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

Trade and income distribution…who benefits, who loses

by Dan Crawford (Rdan) Voxeu carries a post on research into increasing global trade, technology, and wages patterns: The theoretical case for the potential effect of trade on the distribution of income has a long and distinguished history. It starts with the first musings of David Ricardo and has advanced to now include models with […]

Intelligent trade policy

by Stormy Those that have been responsible for intelligent trade policy have “other irons” in the fire, namely, representing companies that have made a fortune outsourcing to China. From the EPIs Robert E. Scott (Senior International Economist and Director of International Programs, Economic Policy Institute) post at Huffington Post: “An op-ed published in http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/24/opinion/24massey.html?_r=1&ref=opinionThe New […]

SS Actuary’s "Bombshell" Fizzles: Krasting Lays Egg

by Bruce Webb Regular readers of Angry Bear will be familiar with bond trader turned blogger Bruce Krasting and his, can we say non-standard conclusions about Social Security solvency. Well he is at it again today under the provocative title of SSTF – Steve Goss’s Bombshell – What Could it Mean?. SSTF means Social Security […]

The True Cost of the Iraq War

originally posted at Economist’s view by Mark Thoma Stiglitz and Bilmes: The True Cost of the Iraq War Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes: The true cost of the Iraq war: $3 trillion and beyond, by Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilmes, Commentary, Washington Post: Writing in these pages in early 2008, we put the […]

HEALTH CARE thoughts: Nursing Shortage Issues

by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt HEALTH CARE: Nursing Shortage Issues As Labor Day approaches it is a good time to think about health care labor issues, some good news, some bad news. A phenomena many of us have noticed over the years (hard to exactly quantify though) is that recessions pull nurses back into the […]

EMPLOYMENT REPORT

The monthly employment report roughly showed the economy to be still stagnated as the trends that have been in place so far this year continued. Private payrolls increased modestly by some 67,000 jobs. But the drop in census temporary employment caused total nonfarm payroll employment to fall 54,000.The year over year gain in jobs as […]

Politically Feasible Stimulus

Robert Waldmann Is going to disagree with Barack Obama and Paul Krugman (alternative title “which one here is not like the others”). Krugman writes and Obama implies that no large stimulus will pass congress. I think a proposal to send a $500 check to every US citizen containing family would pass congress. In particular some […]