastic example of a business cycle would be the massive economic boom after the First World War during the Harding and Coolidge administrations and then the massive Great Depression that followed it. There have been many comparable theories explored, argued and disseminated within the study of business cycles and it will be hard to summarize the entire field in just several blog posts. In these series of blog posts, I will mostly discuss certain academic, both mainstream neoclassical and heterodox or non-mainstream approaches to interpreting them. Through the course of the next couple of months, I will be discussing these as listed in this table of contents blog post:
1. Thoughts on the Austrian Business Cycle Theory - In this blog post, I will mostly talk about Mises, Hayek and thoughts by certain mainstream economists. Here's a decent video explanation of the Austrian Business Cycle by Thomas E. Woods, a proponent of the Austrian School of Economics and fellow at the Mises Institute. This is a heterodox approach, but is one of the few heterodox approaches that I used to find extremely compelling as a college undergraduate.
2. Real Business Cycle Theory, Part 1 and Part 2 - In this blog post, I will be exploring the controversial, but interesting Real Business Cycle Theory that was first theorized by Edward C. Prescott. It is generally affiliated with the Chicago School of Economics and the New Classical macro-economists, with it being at the far-right spectrum of mainstream economics. I have found this the basic, introductory explanation of the Real Business Cycle Theory by Tyler Cowen, a writer on the Marginal Revolution website and a professor at the George Mason University.
3. Game Theory, Macroeconomics and Business Cycles - In this blog post, I will be exploring one of the many more detailed thought-bubbles I've had throughout the year. I will be looking at various approaches covered over the next couple of months and trying to synthesize something out of nothing.
4. Milton Friedman, Monetarism and Money Matters - In this blog post, I will be exploring one of the most popular approaches to interpreting the Business Cycle. While I consider the late Professor Friedman to be one of the economists that I have studied the most, I have serious contentious thoughts concerning monetarism and here, I will give several examples that proves him wrong otherwise.
5. New Keynesian Approaches to the Business Cycle - In this blog post, I will be exploring the more recent changes on the old Keynesian approaches in this left-leaning approach to business cycle theory.
6. Thoughts on Fischer Black's Business Cycles and Equilibrium - In this blog post, I will dissect a very interesting book on Fischer Black's thoughts on the causes of business cycles and market equilibrium. I will point out both strong points and weak points of his book in this rather long but concise post.
6. Post-Keynesian and Post-Marxian Approaches - In this blog post, I will be discussing the most popular left-leaning heterodox approaches to the study. Here I will explore the famous adherents to this non-mainstreamschool of economics, including Michael Kalecki, Joan Robinson, John Roemer and Steven Keen. I will also provide excerpts about some current work that I have been reading lately.
7. Other Schools, Questions on Heterodoxy, Final Thoughts on Business Cycles - Here I will be accessing the other macroeconomic approaches, but I will also give some thoughts and questions on the nature of heterodoxy in interpreting challenges to economics and some final thoughts on business cycles.
I will be posting these posts sporadically as soon as I finish completing them. Some of them will be extremely informative and in depth, so keep an eye on my posts as they are completed. I will also be posting several unrelated blog posts throughout the next month, but I will try to tag business cycle series onto the related blog posts.
Edit: I have also included in this series a rebuttal of some of the key points that are detailed in Fischer Black's book, Business Cycles and Equilibrium. Even though the book is relatively dated, the late Fischer Black's ideas still have strong resonance in the eyes of many economists/financial economists. I just wanted to dissect his particular approach described in his book as an exercise in analyzing peoples' arguments and breaking them down. I also found that his book was an extremely read
For those not familiar with the study of business cycles, they are downward and upward movement in the aggregate activity levels of Gross Domestic Product, Gross National Income or anything that measures levels of economic wealth. The movements and changes in momentum are often characterized as economic booms or expansions and economic recessions (sometimes depressions). There are many nicknames that could potentially characterize business cycles with the most common one: the boom-bust cycle (The boom being the economic expansion and the bust being the economic recession.) A good, but rather drastic example of a business cycle would be the massive economic boom after the First World War during the Harding and Coolidge administrations and then the massive Great Depression that followed it. There have been many comparable theories explored, argued and disseminated within the study of business cycles and it will be hard to summarize the entire field in just several blog posts. In these series of blog posts, I will mostly discuss certain academic, both mainstream neoclassical and heterodox or non-mainstream approaches to interpreting them. Through the course of the next couple of months, I will be discussing these as listed in this table of contents blog post:
1. Thoughts on the Austrian Business Cycle Theory - In this blog post, I will mostly talk about Mises, Hayek and thoughts by certain mainstream economists. Here's a decent video explanation of the Austrian Business Cycle by Thomas E. Woods, a proponent of the Austrian School of Economics and fellow at the Mises Institute. This is a heterodox approach, but is one of the few heterodox approaches that I used to find extremely compelling as a college undergraduate.
2. Real Business Cycle Theory, Part 1 and Part 2 - In this blog post, I will be exploring the controversial, but interesting Real Business Cycle Theory that was first theorized by Edward C. Prescott. It is generally affiliated with the Chicago School of Economics and the New Classical macro-economists, with it being at the far-right spectrum of mainstream economics. I have found this the basic, introductory explanation of the Real Business Cycle Theory by Tyler Cowen, a writer on the Marginal Revolution website and a professor at the George Mason University.
3. Game Theory, Macroeconomics and Business Cycles - In this blog post, I will be exploring one of the many more detailed thought-bubbles I've had throughout the year. I will be looking at various approaches covered over the next couple of months and trying to synthesize something out of nothing.
