I just want to remind everyone that the last president to implement a federal pay freeze was Nixon. And of course we all remember how that worked. Just after that was when I left government for about a 33% raise in total compensation — including fringe benefits and retirement. So much for over paid federal […]
by Peter Dorman The Impoverished, and Impoverishing, Debate about Fiscal Deficitsoriginally posted at Econospeak It is like living in a dream—a very bad dream. Everything seems at once real and imaginary, serious and deliriously impossible. The language is familiar and incomprehensible. And it seems there is no waking up, ever. I’m talking about the “debate” […]
by Mike Kimel Hauser’s Law is Extremely MisleadingCross posted at the Presimetrics blog. A friend sent me a link to this Wall Street Journal opinion piece by W. Kurt Hauser. Who is he, you ask? Here’s what it says at the bottom of the article: Mr. Hauser is chairman emeritus of the Hoover Institution at […]
Ezra Klein explains that Medicare can’t cut payments too much or doctors will opt out The problem is that Medicare can’t control costs too much better than private insurers or, as you see from the article above, doctors will simply abandon Medicare. Klein seems oddly indifferent to the detailed text of the Afordable Care Act. […]
Echoes of Japan, echoes of the Great Depression. One of the few economists who knows history closes a post by presenting the proper context for the choices: A quick exit [by Ireland, from the Euro] may still be better than a decade of slow, grinding deflation combined with Zombie banks and Zombie household balance sheets […]
Assume I believe in risk-adjusted return on capital. That is, I don’t buy a bond yielding 12% instead of one yielding 6% without first considering that the yield difference is affected by the likelihood of Principal return being lower. (But I will buy the 12% bond if I believe the risk premium is too high […]
Mark Thoma says it well on the ‘what comes next’ dilemma facing voters and those making recommendations for policy: there is supposed to be a “rest of the trick,” but it doesn’t come until later. The idea is that the labor that is freed up from the increased productivity will be used to produce new […]
Nov. 30, is National Call Congress Day to fight Social Security cuts! It’s not too late to commit to participating in this important event. Call your Senators tomorrow (Tuesday) at 1-866-529-7630, toll-free. The operator will identify your senators by asking for your zip code. Call BOTH of your senators if you have time. It only […]
by Mike Kimel A Proposed Bet for Professors Bryan Caplan and David R. Henderson (and Anyone Else Who Believes Lower Taxes Generate Faster Economic Growth)Cross posted at the Presimetrics blog. Professors Caplan and Henderson, Both of you have had recent posts that indicate you have some enthusiasm for betting on economic outcomes. (Your co-blogger at […]