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

CPI

In March the CPI increased 0.5% bringing the year over year change to 2.7%. I will leave the analysis of the CPI to other and just discuss some of the implications. First, this caused my Fed policy index to turn positive for the first time since 2008. This index is a form of a Taylor […]

Guest post: No Assumptions for a Change

Guest Post From Robert Bowman, M.D. No Assumptions for a Change Assumptions are often incorrect and the assumptions are incredibly inaccurate in primary care and in basic health access. When one starts with the assumption of more pay, then it is easy to rationalize more training or more complexity of care – even when there […]

Continuing Resolution reductions

Talking Points Memo points us to a nine page chart specifying which programs are sustaining funding cuts in the Continuing Resolution reductions as published by the Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee. (h/t rjs) (h/t MG) The original documents from the House Committee on Appropriations are located here. These include the legislation text, legislation summary, […]

The glass is half full eh one fourth full. Would you believe slightly damp ?

Paul Krugman To be fair, applying maximizing thinking has achieved some major successes even in macroeconomics. The permanent income/life cycle style of consumption theory does a much better job of accounting for the stylized facts about spending than the old, mechanical consumption function. The natural rate hypothesis, with its crucial implication that high inflation would […]

John Taylor in Favor of Higher Marginal Income Tax Rates? If Not, Why Not?

by Mike Kimel John Taylor in Favor of Higher Marginal Income Tax Rates? If Not, Why Not? A couple of weeks ago, John Taylor posted a graph showing that since 1990, there has been a negative correlation between the Investment to GDP ratio and unemployment. There’s been some back and forth between Taylor and some […]