J. Bradford DeLong

J. Bradford DeLong, Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and the author of Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century (Basic Books, 2022). He was Deputy Assistant US Treasury Secretary during the Clinton Administration, where he was heavily involved in budget and trade negotiations. His role in designing the bailout of Mexico during the 1994 peso crisis placed him at the forefront of Latin America’s transformation into a region of open economies, and cemented his stature as a leading voice in economic-policy debates.

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The Mystery of US Interest Rates
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The Mystery of US Interest Rates

Mar 14, 2024 J. Bradford DeLong asks why market rates and expectations are far from what almost anyone would have anticipated five years ago.
What Is the Fed Thinking?
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What Is the Fed Thinking?

Feb 5, 2024 J. Bradford DeLong worries that the central bank is keeping monetary policy too restrictive for the macroeconomic situation.
The Fed’s Remarkable Feat
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The Fed’s Remarkable Feat

Dec 22, 2023 J. Bradford DeLong argues that the US central bank has managed to humble hawkish and dovish critics alike.
The Attention Economy Goes to Court
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The Attention Economy Goes to Court

Nov 9, 2023 J. Bradford DeLong examines the arguments being put to the test in the antitrust case against Google.
America’s Broken Civic Bargain
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America’s Broken Civic Bargain

Sep 28, 2023 J. Bradford DeLong worries that Republicans have abandoned one of the core principles that sustains a democracy over time.

Debt Derangement Syndrome
Feb 24, 2019

A longer version, with some paragraphs cut during the editing process; https://www.bradford-delong.com/2019/02/department-of-huh-this-has-always-struck-me-as-so-wrong-on-so-many-levels-ever-since-the-first-politician-promulgated.html#comments
Debt Derangement Syndrome
Feb 7, 2019

All sounds good to me, up until the last clause. We have had financial crises triggered by "sudden stops" in lending to sovereigns for well over a century now. They seem to happen whether economists' advice is in the mix or no...
- Per Kurowski Feb 10, 2019
  
  Like that the European Union authorities have assigned a 0% risk weight to the Eurozone sovereign’s debts, notwithstanding these are denominated in a currency that is not their domestic (printable) one. With that they might have doomed the EU
  https://perkurowski.blogspot.com/2019/01/heres-moment-it-struck-me-that-if.html
  A new reply to this comment has been posted.
The Great American Tax Heist Turns One
Dec 23, 2018

Why, thank you very much...

Brad DeLong
The Great American Tax Heist Turns One
Dec 23, 2018

Ummmm... As best as we can tell at this point, less than 1/10 of the money that Republican economists, the Trump administration, and the congressional majorities had predicted would be spent on boosting investment has been spent on boosting investment. Instead, it has gone into the pockets of the world's upper class—2/3 to American residents, 1/3 to residents abroad.

That's bad for the country, but I can console myself with the idea that it's good for my particular family.

Why and how do you console yourself with this extraordinary misfire?

Brad DeLong
- eric zepp Dec 24, 2018
  
  Thanks for asking, but as it was the owners' money to begin with, not mine, and not the government's I don't really need to console myself at all.
  
  If the problem we're solving for is growing the economy while providing necessary government services, isn't it wiser to incentivize owners to reinvest in the firms, while cutting government spending and regulation significantly?
  A new reply to this comment has been posted.
The Great American Tax Heist Turns One
Dec 18, 2018

The "trade war" has not been really launched yet—except for the unfortunate soybean and other farmers whom Trump has put in the crosshairs. It hasn't yet had an impact on the economy in the large for us to see in the aggregate statistics.