Benchmarking current economic performance in the US (and elsewhere)

Moritz Schularick and Alan Taylor have a useful piece on the topic, informed by economic history, here.

Comments on European Banking Union

The chair and vice-chairs of the Advisory Scientific Committee to the ESRB provide some comments here.

Tall Ships and Sovereign Default

Story here.

Currency Depreciation

The impact of the 40 percent depreciation of the Iranian rial over the last couple of weeks is covered in this NYT article.

Nominal GDP

Since debt contracts are written in nominal terms,  nominal GDP matters for debt dynamics.  It is worth noting that the projected path for nominal GDP during 2011-2013 in the new CB QB is substantially higher than in the April 2012 Stability Programme Update.

In the SPU,   nominal GDP values are 156.5 bn in 2011, 158.9 bn in 2012, 164.2 bn in 2013

In the CB QB,  these are 158.9 bn in 2011, 163.4 bn in 2012, 168.3 bn in 2013

The 4.1 bn difference in the projected 2013 values will influence the plans for the December budget.