Respondents to Kauffman Foundation’s third-quarter survey expect weak employment growth, higher annual deficits ahead
More than half support debt limit extension without conditions
(KANSAS CITY, Mo.), July 28, 2011 – Optimism is out; pessimism is in among the country’s top economics bloggers as they look to 2012 and beyond, particularly regarding jobs. A new Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation survey released today shows that only 50 percent of respondents anticipate employment growth, a decrease of 20 percent from second quarter.
Fully 95 percent of respondents view current economic conditions as “mixed” or “facing recession,” an increase of 10 percent from second quarter, and a third predict a double-dip recession during 2012. “Uncertain” is once again the top adjective economics bloggers use to describe the economy, and respondents shared expectations of higher annual deficits and the top marginal tax rate.
“This quarter’s survey provides an unprecedented level of pessimism about the state of the U.S. economy among top bloggers,” said Tim Kane, the survey’s director and a senior scholar at the Kauffman Foundation. “But, it also contains a handful of unique questions submitted by bloggers themselves that offer new perspectives and new directions forward.”
As the debt controversy continues on Capitol Hill, the consensus of economics bloggers was strong, but neither conventionally liberal nor conservative. More than half support raising the U.S. debt limit without conditions. But a strong majority – 88 percent – also favors the idea of a requirement for the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to account long-term liabilities in its budget assessment.
When asked to evaluate the 2009 stimulus, 77 percent of economics bloggers believe that it had a neutral or negative effect. Looking forward, when asked how fiscal balance should be achieved, respondents favored a mix weighted toward spending cuts rather than tax increases.
Other research highlights include:
• Weighing in on the FTC investigation of Google, 54 percent of economics bloggers believe the government actually will file suit against Google, while 93 percent believe the suit lacks merit.
• Although the panel is largely nonpartisan, almost two-thirds of top economics bloggers believe the government is too involved in the economy. The top policy recommendation remains for the government to “reduce regulatory burdens and fees on new firm formation.”
• When asked to evaluate other budgetary policy proposals, two were favored by 57 percent of respondents: capping tax credits and deductions per household, and converting Medicare to a premium support program.
• One bright note: almost half of respondents (44 percent) expect U.S. growth to return to the steady 2 percent annual rate, with roughly equal numbers expecting 1 percent slower (18 percent) and faster (14 percent).
• Asked for their predictions about 2012, economics bloggers revealed low confidence in the Euro, with 32 percent believing it will not exist in 2014. Opinion is split 47?53 on whether Greece will abandon the Euro within the next eighteen months. Respondents were similarly concerned about U.S. Treasury prices, with 23 percent anticipating a collapse.
For this Kauffman Economic Outlook: A Quarterly Survey of Leading Economics Bloggers , the Kauffman Foundation sent invitations to more than 200 leading economics bloggers as identified in the Palgrave’s econolog.net December 2010 rankings. The Foundation surveys the bloggers each quarter about their views of the economy, entrepreneurship and innovation.
Eight core questions and four topical questions were designed in coordination with a distinguished board of advisors, which includes:
Robert X. Cringely – I, Cringely
Laurie Harting – Palgrave’s EconLog
Paul Kedrosky – Infectious Greed
Lynne Kiesling – Knowledge Problem
Donald Marron – DMarron.com
Mark Perry – Carpe Diem
Wade Roush – Xconomy.com
Allison Schrager – Free Exchange
Nick Schulz – Enterprise Blog
Yves Smith – Naked Capitalism
Alex Tabarrok – Marginal Revolution
Mark Thoma – Economist's View
About the Kauffman Foundation
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is a private nonpartisan foundation that works to harness the power of entrepreneurship and innovation to grow economies and improve human welfare. Through its research and other initiatives, the Kauffman Foundation aims to open young people's eyes to the possibility of entrepreneurship, promote entrepreneurship education, raise awareness of entrepreneurship-friendly policies, and find alternative pathways for the commercialization of new knowledge and technologies. In addition, the Foundation focuses on initiatives in the Kansas City region to advance students’ math and science skills, and improve the educational achievement of urban students, including the Ewing Marion Kauffman School, a college preparatory charter school for middle and high school students set to open in 2011. Founded by late entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewing Marion Kauffman, the Foundation is based in Kansas City, Mo. and has approximately $2 billion in assets.
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