Robert Waldmann I almost feel I might disagree with Paul Krugman about international economics with imperfect competition. In particular Krugman confidently asserts that the wild swings in the the price of petroleum are the result of simple supply and demand curves (which are both extremely price inelastic so almost vertical) and not of speculation. He […]

by cactus Megan McArdle Has a Question Megan McArdle has a question: What happens to the cottage industry among Democratic-leaning armchair economists grinding out analyses proving that Democratic presidents are, like, totally awesome for the economy? Presuming that we’re stuck–as seem very likely–in at least a couple of years of really grinding low-to-no growth, Obama […]

Andrew Samwick states the obvious, clearly and well: I think we are now 18 months behind where we should be in moving forward with sensible government spending plans. We should have pulled the fiscal policy ripcord in January 2008 with a public investment plan designed to repair our aging infrastructure. I’d rather have the 18 […]

Credit crunch, followed by asset deflation. See also Robert’s series of essays in December/January.

Gary Farber lays out the details of who the real “silent majority” were in the Nixon Administration’s approach to Viet Nam, using Nixon’s own words. Such as this, from 20 January 1973—two years and three months before the ultimate U.S. withdrawal: Nixon realized that the Communists were going to win in Vietnam. “I look at […]

by cactus In Defense of Sarah Palin I don’t know what Sara Palin’s plans are, nor do I know precisely why she resigned. If I had to guess, there’s a scandal waiting to erupt. Perhaps not – she isn’t leaving her job for several more weeks, and if a scandal is about to erupt, she […]

rdan After looking at Spencer’s charts on job loss for the month, and the decrease in hours worked in a week I felt bad. However,the WSJ announces that: Business is back on Wall Street. If the good times continue to roll, lofty pay packages may be set for a comeback as well. Based on analysts’ […]

by Bruce Webb The blogosphere is alive with news that Joe implicitly green-lighted an Israeli attack on Iran. Well I had my say here and there. I just want to share a map from Cordesman and Toukan’s Study on a Possible Israeli Strike on Iran’s Nuclear Development Facilities in part because it tells its own […]

By Spencer, Every month the various economic indicators are released and various people comment on them– usually in isolation. So I thought it would be informative to look at some of the key releases since the December, 2007 peak together. As the chart shows, industrial production and real imports have fallen much more than real […]

From the coolest possibly-corporate-espionage story of the week: If only the FBI were to tackle cases of national security and loss of life with the same speed and precision as they confront presumed high-frequency program trading industrial espionage cases… especially those that allegedly involve Goldman Sachs. The original is from Reuters.