They’re back, and it’s nominatin’ time. AB

How many times have we heard free lunch promises from the GOP – especially in regards the Social Security issue? Well, Edmund Andrews reads the fine print. It would seem the GOP plan to save Social Security may include: – Raise the age when people can start to receive benefits; – Reduce payments to married […]

Business Week reads the latest from Paul Samuelson on trade theory and then writes Shaking Up Trade Theory. Brad DeLong objects to this paragraph: But if white-collar offshoring swells enough, the resulting job losses could undercut a large swath of U.S. consumers. In part, this is a question of scale. There’s little doubt that globalization […]

NOW Senator McCain tells us: PHOENIX, Arizona (AP) — U.S. Sen. John McCain said Monday that he has “no confidence” in Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, citing Rumsfeld’s handling of the war in Iraq and the failure to send more troops. McCain, speaking to The Associated Press in an hourlong interview, said his comments were […]

Just when we thought we’d see a fall in the price of clothes courtesy of allowing more imports from China, we learn this: Eighteen days before the end of a 30 year-old system restricting international trade in textiles and apparel, the Bush administration is imposing new barriers on imported clothing that is likely to curtail […]

Two hat tips. First, Daily Howler is doing an excellent job of both explaining this issue as well as the spin from hacks such as David Brooks, including his 12/11 post. See his 12/13 latest as well as all of Bob’s excellent reviews from 12/6 onwards. The second hat tip goes to Brad DeLong who […]

Alas, he was not talking about the General Fund (GF) issue but rather the Social Security Trust Fund (SSTF) issue. The President’s weekly Saturday radio addresses have alas been a time for either really dumb or dishonest statements –with the latest being both dumb and dishonest: The Social Security system is essential, yet it faces […]

Via Brad DeLong, this pretty much speaks for itself: AB

Many thanks to AB for this paper and for posting Chart 6, which was accompanied by this discussion: Taking into account the influence that declining nominal mortgage interest rates have on cash flow affordability leads to a quite different assessment of current home prices than does the simple home-price-to-income ratio. To demonstrate this, we compute […]

After reading Kash’s first housing post, I read the paper he cited, “Are Home Prices the Next Bubble?” (FRBNY Economic Policy Review, Dec 2004). While there is a lot to chew on, I share Kash’s skepticism. In particular, the authors rely heavily on quality adjusted housing prices to reach their conclusion that there is no […]