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

Keynes not considered a Prophet in the land of his birth

Robert Waldmann Krugman not considered a competent data downloader in the Newspaper which employees him. Writing about the new slashed budget proposed in the UK, Landon Thomas Jr sees invisible bond vigilantes ” bond market demands to follow through on promised austerity plans.” If this means anything it means that, before the announcement of the […]

Main Street America and getting to be middle class

By Daniel Becker We all know the arguments about the loss of good jobs. Automation, competition, outsourcing. We’ve been told that America was striking out to raise it’s status when it came to jobs. Don’t lament the loss of those blue collar manufacturing jobs to cheap labor. They aren’t worth it. Step up. The new […]

Thinking about Research

Chris Blattman highlights the latest version of Janet Currie and Reed Walker’s research on a positive externality of the shift to E-Z Pass (PDF link). From the Abstract: We find that reductions in traffic congestion generated by E-ZPass reduced the incidence of prematurity and low birth weight among mothers within 2km of a toll plaza […]

First Amendment pronouncement by O’Donnell…

by Beverly Manncrossposted note from Annarborist The National Review: Christine O’Donnell Wants the Koran Taught in the Public Schools “O’Donnell stressed that preventing schools from the possibility of teaching intelligent design would violate the First Amendment clause that Congress could not prohibit ‘the free exercise thereof’ of religion. ‘He [Coons] forgot to quote [that] part,” […]

Health Care thought: book recommendation

Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Health Care: book recommendation Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine is Making Us Sicker and Poorer by Shannon Brownlee I was able to spend some time with Ms. Brownlee recently. She is a scientist turned journalist. I do not agree with everything she says be she is most thought provoking and we […]

Tax Shelter Pleas Still Being Entered–Erwin Mayer

Tax Shelter Pleas Still Being Entered–Erwin Mayer by Linda Beale Erwin Mayer is one of the attorneys at the former firm of Jenkins & Gilcrhist.  The law firm, with accounting firms and financial institutions, helped wealthy clients evade tax “through deceit and trickery” (quoting the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York […]

China’s competitive devaluation

China took the world by surprise on Tuesday by raising bank lending and deposit rates for the first time since 2007. The story is, that restrictive monetary policy (i.e., raising rates) is needed to curb excessive lending, with an eye on mitigating inflation pressures. See this Bloomberg article to the point. While restrictive monetary policy […]

Repurchasing bond packages

Hat tip Atrios for the link to Bloomberg for another link to add to this chain of title in the Bloomberg news Pacific Investment Management Co., BlackRock Inc. and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York are seeking to force Bank of America Corp. to repurchase soured mortgages packaged into $47 billion of bonds by […]