Mark Thoma has argued that DeMint’s GROW proposal would not improve Social Security’s long-run solvency. As its free lunch proponents often try to sell DeMint’s ideas, Mark is absolutely correct. But now the Heritage Foundation tries to explain how a GROW proposal would reduce the alleged long-run insolvency problem: The proposal would reduce traditional Social […]

Talkleft provides links to the testimony of: Larry Johnson and James Marcinkowski. It seems these hearings were attended by only Democratic members of Congress. I hope Republican members read the transcripts. Helen Thomas notes how President Bush has lowered the bar for what is acceptable (hat tip to Mark Thoma). Speaking of lowering the bar, […]

Dean Baker does a nice job of explaining why a significant yuan revaluation will increase our net exports to China – at least a little. Dean’s implicit assumption is that the nominal revaluation will lead to an increase in the relative price of Chinese goods, which seems valid given the very modest inflation rates in […]

Before I launch into the possible role of Condi Rice, let’s review what we have learned just since in the last couple of days: Scooter Libby is blaming Tim Russert. The memo taken onto Air Force One on July 7, 2003 had an “S” to denote that it was secret – as in classified. George […]

The latest in free lunch supply-side spin from William Kucewicz actually provides some useful information. For example, his chart of Germany’s unemployment rate distinguishing between the high unemployment rate for East Germany versus the more modest unemployment rate for West Germany. As I gazed at his chart, my first thought was whether German policy would […]

Steve Clemons and others on the left are having fun at Frank Gaffney’s expense for this: Of particular concern is the prospect that the upcoming high-level plenary meeting of the UN General Assembly from September 14-16 will be used to implement various ideas for international taxes. Mr. Gaffney is arguing that we need to approve […]

James Hamilton has an excellent discussion of why we should be concerned about the large current account deficits, while David Altig follows-up with the hope that this borrowing is only temporary. The point being made by James would have equally applied to the large deficits that followed the Reagan fiscal stimulus a generation ago as […]

Apparently, the rumors were true. China made the big announcement today: 1. Starting from July 21, 2005, China will reform the exchange rate regime by moving into a managed floating exchange rate regime based on market supply and demand with reference to a basket of currencies. RMB will no longer be pegged to the US […]

The National Review was barely commenting upon PlameGate until the White House distributed its talking points (excuse me – I meant pack of lies) and then we received a barrage of silliness from these erstwhile patriots. But all of a sudden, their silly stories disappeared and the comments from The Corner stopped dead in their […]

Hat tip to Brad DeLong for noting the analysis from Richard Kogan and Isaac Shapiro who write: The trimming of the deficit is certainly a positive development. But this development does not lead to the conclusion that “the tax cuts are working,” as some now are claiming. Furthermore, the reduction in this year’s deficit from […]