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

US warfare spending

by reader Ilsm Heritage Foundation’s Rant against Reductions to the War Machine:Talking points aired on 14 Aug 2010 AM session of C-SPAN TV. US warfare spending will decline to 3% of GDP by 2019. As if that is a problem. GDP is meaningless, especially when you see the tiny threats that the large percent of […]

Where are the unions?

In These Times Grupo Santander, the global banking giant, last year took control of Sovereign Bank. The largest bank in the Euro-zone, where it is based, Santander is the world’s eighth largest banking company by market capitalization. While the company is very good at generating profits around the world (it’s the world’s fourth largest bank […]

Nope, it’s not enough for the weakest of the "Zone"

Spanning the period April 14, 2010 to June 7, 2010, the euro lost 12.5% in value against the $US (this is not a trade-weighted measure of the currency value, but it’ll do). As the currency tumbled, Q2 nominal export income grew quickly over the quarter for the top 5 economies in the Eurozone: Germany, 6% […]

What Do We Mean When We Say "Structural Unemployment"? Part 1

This needs to be screamed far and wide from the highest mountain to the deepest sea, at the top of one’s lungs: There is no reason to think that the bulk of current unemployment is any sense “structural”: if aggregate demand were higher it would melt away just as unemployment in 1982 melted away. The […]

Long Term Debt Outlook

Robert Waldmann I’m not sure if I should post this here. I think it might be stimulating. However, I am ignorant and have no intention of learning (except from comments). I feel free to display my ignorance after the jump. The conventional wisdom seems to be that we have to do something about the long […]

Deficit Nonsense in the WSJ

Robert Waldmann Jonathan FBD Weisman strikes again. I blame Kevin Drum for the fact that I read a grossly dishonest article of his in the Wall Street Journal. The article is about public attitudes on the deficit and on proposed solutions. As a normal journalist, Weisman stresses anecdotes and only briefly mentions polling data. I […]

Intermission

by: Daniel BeckerThis is just a little something toward the “get to know your blogger” department of AB. It’s just in case anyone thinks that we have no real life. Besides the 2 businesses, dealing with long term care issues for both parents (not even on the list of issues for this nation) and stimulating the economy by […]