It’s that they are so bad at it. At least they made clear that Glenn Greenwald was correct when he said the deal is exactly what Obama wanted: Fact: President Obama laid out key priorities that had to be part of any deal. Those priorities are reflected in this compromise.…the initial down payment on deficit […]

Economists for Obama suddenly showed up in my RSS reader again. It’s not a pretty sight: I suppose I might change my mind, but after watching the President give in to the Boehner-McConnell blackmail axis, I don’t imagine I’ll be spending much of my time advocating his re-election. Assuming he’s the Democratic nominee, which I […]

To which some might be tempted to respond: “What fresh hell is this?!” Well it is an attempt to backfill some of the argument behind my last post on consumption vs accumulation in relation to investment and marginal rates. A.V. Chayanov was an early Soviet era agricultural economist of enormous influence during his time. Unfortunately […]

Ken writes that Ezra Klein has turned into a Fred Hiatt Jr. I was inclined to differ. As evidence, I considered linking to To govern responsibly, the White House will need to negotiate like Republicans That doesn’t sound like Hiatt. Then I got to the policy proposal The White House should announce that it won’t […]

by Rebecca Wilder Edward Harrison draws our attention to the euro area bond crisis: Spain, Italy, Belgium yields now under attack. I’d like to add to this thread by offering some illustrations of the polarizing of bond markets that’s coincident with the euro area bond crisis. (Notice I do not say currency crisis because it’s […]

by Mike Kimel Stop Acting Surprised It seems a lot of Democrats seem surprised that Obama is willing to give up on what they view as core principles. On the Republican side, there seems to be an implicit understanding that pretending the economic mess and spending began under Obama’s watch, and thus the policies that […]

Readers here will know more about the US federal government income statement than I. However, given the near ubiquitous deficit hysteria, I wanted to illustrate the truth about the budget deficit. The truth is, that deficit hysteria has been set in motion by A surge in government spending on items like unemployment compensation, food stamps, […]

By Daniel Becker In the comments to my post “A reminder from Obama’s February 2009 speech”, there is the following: “I guess it relates to the fake Obama they had made up in their heads,…”  This sums up the early comments to the post suggesting that those who trusted Obama have only themselves to blame. […]

Today a host of global purchasing managers indices (PMIs) reiterated that the global economy is slowing….quickly. Within 24 hours, China, the US, and the euro area all reported July PMIs falling toward the feared 50 (below which the manufacturing industry is contracting) – 50.7, 50.9, and 50.4, respectively. The UK PMI fell below 50 to […]