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

Robert Mundell And Supply Side Economics

Robert Mundell And Supply Side Economics  The death of Nobel Prize winner Robert A. Mundell at age 88 has brought forth much discussion about his work and legacy.  Most of this discussion, such as several columns by Paul Krugman, have commented favorably on the work for which he was officially given the prize, several papers […]

The Bizarre and Manipulative Crusade by Centrist NYT Columnists to Persuade Clinton to Adopt the Republican Fiscal and Regulatory Agenda – [with update]

All the experts tell us not to pay too much attention to polls for another week or two. Still, it does look as if Hillary Clinton got a big bounce from her convention, swamping her opponent’s bounce a week earlier. Better still, from the Democrats’ point of view, the swing in the polls appears to […]

Republican Policy Response to Increasing Income Inequality

“Labor Share is decreasing so lets cut tax on capital to zero”. That is it. Literally. When you parse out Paul Ryan’s ‘Path to Prosperity’ or the net effects of Rubio’s tax plan that is what Republicans are pushing as the solution to everything. And pretty much always has been since “Rising Tide”. Forget the […]

Nick and Joe are doing their best to beat back Milton Friedman et al

Nick Hanauer, Joseph Sitglitz videos. This is the latest presentation Nick Hanauer has made regarding the upside downness of our economy and the backward, selfish thinking that has gotten us here. In this one he is talking to his “plutocrat” friends: We plutocrats need to see that the United States of America made us not […]

Supply-side Economics: Tea Party Style

Our colleague PGL offers this take at Econospeak on the new deal this week: Supply-side Economics: Tea Party Style Andrew Leonard covers the opposition to the Obama-McConnell tax deal coming from Tea Party star Michele Bachman. I’m tempted to say that her comments make me feel 30 years younger (with the hesitation that this is […]

The Pseudo-Psychology of Psupply Pside Economics

by Bruce Webb In my view you can boil Supply Side down to a simple aphorism: “If you tax something, people will use less of it”. And all things being equal and depending on how you define ‘something’ this seems economically and psychologically plausible, higher prices drive down demand. Unfortunately in the real world all […]

Reversed Psychology: Tax Cuts and Work

by Bruce Webb In comments to his last post A Response to Megan McArdle, Again Cactus put the following up as a summary of the Economic Right’s approach to tax cuts:1. tax cuts mean people are encouraged to work harder 2. people work harder 3, growth Another version of this was posted, without apparent irony, […]