Somebody asked me a question about one of my least favorite economic bloviators so I came up with a satirical look at the US outlook. All credit goes to Sesame Street.
“The Letter of the Day” – US Economic Forecast Edition
Retail Pull Factors and Shutdown
I am starting to look at a predictive model for decline and recovery in North Dakota due to energy prices and COVID-19. This is some of my early thinking.
Beige Book – North Dakota Information
The Federal Reserve released the Beige Book today, which is a summary of their comments on economic conditions. The report contains information related to each district, and there is some information specific to North Dakota mentioned in the Book. I am just highlighting a few of the more notable elements here. The link to the full report is above.
Ludicrous Speed!
I field a significant number of questions about the pace of economic activity in North Dakota, specifically the oil patch, from individuals not in the state or even the region. The answer I usually want to provide is summed up here:
Economic Diversification in North Dakota and the United States
In a post last week I compared the allocation of economic activity in North Dakota with the United States. North Dakota has a larger share of activity in agriculture and extractive industries, but less in industries like information. There are many factors that influence the share of economic activity including resource endowments, transportation networks, and the list goes on. Consequently you need to be careful drawing policy conclusions from differences in allocations between two geographies. It could be very easily explained by resource endowments, such as oil in the ground.
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