4. Milton Friedman, Monetarism and Money Matters - In this blog post, I will be exploring one of the most popular approaches to interpreting the Business Cycle. While I consider the late Professor Friedman to be one of the economists that I have studied the most, I have serious contentious thoughts concerning monetarism and here, I will give several examples that proves him wrong otherwise.
5. New Keynesian Approaches to the Business Cycle - In this blog post, I will be exploring the more recent changes on the old Keynesian approaches in this left-leaning approach to business cycle theory.
6. Thoughts on Fischer Black's Business Cycles and Equilibrium - In this blog post, I will dissect a very interesting book on Fischer Black's thoughts on the causes of business cycles and market equilibrium. I will point out both strong points and weak points of his book in this rather long but concise post.
6. Post-Keynesian and Post-Marxian Approaches - In this blog post, I will be discussing the most popular left-leaning heterodox approaches to the study. Here I will explore the famous adherents to this non-mainstreamschool of economics, including Michael Kalecki, Joan Robinson, John Roemer and Steven Keen. I will also provide excerpts about some current work that I have been reading lately.
7. Other Schools, Questions on Heterodoxy, Final Thoughts on Business Cycles - Here I will be accessing the other macroeconomic approaches, but I will also give some thoughts and questions on the nature of heterodoxy in interpreting challenges to economics and some final thoughts on business cycles.
I will be posting these posts sporadically as soon as I finish completing them. Some of them will be extremely informative and in depth, so keep an eye on my posts as they are completed. I will also be posting several unrelated blog posts throughout the next month, but I will try to tag business cycle series onto the related blog posts.
Edit: I have also included in this series a rebuttal of some of the key points that are detailed in Fischer Black's book, Business Cycles and Equilibrium. Even though the book is relatively dated, the late Fischer Black's ideas still have strong resonance in the eyes of many economists/financial economists. I just wanted to dissect his particular approach described in his book as an exercise in analyzing peoples' arguments and breaking them down. I also found that his book was an extremely read
Saturday, April 11, 2015
Series of Related Blog Posts
In the coming months both this spring and this summer, I will be writing a series of blog posts about the various theories between business cycles, interest rates, growth models, long term economic projections and pretty much anything that is related with monetary economics/financial economics. The first posts will be on various business cycle theories, which rotates between more mainstream business cycle theories such as the Real Business Cycle Theory (New Classical) and more heterodox approaches such as the Austrian Business Cycle Theory to predicting the theoretical basis on which business cycles occur.
Friday, April 10, 2015
April Reading List
As I am currently writing my latest blog post that will likely be posted by tomorrow afternoon, here's my April reading list. I have added selected Econ papers that I will be reading as well:
Econ books:
1. Essays on the Great Depression - Ben Bernanke
2. Innovations in Macroeconomics - Paul J. J. Welfens
3. Monetary policy and the great inflation in the United States : the Federal Reserve and the failure of macroeconomic policy, 1965-1979 - Thomas Mayer
4. Inflation, Unemployment and Monetary Policy - Robert Solow / Alvin Hansen Symposium on Public Policy 1995
Econ papers:
1. Country Solidarity in Sovereign Crises - Jean Tirole
2. Liquid Bundles (working copy)- Jean Tirole / Emmanuel Farhi
3. Shops and the City: Evidence on Local Externalities and Local Government Policy from Big-Box Bankruptcies - Daniel Shoag / Stan Veuger
4. Social Norms and the Enforcement of Laws (working copy) - Daron Acemoglu / Matthew Jackson
5. Money Doctors - Nicola Gennaioli / Andrei Schleifer / Robert Vishny
There are more than these econ papers that I might read this month and I have already read the Acemoglu paper, but these ones are particularly recommended as they're highly interesting.
Econ books:
1. Essays on the Great Depression - Ben Bernanke
2. Innovations in Macroeconomics - Paul J. J. Welfens
3. Monetary policy and the great inflation in the United States : the Federal Reserve and the failure of macroeconomic policy, 1965-1979 - Thomas Mayer
4. Inflation, Unemployment and Monetary Policy - Robert Solow / Alvin Hansen Symposium on Public Policy 1995
Econ papers:
1. Country Solidarity in Sovereign Crises - Jean Tirole
2. Liquid Bundles (working copy)- Jean Tirole / Emmanuel Farhi
3. Shops and the City: Evidence on Local Externalities and Local Government Policy from Big-Box Bankruptcies - Daniel Shoag / Stan Veuger
4. Social Norms and the Enforcement of Laws (working copy) - Daron Acemoglu / Matthew Jackson
5. Money Doctors - Nicola Gennaioli / Andrei Schleifer / Robert Vishny
There are more than these econ papers that I might read this month and I have already read the Acemoglu paper, but these ones are particularly recommended as they're highly interesting.
Monday, April 6, 2015
Ben Bernanke's Blog
It has been a while since I've written a substantial post, but I'll write one towards the end of this week. I'll also post a short reading list for this month as well. As for interesting reading, please take a look at the blog of Ben Bernanke, who is most well known for being the Former Chair of the Federal Reserve and former Chairman of the Department of Economics at Princeton University. It has been news around the Economics and Business blogosphere and I find it interesting reading. The most interesting article that he talks about is about Lawrence Summers' secular stagnation discussion. Quite an informative article with a couple of links, along with Professor Summers' rebuttal. I'll be posting more here as soon as I have some free time!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)