May - 2018

SOUND ECONOMIC AND PUBLIC POLICY (SEPP) CONSULTING

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Tariffs Bring Solar Panel Jobs to the Buckeye State

Tariffs Bring Solar Panel Jobs to the Buckeye State

Should we care that trade is globally inefficient when we impose tariffs on foreign imports if such tariffs allow us to increase production of the import competing products domestically and create additional jobs in the process? Now I have addressed this issue somewhat in at least two or three prior articles, but I want to look at an application that is very much close to home. Recently First Solar, an American firm that manufactures rigid thin film modules or solar panels an

The Fed and the Political Business Cycle: A Cursory Look

The Fed and the Political Business Cycle: A Cursory Look

So the Fed left interest rates unchanged in May in a year in which most economists predicted that the interest rates would rise several times. What do the data show? For April the CPI rose 2.5% over the last 12 months, and 0.2% in April. Core CPI rose 2.1% over the last 12 months, suggesting that much of the inflation was driven by food and energy price increases, though for other not as volatile products as we have breached the 2% target the Fed uses as its inflation target.

Big Pharma and the Regulation Question

Big Pharma and the Regulation Question

Last week President Trump announced some new measures that were aimed at bringing down prescription drug prices but which apparently left the pharmaceutical industry happy as the measures seemed to fall short of initial fears about what could possibly have included major price regulations. Stock prices in the industry climbed up. So here is what I think are the problems, which range from the economic to the political. First, healthcare and in particular drugs are in high de