Blogs
An Update on Inflation Expectations
Despite the consumer price index only growing by a moderate 2% over the 12 months ending in February, some investors are worried about the possibility of higher inflation in the coming years. They can take advantage of Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, or TIPS, a bond type whose payments increase as the consumer price index rises, […]
Read MoreEnvironmental Security in the Asia-Pacific Ring of Fire: Exploring the Water-Energy-Food Nexus
This month, UHERO’s Project Environment will be commencing a joint project with Japan’s Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN). Climate change and economic development are causing increased pressure on water, energy and food resources, presenting communities with increased levels of tradeoffs and potential conflicts among these resources. The water-energy-food nexus is one of the most important […]
Read MoreYellen: How The Fed Will Know When To Stop
Federal Reserve Board Vice Chair Janet Yellen has laid out the argument for continued Fed action and the conditions the Fed will watch when deciding to ease off monetary stimulus. In remarks to the policy conference of the National Association for Business Economics in Washington DC last week, Yellen elaborated on the Federal Open Market […]
Read MoreRobust Hope for Housing
The US housing market turned the corner in 2012 and is set for healthy expansion for the next several years. This according to economists at the annual policy conference of the National Association for Business Economics meeting in Washington last week. Median single family resale prices rose 6-10% last year, depending on the measure one uses, and […]
Read MoreThe Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative (HCEI): Watt, Me Worry?
The connection between the emerging field of sustainability science and the economics of sustainable development has motivated a line on interdisciplinary research inspired by the notion of “positive sustainability.” This notion is founded on three principles or pillars: (1) adopting a complex systems approach to modeling and analysis, integrating natural resource systems, the environment, and […]
Read MoreEconomists Debate How Quick to Cut
At the start of the first post-sequester week, economists at the annual policy conference of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) in Washington D.C. debated options for U.S. fiscal policy. Two leading figures from the right and the left took starkly different views of where policy should head in the near term, but agreed on (at […]
Read MoreAirlines Bet Big On Hawaii With 275,000 Additional Seats
The latest infrastructure report from the Hawaii Tourism Authority suggests that airlines are betting big on Hawaii and increasing airlift to the state. HTA expects the number of seats on direct flights to Hawaii will exceed 2.6 M for the three month period between February and April 2013. This is an increase of more than 11% from […]
Read MoreShould we increase Hawaii’s minimum wage?
The following post is excerpted from UHERO’s Brief “Should we increase Hawaii’s minimum wage?” Raising the minimum wage may be one of the hottest issues of this years’ legislative session. Two bills have been introduced to increase the minimum wage and both bills also propose indexing the minimum wage so that it is adjusted for future inflation. President […]
Read MoreThe Weakening Japanese Yen
Over the past three months the Japanese Yen has depreciated significantly against the US Dollar and other major currencies as policy makers in Tokyo try to kick start the Japanese economy. The Yen initially began to slide on speculation that newly elected Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would successfully pressure the Bank of Japan to ease […]
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