rdan No fat tail. Nor black swan. Nor once every 100 year occurrence. (Hat tip reader CMike) Forbes has Volcker’s complete remarks below the fold, lifted directly from Forbes and brought here: Paul Volcker: It’s clear to everyone that we are in the midst of a massive economic and financial crisis. It’s big in the […]

By Spencer, Earlier I showed how the sharp drop in industrial production compared to other cycles, but did not point out that the factory operating rate moved down 1.7 percentage points, to 68.0 percent, the lowest rate of utilization since this series began in 1948. Normally, capacity utilization leads inflation and this implies weshould see […]

rdan The item below was sent to me to consider. I was unsure what to do about it, as it is done by a banking PR firm. However, as a springboard to conversation, it can be useful. The post itself can start a conversation, and I will save my thoughts for the conversation. Gap Between […]

In the past two minutes of checking out Coates’s latest—well worth reading, otherwise—there have been banner and frame adverts for: The Atlantic Business, edited by Megan McArdle, “Decoding the Mysteries of Today’s Economic Order” or McMegan Explains Modern Business Models (a.k.a. “Built to Flip”) All to You and “Need Advice? Ask Jeffrey Goldberg“ Sorry, but […]

There is now an Angry Bear Chat Room facility, accessible from the lower-right corner of the blog. Does anyone want to use it? Do you need/want posters and others to schedule regular times in there used water slides?

Robert Waldmann Michael Kinsley suspects that the US government might decide to inflate its debt away. “Just three or four years of currency erosion at, say, 10 percent a year would slice the real value of our debt — public and private, U.S. bonds and jumbo mortgages — in half.” Notice how “log(2)/log(1.1) = 7.25 […]

Robert Waldmann In my childhood and teens I counted on The Washington Post (motto “All the President’s Men. If you liked the movie, you’ll love the newspaper,” so now I guess I will have to relearn mathematics to adapt to the fact that 500,000 = 0. Via DeLong Via Hilzoy In defense of George Will’s […]

Prince of Darkness Denies Own Existence “There is no such thing as a neoconservative foreign policy,” Perle informed the gathering, hosted by National Interest magazine. “It is a left critique of what is believed by the commentator to be a right-wing policy.” & “I see a number of people here who believe and have expressed […]

rdan Politico reports the schedule for the fiscal summit. Does anyone know what it is supposed to do? FORMAT: Approximately 100 guests will gather at the White House to participate in a summit on fiscal issues. The group will be composed of the President and Vice President, Members of Congress, members of the Cabinet and […]

rdanDavid Altig at Atlanta Fed provides visuals for the stimulus spending. Update2: Another good visual (h/t Mcwop) from WapoUpdate:Yglesias makes a statement on past recessions and how long they lasted. Gilded does not mean Golden using this information. And that post-WWII expansion beat the pants off any other increase in the standard of living for […]