Miscellaneous Macro News

Is stagflation returning? The Wall Street Journal wonders (in a story from this past Thursday).

Meanwhile, the Dallas Fed Chairman Richard Fisher warns against creating more inflation in order to fight a recession, saying "We're trying to bridge the gap between what most people believe will be two quarters of 'anaemia' in the economy, and prevent that turning into a recession, but not at the same time 'stir those dreadful embers of inflation."

Oil prices hit an historic high this past week, reaching $101 a barrel, a level that many analysis think will be short-lived. Venezuelan President Chavez thinks that $00-per-barrel oil is "fair." Question: How much of this rise is due to global demand conditions changing, as opposed to monetary policies of the past several years?

GMAC is slashing 1,000 jobs. The company experienced "an uptick in auto-loan delinquencies and a drop in auto-loan profitability in the fourth quarter,' according to business writer John Stoll. The company is dealing "with the problem by stepping up collection efforts and tightening labor standards." In a related story, Toyota recently announced that its financing arm would be offering seven-year auto loans to help its dealers ride out an economic slowdown.

Not everyone agrees that the economy is even sliding into a recession. Two members of the National Bureau of Economic Research--Robert Hall and Victor Zarnowitz--said recently that it is too early to make this call. One point to remember, however, is that the NBER makes these judgments well after the fact, not to mention that its definition of a recession is quite arbitrary.

Finally, proving that while general prices may be rising, individual prices are still falling, Stanford University announced that it would no longer require tuition of parents earning less than $100,000. If that policy is good enough for Stanford, then is it good enough for JSU too?