Each year around this time, economists patiently await the announcement of who will win the highest honor bestowed in the profession. This is the Nobel Prize in economics, and the countdown to October 12 has begun. Considering the prestige associated with the prize, it's worth asking why it exists and what value it offers — not just to economics but to society.
There's nothing wrong with prizes, of course. We should recognize important contributions where and when they occur, and reward people accordingly. However, there is also a danger in those situations where we elevate and institutionalize controversial, yet-to-be-proven, or just-plain wrong ideas.
Not to change the topic here:
Honduran migrants are caught between economic despair and militarized crackdowns - Los Angeles
Ana Solís sat down on the sidewalk to rest. After entering Guatemala on foot with thousands of Honduran migrants hoping to make it to the United States earlier this week, she slept beside a highway and then found rides to the capital.
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Solís, 26, said she lost her job last year. She worked in a banana packing plant in Bonito Oriental, in northeastern Honduras, but often earned less than minimum wage. Her partner tried to migrate north last year but was deported from Mexico.
COVID-19 was a focal point during Outdoor Economics conference
AZTEC — Outdoor recreation is taking on a more important role in New Mexico as communities view it as a key to economic diversification amid the changing energy landscape, but the COVID-19 pandemic put some of those efforts on hold.
As he welcomed hundreds of attendees to the New Mexico Outdoor Economics Conference this week, Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez said the virus has led the tribe to shut down tourism on its lands.
Buttonwood - Lessons from the endowment model | Finance & economics | The Economist
A key to their success is asset allocation. Beginning in the 1930s (for the Ivy League) and the 1940s (for the rest), they shifted markedly from bonds into equities. By the 1950s over half of American endowment assets were in stocks, compared with around a tenth half a century earlier. This shift looks obvious in hindsight but was radical at the time.
Such boldness is aided by a long-term focus. If you have few immediate claims on your purse, you can afford to care less about the day-to-day price of your assets. Only their long-term value really matters. So endowments should be prepared to buy risky assets when they are cheap. And the Cambridge trio find this to be the case. In the aftermath of six major crises, beginning with the panic of 1907, endowments added significantly to their equity exposure.
Other things to check out:
Jobs Report Shows Further Slowdown in U.S. Economic Recovery - The New York Times
Six months after the coronavirus pandemic tore a hole in the U.S. economy, the once-promising recovery is stalling, leaving millions out of work, and threatening to push millions more — particularly women — out of the labor force entirely.
The latest evidence came Friday, when the Labor Department reported that employers added 661,000 jobs in September, far fewer than forecasters expected.
It was the third straight month of slowing job growth, a worrying trend given the scale of the challenge ahead. The economy has nearly 11 million fewer jobs than it did before the pandemic, a bigger loss than the 8.7 million at the depth of the recession a decade ago.
'Massively concerning' jobs report sends a signal that the economic recovery could be
Weaker-than-expected job growth in September sent a signal that the sharp economic recovery off the coronavirus shutdown may be hitting a wall.
The Labor Department reported Friday that nonfarm payrolls increased by 661,000 in September, held back by declines in government employment and an exodus of workers from the labor force.
In normal times, that type of hiring pace would be considered a sign of a robust job market. The total, in fact, would have been the best month the U.S. had seen since 1983 – if these were normal times and not amid the Covid-19 era that has changed the benchmarks by which economic data is measured.
America's economic seesaw is the most off-kilter in history. Beware a hard fall for those on top.
The longer you are a market-participant the more you try to see situations as simply as possible, even using playground games as visuals. In the game of seesaw, one partner rides up high expecting the partner on the bottom to gently let them down using the balance point as the balance. If not, the fall from on high is rapid and painful.
Our nation's economic balance point has created a virtual seesaw, one where the wealthiest have risen so high, so fast, that those on the bottom may be unable to let them down without damage to everyone involved.
Recommendations to help California's economic recovery and to take action on climate | CalMatters
A plan to prioritize good jobs that solve some of our environmental and climate issues can lead to a strong economic recovery.
State Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, a Democrat from Los Angeles, represents California Senate District 24, Senator.Durazo@sen.ca.gov.
This is a dark time for Californians. In Los Angeles County, more than 897,500 people – 18.2% of the population, who are primarily people of color – are unemployed. Concurrently, raging wildfires and harmful smoke show the urgent need for climate action. How will we recover from COVID-19, record temperatures and wildfires?
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