This blog post accompanies the SDPB Monday Macro segment that aired Monday, August 4, 2025. Click here to listen to the segment, recorded Friday, 8/1, before the announcement of change in leadership at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Economists talk lots about labor-market conditions in the macroeconomy. And to do so, they use lots of […]
This blog post accompanies the SDPB Monday Macro segment that airs on Monday, July 7, 2025. Click here to listen to the segment. When asked about her third album, released May 2024 and titled, Radical Optimism, pop-star Dua Lipa remarked, in part, “I want to just move on and grow…every experience is a lesson.” Economists […]
This blog post accompanies the SDPB Monday Macro segment that aired on Wednesday, May 21, 2025. Click here to listen to the show, which begins at 23:40. The debate about trade policy—and specifically, the imposition of across-the-board tariffs for whatever reason—often overlooks the symbiotic relationship between U.S. trade deficits and the U.S. dollar as the […]
This blog post accompanies the SDPB Monday Macro segment that airs Monday, April 7. Click here to listen to the segment, which begins at 1 minute into In the Moment. The U.S. economy is big—like, really big. Consider, for example, Figure 1, in which I illustrate nominal GDP, which measures the market value of all […]
This blog post accompanies the SDPB Monday Macro segment that aired Wednesday, January 8. Click here to listen; the segment begins the SDPB program, In the Moment. Last weekend, I visited San Francisco to attend the annual three-day meeting of the American Economic Association (AEA), which meets in conjunction with 66 associations in allied disciplines known […]
This blog post accompanies the SDPR Monday Macro segment that airs on Monday, December 2. Click here to listen; the segment begins at minute 8:40. Trade is trending. Or, more precisely, grief about the U.S. trade deficit, the difference between exports and imports of goods and services, is trending, along with the usual finger pointing […]
This blog post accompanies the SDPB Monday Macro segment recorded on Friday, October 11 and scheduled to air on Tuesday, October 15, 2024. Link to the segment, which begins about a minute into the broadcast. We have gamified monetary policy, or so it seems. Schooled readers know I am fond of a quarter-century-old quip by […]
This blog post accompanies the SDPB Monday Macro segment that airs on Monday, August 5, 2024. Click here to listen to the show, which begins at minute 16:00. On Friday, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported the U.S. economy added 114,000 jobs (on net) in July. In Figure 1, I illustrate the number […]
This blog post accompanies the SDPB Monday Macro segment that airs on Monday, July 1, 2024. Click here to listen to the show. For more macroeconomic analysis, follow J. M. Santos on Twitter @NSMEdirector. For the last Monday Macro segment, I sat down with SDPB’s Lori Walsh to discuss the seeming disconnect between the relatively […]
This blog post accompanies the SDPB Monday Macro segment that airs on Monday, April 29, 2024. Click here to listen to the show, which begins at minute 21:30. For more macroeconomic analysis, follow J. M. Santos on Twitter @NSMEdirector. In the global financial system, the U.S. dollar enjoys an exorbitant privilege, or so say the […]
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