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

Obama road tests hopey changey 2.0

Yves Smith spells out her strong opinion of our dilemma nationally for the elections of 2012. This particular arena of regulating banks and non banks and and accountability also takes on a wider symbolic meaning in this election cycle. How this plays out in determining national budget spending priorities through the lens of an explosion […]

Elizabeth Warren 2009

As the Senate election begins in earnest in Massachusetts, with a great deal of money already pledged and attack ads begun, the contest has the ability to capture the nation’s attention and imagination. We will be following aspects of the election for our readers as the year progresses. Re posted is a statement she made […]

A Simple Question about NGDP Targeting

by Mike Kimel A Simple Question about NGDP Targeting It seems that a big part of the econosphere these days talks about NGDP targeting. Translating this into English, a number of economists believe the Fed should be adjusting monetary policy to achieve a desired level of nominal GDP in any given year. To be very […]

Johnston: Income Inequality Increases as Bank Regulation, Prosecutions Decrease

Via Taxprofblog comes David Cay Johnston’s Income Inequality Increases as Bank Regulation, Prosecutions Decrease through Reuters, The Taxpayers’ Burden, by David Cay Johnston: The accompanying graphic shows a fascinating correlation. In the years before New Deal regulation of banks and after the easing of regulations began in 1980, bank failures were quite high. So was […]

The Numbers Behind Newt’s Plan to Balance the Budget

by Mike Kimel The Numbers Behind Newt’s Plan to Balance the Budget Newt Gingrich’s website provides information on The Gingrich Jobs and Prosperity Plan. It starts with this: America only works when Americans are working. Newt has a pro-growth strategy similar to the proven policies used when he was Speaker to balance the budget, pay […]

CR on employment/population ratio

A really well done basic reading of the employment to population ratio is done by Bill McBride at Calculated Risk, and includes a mention of Paul Krugman’s article on the same topic. It is best to pay a visit to follow the reasoning and the detail involved. The implications are certainly also worth exploring.

Lost Decades

Mike Konzcal reviews Lost Decades by Menzie Chin and Jeffrey Friedan at New Deal 2.0: What caused the housing bubble? This is a different, though related, question from what caused the collapse of the financial sector or why unemployment is sky-high right now. Why did housing value skyrocket and then collapse? More broadly, why did […]