The Risk of Permanent Stagnation

Recently there has been a lot of talk among U.S. economists about “green shoots” and “seeing the light at the end of the tunnel,” popular ways of saying that the worst of the current recession is over and growth will probably resume late this year or early 2010. In Puerto Rico, however, economic indicators continue to hover in negative territory.

The Wages of Debt

Here’s an excerpt from our latest report, written by Sergio Marxuach, on the worrying trends regarding Puerto Rico’s public debt. The full report is available here. We have also posted a brief interview, in Spanish, that explains the nuts and bolts of the report.

Doing Away with Another Barbarous Relic

In 1923 John Maynard Keynes published his Tract on Monetary Reform, which was his first attempt to analyze the monetary instability that plagued the post-World War I world. In classic contrarian fashion, one of Keynes’ conclusions was that central bankers – by shackling tehemselves to the “barbarous relic” of the gold standard – were actually exacerbating monetary problems.

Gastos Escondidos

La crisis fiscal por la cual atravesamos ha provocado que nuestro gobierno tome una serie de medidas en busca de lograr estabilizar la situación. Por un lado ha aumentado varios renglones impositivos como el impuesto sobre la propiedad y una sobretasa especial para ciertos contribuyentes.

Ironic Temperament and Economic Policy

In one of his best-known poems, William Butler Yeats wrote that there are times when things fall apart and the center cannot hold; when the best seem to lack all conviction and the worst run about full of passionate intensity. A pithy summary, perhaps, of the times we are living in Puerto Rico.

Presupuesto

Como parte de nuestro programa de “Futuro fiscal”, y cumpliendo con nuestra misión de proveer análisis independiente y de alto rigor a los asuntos económicos importantes del país, el Centro para la Nueva Economía ha desarrollado una serie de indicadores sobre el desempeño fiscal de Puerto Rico los cuales acabamos de actualizar con la data del presupuesto recomendado por la actual Administración para el año fiscal 2009-10.

Fiscal Situation Update: Fiscal Year 2009-2010 Budget

This Fiscal Update Report prepared by the Center for a New Economy (CNE) presents an independent analysis of the proposals contained in the Governor’s budget request for fiscal year 2009-2010. The analysis is based on CNE’s evaluation and interpretation of the budget data, rather than the Administration’s, and may incorporate estimates made by CNE’s staff or by other private sector analysts.

Assessing Puerto Rico’s Fiscal Performance

In 2008, the Center for the New Economy, in fulfillment of its mission to provide rigorous, independent analysis to policymakers, the press, and the public at large, established a fiscal analysis program to monitor and keep track of important fiscal trends affecting the Puerto Rican economy. As part of that program, we developed a series of budget performance indicators, which we have updated with data from the budget for fiscal year 2009-10.