Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Perceptions of inflation vs. wage growth: why the divergence?

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2024 Perceptions of inflation vs. wage growth: why the divergence?  – by New Deal democrat My recent travels included visits to cousins and their children on both sides of my family. Without any prompting from me, inevitably the table talk turned to the state of the economy. Rather than Bigfoot the opinions […]

Struggling to Boost Chile’s Meager Pensions

Gabriel Boric Is Struggling to Boost Chile’s Meager Pensions, Jacobin, Phineas Ruekert. Dale Coberly on Social Security: Not so long ago (2003) the Liars who want to destroy Social Security in America were bragging about the privatized pension system adopted by Chile.  Many of those liars commented on my posts on AB.  Here is an […]

Who do you work for?

Who do you work for? The one-handed economist, David Zetland Economists assume that people work for themselves first, i.e., accepting payment (extrinsic motivation) to do something they would not do if they were not paid. But that “model” ignores the role of intrinsic motivation (we do what we like) which plays a role — large or small — […]

Just some news from Reporting in Letters from an American

Full article at the link. Last night Prof: Heather Cox-Richardson reporting in “Letters from an American” a comment made by Tucker Carlson to Egyptian journalist Emad El Din Adeeb. Carlson emphasized an equivalency of American leaders to Russia’s Putin. My Letters Take . . . “Every leader kills people . . . Some kill more […]

Computerized Systems can be compromised by Cyberattacks

I took the story from a NBC News article written by Kevin Collier, “Parents struggle after Lurie Children’s Hospital cyberattack.” Quelle Surprise as one blogger used to say from time to time. What else is new? This was bound to happen. The issue(s) as I see it, is/are what is the backup(s) to the system? […]

John Maynard Keynes Doesn’t Seem to Know What He Means by the Word “Spending”

Is investment spending “spending,” or isn’t it? Steve Roth (@ Wealth Economics) J.M. Keynes’ brief Preface to the French edition of General Theory is sometimes held up as the most concise, cogent, and coherent expression of his economic understandings. It achieves that, but in doing so it also reveals a core incoherence in that thinking. An obligatory nod here […]