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

Democracy, oil, economic recovery…

Prof. Barkley Rosser at Econospeak makes a few observations on the changes in the Middle East as they relate to oil producers. (Dan here…An oil shock in prices of crude oil would be problematic for the economic recovery we all hope for.)

Liberal Fallacies: Protecting Social Security from its ‘Friends’

Re-posted from New Deal 2.0 with permission from the author Liberal Fallacies: Protecting Social Security from its ‘Friends’by L. Randall Wray Liberal attacks on Social Security are the unkindest cut of all. The Center for American Progress’s Matt Miller has argued that liberals can learn a valuable lesson from NY Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposed budget. […]

David Cay Johnston on Stiffing the Working Poor

by Linda Beale David Cay Johnston on Stiffing the Working Poorcrossposted with Ataxingmatter David Cay Johnston, former New York Times tax reporter and now a columnist at Tax Analyst’s Tax Notes, writes this week about  the way both the Obama White House and the Republican party conspire to provide every-increasing benefits through the tax system […]

Europe’s at it again…

Key European CDS are starting to turn in the more northern direction again, as the German-French ‘pact for competitiveness’ faces near-unanimous pushback across Europe. Credit default swaps (CDS) are a market security used by investors to buy 5-yr protection (in this case) against default (or the like). As the spread rises the implied probability of […]

Deficit Hawks Down: The Misconstrued “Facts” Behind Their Hype

Reposted from New Deal 2.0 with permission from author. Deficit Hawks Down: The Misconstrued “Facts” Behind Their Hype by James K. Galbraith Economist James K. Galbraith attends a Pete Peterson-funded road show. The Fiscal Solutions Tour is the latest Peter G. Peterson Foundation effort to rouse the public against deficits and the national debt — […]

David Streitfeld Knows Better than This

The NYT moves deeply into delusion: The rolling real estate crash that ravaged Florida and the Southwest is delivering a new wave of distress to communities once thought to be immune— economically diversified cities where the boom was relatively restrained. In the last year, home prices in Seattle had a bigger decline than in Las […]

New Program for Offshore Accounts

by Linda Beale New Program for Offshore Accountscrossposted with Ataxingmatter As I mentioned in earlier posts, the IRS has released information about a new voluntary disclosure program for offshore account holders.  The last program, which closed in October 2009, provided a low penalty of 20% of the highest aggregate balance in offshore accounts for the […]

Canadian economic growth is about two percentage points higher under Liberal governments

by Mike Kimel Canadian economic growth is about two percentage points higher under Liberal governmentsCross posted at the Presimetrics blog. Frances Woolley has a piece in Worthwhile Canadian Initiatives that begins like this: Canadian economic growth is about two percentage points higher under Liberal governments. At least, that’s what my colleagues Stephen Ferris and Marcel […]

The ECB would quash a discrete shift in German nominal GDP rather than accommodate it

David Beckworth points to Scott Sumner, who points to Kantoos on the effectiveness of nominal income targeting in Germany. Kantoos’ illustration certainly suggests that the ECB has been successful in getting the dynamics of output and prices (nominal GDP) right over the last decade. I have no contention with the historical evidence. Whether or not […]