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

I like this comment by Yves Smith

by cactus I found this comment by Yves Smith – which is not the main point of her post by the way – to be very good. But another side effect of today’s equity market gyrations is further distrust in the markets, particularly by retail buyers. I am told that various retail trading platforms were […]

EMPLOYMENT REPORT

It is nice to finally report that the employment report was encouraging as nonfarm payrolls rose some 290,000 in April. Even if the 66,000 temporary government employment for the census are excluded the job gains were significant.Even the increase in the unemployment rate to 9.9% was actually a positive as it largely reflected individuals who […]

Mark Thoma says:

by cactus This post by Mark Thoma is just too good not to steal wholesale. When Republicans complain about all the people who aren’t paying federal income taxes, and they’ve been doing this a lot lately, I get confused. And that confusion extends beyond the obvious fact that almost everyone who is employed pays payroll […]

Crisis? What Crisis?

As I should have noted yesterday, and as Arnold Kling discusses today, sometimes the questions are as revealing as the responses. And sometimes, the answers are suspiciously inconsistent. Below is the graphic from my question for the Q2 Kauffman Economic Outlook: A Quarterly Survey of Leading Economics Bloggers. Link to the survey press release here, […]

Always tradeoffs…and complexities and externalities

For readers’ information, this study page 193 appears to be most comprehensive and recent (2005) on dispersants for oil (hat tip Salon): One of the most difficult decisions that oil spill responders and natural resources managers face during a spill is evaluating the environmental trade-offs associated with dispersant use. The objective of dispersant use is […]

Two other views on Greece and the US

Mark Thoma at Economist View points us to Stiglitz and Rogoff on Europe’s Financial Troubles: Joseph Stiglitz:Can the Euro be Saved?, by Joseph E. Stiglitz, Commentary, Project Syndicate: …Fixing the exchange rate and delegating monetary policy to the European Central Bank eliminated two primary means by which national governments stimulate their economies to avoid recession. […]