It’s rare to see theft described so directly: Proposals made in July by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision should be redrafted to allow banks to use so-called contingent capital to meet the obligations, the European Banking Federation said in a letter seen by Bloomberg News. They should also be changed so lenders that can’t […]

Yesterday the Conference Board released its measure of consumer confidence, which dropped to 44.5 in August. This brings the Conference Board measure of confidence in line with the Reuters/University of Michigan measure of consumer sentiment. Bloomberg summarizes the Conference Board results. Confidence is important, since consumer spending accounts for the lion’s-share of aggregate spending. Consumer […]

Since Sunday noon till about Tuesday 6 pm had no power. The live high voltage wire downed along with two trees prevented cars coming or going for the duration of days, so helped spur reflection on neighbors, basic water needs and food stuffs, and in some cases emergencies (not our area). Still, fire and ambulance […]

by Mike Kimel This post is the third in a series that looks at the relationship between real economic growth and the top individual marginal tax rate. The first looked at the period from 1901 to 1928, the second from 1929 to 1940. This one will look at the period from 1940 to 1950. Before […]

This article by David Leonhardt in the New York Times is getting a lot of attention. Leonhardt argues that there is an active debate in the economics profession between inflation hawks, moderates and doves and that only the position of hawks and moderates are represented on the Fed open market committee (FOMC). He guesses that […]

by Mike Kimel Tyler Cowen has a post on truck driving jobs in North Dakota: My poking around showed that some of them start at 75k a year, though with raises for good performance. The implication, of course – why don’t unemployed people move to North Dakota and drive trucks for good wages rather than […]

As Rusty presents his short ‘thoughts’ on the administrative end of the national healthcare reform process, I noticed some readers have taken the problems he notes as indicative that the whole process is flawed and destructive. I do believe that is a wrong tack to take and will not serve to learn more of what […]

I don’t want to be hyperbolic, but I think that Rick Perry’s chances of being elected President just declined significantly KEYES: But should states-rights supporters be worried that, as governor you said that Social Security is not something that falls in the purview of the federal government, but in your campaign, have backed off that? […]

Let the Waves of Pity Begin: More than 80 percent said they don’t believe that their compensation is mainly predicated on performance. Instead, [Capstone managing partner Rik] Kopelan said, young investment bankers worry that it’s “based on the profitability of the firm, based on how powerful the group heads were, based on capricious things.” [emphases […]

If these words translate to actions in the Congress on emergency aid, I believe it is a significant departure from past policies. And Virginia, Cantor’s home state, is predicted to be impacted. We will know soon enough if political capital is spent on this idea. A spokesperson for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) said […]