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

Barro on Keynes Barro and Grossman

Robert Waldmann Robert Barro wrote an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal. The substance of the op-ed is to report an estimate of the Fiscal multiplier 0.8 which is less than one. Thus, according to Barro, a stimulus will partially crowd out of investment, consumption or net exports and not just reduced leisure. Paul Krugman […]

24/7 Wall St. honors Angry Bear (hat tip Time CNN)

rdan … Angry Bear (2,447 links) is the product of a half dozen Ph.D economists, an historian, and financial professionals. The writers provide individual perspectives on broad sectors of the economy based on their unique training. They look at topics as varied as worldwide trade and industrial production and US government programs and regulations like […]

QUALITY SPREADS AS LEADING INDICATORS

By Spencer Historically quality spreads are leading and/or concurrent indicators of capacity utilization. So are these extreme quality spreads a forecast of capacity utilization and/or the economy?

President Obama’s new website

rdan Motherjones has a note on the new Whitehouse website. I point out some additional information of a new contract with America. An off-line Obama isn’t just bad for Barack. It’s bad for all of us. The president’s ability to reach outside his inner circle gives him access to fresh ideas and constructive critics; it […]

de Long is Too Kind to von Hayek

Robert Waldmann DeLong criticizes the introduction to the second edition of “The Road to Serfdom” On Hayek you prove that Hayek claimed that the UK was on the road to serfdom, you don’t prove that he claimed that it had gone beyond the point of no return on that road, that a U-turn before arrival […]

The Most Unpleasant Post I’ll Ever Write… and It Is About World Peace

by cactus The Most Unpleasant Post I’ll Ever Write… and It Is About World Peace I really don’t like this post. I don’t like what I wrote in it. Unfortunately, it seems accurate to me. So here goes… Saudi Arabia has no troubles with Zoroastrians, Christians, Jews, or Shia Muslims. The Zoroastrians, Christians, and Jews […]

Once is History, Twice is Parody and Ignorance

Gary Farber (so far only via Facebook) (UPDATE: Now here) finds a reprint from the 8 March 1933 issue of The Nation: At the risk of gilding the tinsel, let the record be set down finally as The Nation takes leave this week of the “only party fit to rule.” American memories are short. Four […]

Galbraith: Unemployment Statistics Of The New Deal Era

by Bruce WebbA little antidote to Amity Shlaes and the other New Deal Deniers. From TPM Cafe J.K. Galbraith introduces Marshall Auerback The view that the New Deal was too small and accomplished little, that only WWII ended the Depression, is very widely held. But it is not correct. It is based on a mis-reading […]