Links for 2010-06-16

By David Papell Today, we're fortunate to have David Papell, Professor of Economics at the University of Houston, as a Guest Contributor.

Walter Russell Mead writes on the disappearance of jobs for non-Baby Boomers: An analysis of recent jobs figures at Investor.com reveals a disturbing development: the biggest beneficiaries from the economic recovery are Boomers, while everyone else is getting the shaft.

MIT Professor Christopher Knittel has a new paper on the potential for the United States to reduce petroleum consumption. From the paper's abstract:

Matt Ridley masterfully applies Bastiat's "broken-window fallacy" to green energy jobs, writing last December in City AM, a UK financial newspaper:

WITH unemployment stubbornly high and an August jobs report showing no net job creation, some people might argue that American workers should be happy with whatever employment they can get. But others are making a very different argument, prompted in part by the presidential campaign of Texas Governor Rick Perry, who is touting the state’s record of job creation during his time in office.

Today’s national accounts numbers show that households’ real disposable incomes have fallen by 3.5% since 2009Q2. This is the biggest squeeze on real living standards since 1977. This, I suspect, has some under-appreciated implications for interest rates.

Jeff Miller submits: Jeffrey A. Miller, PhD, is CEO and President of New Arc Investments. Also a fund manager at the firm, he has guided the Sector Rotation Fund throughout its exceptional history.

There has been renewed interest in forecasting when the Fed will raise the Fed Funds rate. What many people fail to realize is that the Fed can (and probably will) begin to change monetary policy without raising the Fed Finds rate. That will probably come next year. How and why can the Fed begin to change monetary policy without raising rates? I will try to explain.