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

U.S. Trade Deficit Largely Due to "Intra-Firm" Trade

by Kenneth Thomas U.S. Trade Deficit Largely Due to “Intra-Firm” Trade The vast majority of the U.S. $727 billion trade deficit in goods for 2011 is due to “intra-firm” or “related party” trade, that is, trade between two units of the same corporation, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This is significant because such trade […]

World Trade Turning Down

by Rebecca Wilder World Trade Turning Down Something different for today: world trade. Recently, South Korea and Taiwan released July 2012 trade statistics, where annual export growth was seen contracting at a 8.8% and 11.6% rate, respectively. The annual pace of export growth in Taiwan contracted for the fifth consecutive month, where that in South […]

Yves Smith has been all over the Standard Chartered story

Yves Smith has been all over the Standard Chartered story: Reuters Runs Interference for Elite Corruption, Scrubs Article That Shows How Banks Get Out of Jail Free – 08/09/2012 – Yves Smith Standard Chartered Makes Empty Threat to Sue New York Regulator Over Iran Money Laundering – 08/09/2012 – Yves Smith NYS Order on Standard […]

Indefinite detention of Americans…progress in Fed court update

Via Salon, the The Village Voice updates us on the progress on the suit by Chris Hedges and others (also see NDAA website): The question being argued in federal court in Lower Manhattan yesterday boiled down to this: Is a law authorizing the indefinite military detention of American citizens with only the barest recourse to […]

Repeal the ACA and Lower Costs for Citizens

by Run75441 Repeal the ACA and Lower Costs for Citizens… Chicken Little, Courtesy of “EW.Com Entertainment Weekly”What presidential candidate Romney has vowed to repeal is showing more benefit than harm in driving down the cost of healthcare for individuals, groups, and commercial insurance. If repealed by Romney, the results could cost more than leaving it […]

Jonathon Portes on Macroeconomics and the deficit

Jonathon Portes on macroeconomics and the deficit: As we all know, since then both the US and UK have had deficits running at historically extremely high levels, and long-term interest rates at historic lows: as Krugman has repeatedly pointed out, the (IS-LM) textbook has been spot on.  Empirically (and theoretically) well-founded? Definitely.  As Simon Wren-Lewis points […]

Kevin Drum on Reid’s gambit on Romney’s taxes

Kevin Drum has an opinion on election tactics: Come on, folks. Reid didn’t say I’ll bet Romney didn’t pay any taxes. He didn’t say he talked to someone familiar with high earners who told him Maybe Romney won’t release his returns because he didn’t pay any taxes. He made a flat statement of fact. He […]

Brad DeLong and THINGS WRONG WITH HASSETT, HUBBARD, MANKIW, AND TAYLOR, "THE ROMNEY PROGRAM FOR ECONOMIC RECOVERY, GROWTH, AND JOBS"

Brad DeLong offers a long post on economists on the Romney team. THINGS WRONG WITH HASSETT, HUBBARD, MANKIW, AND TAYLOR, “THE ROMNEY PROGRAM FOR ECONOMIC RECOVERY, GROWTH, AND JOBS” Notes on HHMT: Kevin Hassett, Glenn Hubbard, Gregory Mankiw, and John Taylor, “The Romney Program for Economic Recovery, Growth, and Jobs” HHMT: We are presently in […]

Health Care Thoughts: Evidence-based medicine not easy

by Tom aka Rusty RustbeltHealth Care Thoughts: Breast Cancer Battle Evidence-based medicine may not be as easy as it first sounds.  An opinion piece in the British Medical Journal (http://www.bmj.com/content/345/bmj.e5132) attacks the Susan G. Komen Foundation for over-hyping the value of mammography. This is not a new controversy, and experts have lined up on both sides of […]