The Neoconomists Daniel Altman certainly has a catchy title to promote his upcoming book and I like the topic: Hubbard and Lindsey saw cutting taxes on savings and wealth as a recipe for faster growth. Their plans were consistent with supply-side economics, which had dominated Republican policy for decades, since they targeted the economy’s long-run […]

Rising Tide and Dooh Nibor Economics Two interesting pieces on income inequality in the U.S.: First – “A Rising Tide that Lifts Only Yachts” by Bernard Wasow of The Century Foundation documents the growing disparity between income and wealth for the rich versus the poor in the U.S. from 1981 to 2000. Since his data […]

Reagan may replace Hamilton on the $10 bill NEW YORK (CNN/Money) – Ronald Reagan’s face could one day adorn the $10 bill or half the dimes minted in the country, if fans of the late president get their way. In a sad way, this may be fitting. After all, Treas. Sec. Hamilton served a President […]

Lord Stanley hits the beach; Larry Brown goes Hollywood Congratulations to the Tampa Bay Lightning on winning the Stanley Cup! I really thought the Calgary Flames would take game 6 of the NHL playoffs but the Lightning found a way of beating the Flames in OT and then played a great game to win it […]

Moore’s Idol Worship of Reaganomics Stephen Moore has dusted off some of his silliest claims in his NRO salute to Reagan: Reagan was truly blessed by the incompetence of his predecessors. The cumulative policies of LBJ, Nixon, Ford, and Carter had atrophied America’s economic muscle. Their legacy was big bureaucratic government expansionism, easy money, soaring […]

Needed: Abu Ghraib Special Prosecutor WIDE GAPS SEEN IN U.S. INQUIRIES ON PRISON ABUSE by STEVEN LEE MYERS and ERIC SCHMITT, June 6, 2004, The New York Times begins: Disparate inquiries into abuses of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan have so far left crucial questions of policy and operations unexamined, according to lawmakers from both […]

PlameGate & the Questioning of Dick Cheney (CNN) — Vice President Dick Cheney has been interviewed by federal prosecutors investigating a leak that disclosed the identity of an undercover CIA operative, a Bush administration official told CNN. John King of CNN also notes that the New York Times broke this news on June 5 in […]

Reagan’s Legacy Ronald Reagan had a sense of grace and a way with words that could charm friend and foe alike – something other conservatives might pay more attention to. Conservatives love to say Reagan stuck to his principles and focused on three objectives: (1) ending the Soviet empire; (2) cutting taxes; and (3) reducing […]

Higher Gas Prices are a Good Thing? One of the benefits of contributing to the Kerry campaign are emails with current news on hot economic topics – often serious and fair&balanced unlike those biased Bush-Cheney cartoons. But last week, the Kerry camp had this silly cartoon called the “Oil House”. It points out how top […]

Leisure has increased under Bush-Cheney At the risk of having some very good labor economist critique this, I’ll put forth a Leisure Index (LI) simply defined as the civilian employment to population ratio (R) times the average weekly hours – total private industries (H). When Bush took office R = 64.4% and H = 34.2. […]