Many economists think that a further significant depreciation of the US dollar is likely in the not-too-distant future. Apparently a lot of Europeans disagree. Yesterday’s BEA data on the US’s balance of payments in the third quarter of 2004 highlights the fact that Europeans have continued to buy US dollar assets in amazingly large quantities. […]
I highly recommend this oped, which sensibly concludes: This brings us back to personal Social Security accounts. Every dollar that goes into those accounts rather than into the Treasury is an extra dollar that Uncle Sam has to borrow. So if we’re going to keep up cash accounting for the government, let’s be consistent. If […]
I shake my head in utter disbelief as I read this story: WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush said Thursday that “now is the time to confront Social Security” to deal with a projected $3.7 trillion, 75-year shortfall and give younger workers the ability to invest some of their contributions. Bush also promised to send Congress […]
Hat tip to Pete Peterson and Paul Krugman who appeared on Tuesday’s edition Hardball and did terrific jobs of addressing the issues over Chris Matthews’ annoying interruptions. Speaking of annoying, Chris made the mistake of also including Brian Wesbury whose misrepresentations included: first is that we already have a $10 trillion unfunded liability in Social […]
Were Bush’s economic advisors visibly cringing while Bush was presenting his economic analysis to reporters, or were they just silently praying? CBSMarketwatch reports: “The policy of my government is a strong dollar policy,” Bush said. Ok so far. Then Bush went on to repeat the phrase that markets have come to believe signals the policy […]
The Business Roundtable – the organization made up of the CEOs of the US’s largest corporations – is taking a rather unusual tack in its efforts to try to mobilize public support for free trade. An ad that I noticed in the Washington Post this morning is reproduced below. I was struck by this invocation […]
I thought Robert Novak was as pathetic as one could get with this: Secondly, this is — these are reservists. Reservists are not happy. The Tennessee reservists, they’re not happy being there. I don’t think you’d get that kind of a reaction from the regulars. Novak was suggesting any reservists that complained about a lack […]
Bruce asks what bubble: It is worth noting that housing prices aren’t just rising here, they are rising worldwide. According to the Economist magazine, housing prices rose 65 percent in the United States between 1997 and 2004, but they rose 112 percent in Australia, 139 percent in Britain, 149 percent in Spain, 187 percent in […]
This week’s Buttonwood column in The Economist is typically bearish about the prospects for the financial markets in 2005, but more than typically explicit about why: As Christmas is fast approaching and this is the final Buttonwood of the year (and the last by this columnist), readers will perhaps forgive the sentimental segue into the […]
When someone is right, let’s say so: A liberal who is not chicken-shit would say that we only need extned the payroill tax to cover income up to $110K. This one change would make social security solvent for 75 years, and it spares the middle class a benefit cut. Yeah, I said it: Tax the […]