Project MUSE®: Brookings Papers on Economic Activity - Latest Articles
https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/52
Project MUSE®: Latest articles in Brookings Papers on Economic Activity.daily12026-05-15T00:00:00-05:00text/htmlen-US2000 through current issueLatest Articles: Brookings Papers on Economic ActivityTWOProject MUSE®Brookings Papers on Economic Activity1533-44650007-2303Latest articles in Brookings Papers on Economic Activity. Feed provided by Project MUSE®Taming Cycles: China's Growth Targets and Macroeconomic Management
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978546
<p></p>
On September 26, 2024, China's Politburo—the twenty-four-member committee at the apex of the country's political hierarchy—held its monthly meeting. Typically, the economy is not the centerpiece of its September discussions. This year, however, the faltering economy commanded the spotlight. The Politburo emphasized the imperative of achieving its annual growth target of 5 percent, signaling an intensified reliance on macroeconomic management policies to steer the economy toward this goal (Zhang and Zaharia 2024).1The urgency of the situation was underscored by a coordinated stimulus program unveiled around the time of the meeting. China's key economic institutions—the Ministry of Finance, the People's Bank of
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978551">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-15T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/52/image/coversmallTaming Cycles: China's Growth Targets and Macroeconomic Management2026-01-06text/htmlen-USTaming Cycles: China's Growth Targets and Macroeconomic Management2026-01-062026TWOProject MUSE®2632312026-05-15T00:00:00-05:002026-01-06Should I Stay or Should I Go? The Response of Labor Migration to Economic Shocks
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978547
<p></p>
In 2010, the population of Williston, North Dakota, was 14,716 people—up from 12,512 a decade earlier, according to the Census. By 2020 the population in Williston had increased to 29,160 people. The reason for the dramatic surge in population was the discovery and development of oil fields in the Bakken Formation. Workers were drawn to Williston and other nearby towns because of high and rising wages and record low unemployment rates. The migration of labor has a long history in the United States. The California Gold Rush of the 1850s and the regional construction booms of the early 2000s are both well-known examples of workers moving to opportunity. In contrast, Detroit, Michigan—once one of the largest and
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978551">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-15T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/52/image/coversmallShould I Stay or Should I Go? The Response of Labor Migration to Economic Shocks2026-01-06text/htmlen-USShould I Stay or Should I Go? The Response of Labor Migration to Economic Shocks2026-01-062026TWOProject MUSE®3256632026-05-15T00:00:00-05:002026-01-06The US Trade Deficit: Myths and Realities
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978548
<p></p>
The United States has had a net foreign trade deficit in goods and services in every quarter save one since the second quarter of 1976, with the deficit averaging 3.1 percent of GDP annually since the financial crisis
Figure 1
US Net Exports of Goods and Services as a Percentage of GDP, 1947–2024 (Nonseasonally Adjusted Quarterly Data)
Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), via FRED series NA000374Q and NA000334Q.
[AI Generated Alt Text] Line chart labeled Percent of GDP shows blue line from early 1950s above 4% trending to about -6% in mid-2000s then toward -3% by 2020.
year 2008.1 All the while, academic concern about the deficit has waxed and waned, peaking around the notable bulges during the Ronald
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978551">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-15T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/52/image/coversmallThe US Trade Deficit: Myths and Realities2026-01-06text/htmlen-USThe US Trade Deficit: Myths and Realities2026-01-062026TWOProject MUSE®3938392026-05-15T00:00:00-05:002026-01-06Treasury Market Dysfunction and the Role of the Central Bank
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978549
<p></p>
The market for US Treasury securities is enormous: As of 2024:Q3, federal debt held by the public of $28.3 trillion represented 96 percent of GDP, close to an all-time high. And the Congressional Budget Office
Figure 1
Federal Debt Held by the Public
Source: OMB and St. Louis Fed (2025) and CBO (2024).
Note: This figure shows the federal debt held by the public as a percentage of GDP from 1900 to 2023 (solid line) and the Congressional Budget Office projections of this ratio from 2024 to 2054 (dashed line).
[AI Generated Alt Text] Line chart of debt-to-GDP from 1900 to 2050 showing peak near 100% in 1950, trough mid-century, rise after 2000 and projected rise past 150% by 2050
projections show the debt-to-GDP
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978551">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-15T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/52/image/coversmallTreasury Market Dysfunction and the Role of the Central Bank2026-01-06text/htmlen-USTreasury Market Dysfunction and the Role of the Central Bank2026-01-062026TWOProject MUSE®3420292026-05-15T00:00:00-05:002026-01-06Recovering from COVID
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978550
<p></p>
Five years ago from the date of the Spring 2025 Brookings Papers on Economic Activity (BPEA) Conference, the economy was collapsing at a breathtaking pace. In New York City, deaths from COVID-19 were growing exponentially, and the virus, about which much was still being learned, was spreading across the United States. Much of the country was in lockdown. Millions of workers had been laid off: Initial weekly claims for unemployment insurance, which normally range between 200,000 and 300,000 and which peaked around 650,000 during the financial crisis recession, were nearly 6 million in the week ending March 28, 2020. As uncertainty mounted and consumers stayed home, real consumption fell by 6.6 percent in March and
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978551">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-15T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/52/image/coversmallRecovering from COVID2026-01-06text/htmlen-USRecovering from COVID2026-01-062026TWOProject MUSE®2862882026-05-15T00:00:00-05:002026-01-06America's Housing Supply Problem: The Closing of the Suburban Frontier?
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978551
<p></p>
How has housing supply in America evolved over the past fifty years? Twenty years ago, Glaeser and Gyourko (2005) noted that America could be divided into growing Sunbelt markets with elastic housing supply (e.g., Atlanta, Dallas, and Phoenix), high-cost coastal markets (e.g., Boston, New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco) with inelastic housing supply, and low-demand erstwhile industrial cities (e.g., Cleveland and Detroit). In this paper, we document that the Sunbelt markets are no longer so elastic. The combination of declining output and rising prices indicates that the supply of new housing has shifted downward.1Real, constant-quality home prices hit historic highs in 2024, both for the nation and for
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978551">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-15T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/52/image/coversmallAmerica's Housing Supply Problem: The Closing of the Suburban Frontier?2026-01-06text/htmlen-USAmerica's Housing Supply Problem: The Closing of the Suburban Frontier?2026-01-062026TWOProject MUSE®3304902026-05-15T00:00:00-05:002026-01-06