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

Saturday browsing

rdan 40 year wish list op-ed piece in the WSJ says (hat tip Tinman) : Most of the rest of this project spending will go to such things as renewable energy funding ($8 billion) or mass transit ($6 billion) that have a low or negative return on investment. Most urban transit systems are so badly […]

Assume They Know What an Acronym Is

I am reliably informed (though I cannot find it on the web) that Forbes yesterday and MSNBC today are both referring to the next kleptocratic maneuverbank bailout bill as the Bank Asset Recovery Fund. Anyone got the links? UPDATE: Forbes link added. UPDATE II: The consensus in comments appears to be that a Meredith Whitney […]

Simple Answer to a Simple Question

Dr. Black graciously asks: Am I the only to whom it’s occurred that monetary policy through the banking channel (as opposed to, say, actually dropping money from helicopters) is only likely to be effective if banks are pretty good at allocating capital efficiently, and recent history tells us that the existing set of clowns in […]

Pick Your Pork: an Open Invitation

These tables from CBO show the actual breakout by category of both spending and tax cuts in HR.1 the House version of the Stimulus Bill as introduced (some things were stripped out for passage). I’d like to invite everyone to compile their own list of what they consider to be pork or mistimed (i.e. too […]

comment on Ambrosini

Robert Waldmann Following a link e-mailed by Ken Houghton I read this at “the Ambrosini critique” (thanks Ken) I read The need for more math is also related to the increase in the empirical relevance of theory. I’m convinced the only standing legacy of the Real Business Cycle literature, besides method, is its insistence on […]

Tom Daschle’s health care book – Part II

Tom (STR) has another post at Health Care Think Tank Senator Daschle wants to build on the current private system, but also expand the scope and reach of federal government programs. The Federal Health Board, modeled after the Federal Reserve Board, would initially be directed at the federal government programs, but Daschle makes it clear […]

Another reason trade policy needs a serious look

lifted from Calculated Risk From the International Air Transport Association: Cargo Plummets 22.6% in December (hat tip Bob_in_MA) In the month of December global international cargo traffic plummeted by 22.6% compared to December 2007. The same comparison for international passenger traffic showed a 4.6% drop. The international load factor stood at 73.8%. For the full-year […]

What is US trade policy to be? Who cares?

rdan Naked Capitalism also points to the underlying inattention to US trade policy and our financial wizards. Last night, we reported that the International Institute of Finance was calling for a global GDP contraction for 2009. The IMF today, while not going as far as the IIF, got about as downbeat as one could expect […]