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

COMPLETELY OFF-TOPIC: Looking for a shelter home for a three-year-old paraplegic dog

Over the weekend, the daughter of a friend of mine’s dog—a wonderful three-year-old German shepherd /collie mix named Bella—suffered a spinal injury of mysterious provenance.  At first, on Saturday night, the problem seemed to be just hot spot just above her tail.  But by Sunday morning, she was unable to use her hind legs at […]

Growing inequality calls for both "predistribution" and (rightly directed) redistribution

by Linda Beale Growing inequality calls for both “predistribution” and (rightly directed) redistribution In putting forward my theme of democratic egalitarianism, I have often noted that there is no such thing as an economically egalitarian society–there will always be differentials among people, those differences often relate to social class and the education, privileged upbringing, and […]

GM Obama and Romney

I am going to try to explain the fundamental difference between federal investment GM and federal loan guarantees.  This is politically important, because the Obama administration invested in GM by buying shares of new GM*.  Romney denounced this and said that the Federal government should guarantee private sector loans rather than invest directly.  The argument […]

Will San Diego make the desalination mistake?

(Dan here…a recent talk I attended on water in Burkina Faso reminded me to look at another important issue even for the US) by David Zetland    David Zetland is a senior water economist at Wageningen University in the Netherlands and maintains a blog on water issues at Aguanomics. Will San Diego make the desalination mistake? […]

Binders Full of Battleships, Horses and Bayonets

I loved the horses-and-bayonets rejoinder, and I especially loved that it highlighted Romney’s incessant plucking of irrelevant statistics and misrepresenting what they indicate.  But the line I liked best wasn’t any line that Obama said.  It was this one, said by Romney in his closing statement: I’ll lead you in an open and honest way. […]

S&P 500 under Democratic and Republican Presidents

I hear so many things about how investors prefer a Republican president I often  wonder if they have ever looked at the data.  Of course from just looking at a chart of the S&;P 500 since WWII  it is hard to see how the market has performed under different presidents.   Maybe this chart that […]

Deep and Long: Private Debt and Financial Recessions

While he (uncharacteristically) doesn’t explain or deploy it terribly well, Paul Krugman points to some very excellent research on the relationship between private debt levels and the depth and duration of (especially financial-crisis-driven) recessions. The Schularick/Taylor Vox EU article is here. The Jorda/Schularick/Taylor paper is here (PDF). I think the work is excellent in large […]

US public and ARRA reconciled.

 I was looking for something else, but in the latest poll the ARRA has become popular http://www.pollingreport.com/budget.htm United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International. Sept. 7-9, 2012. N=1,012 adults nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.7. Asked of those who have heard about the program:“From what you have seen or […]

Starbucks in Hot Water Over British Tax

 by Kenneth Thomas Starbucks in Hot Water Over British Tax Reuters (via Tax Research UK) reported on October 15 the results of an extensive investigation into the British unit of coffee giant Starbucks, the second largest restaurant firm in the world after McDonald’s. It turns out that the company has reported losing money in every […]