Ashwin Parameswaran nails it once again. If you want to understand how the modern financial/monetary system actually works, run don’t walk to read this post. His key insight: Just as the East India Company could access cash on the back of their government bond holdings in the 18th century, any pension fund, insurer or bank […]

by Tom aka Rusty RustbeltThe Unemployment Tax DilemmaWhen the economy is doing well employers pay both state and federal (backup system) unemployment taxes. The rates tend to be reasonable and are levied only on a portion of wages. During recessions the employers who keep workers on are in effect penalized because all rates will likely […]

As a many-times business owner, I noted a couple of years back that in the ecosystem of publicly traded companies, there is nobody who thinks, acts, has incentives like, or is really anything like a real business owner. I’m pleased to find that Adam Smith agrees with me (emphasis mine): The trade of a joint […]

The Big C finally got rid of the inept hedge fund “manager” who finished destroying their franchise. Of course, maybe this time they will replace him with Timmeh, instead of just pretending they will so he swallows more and harder.  Just in case Orszag isn’t enough. Still not buying, but I would seriously consider closing […]

Mike’s post here got me thinking.  I’ll telegraph my conclusion.  He dramatically understated his case. You can see the long range view of nominal and inflation adjusted GPD growth in Graph 1 of FRED quarterly YoY percent change data. Graph 1 YoY growth Nominal and Inflation Adjusted GDP Nominal GDP Growth was in a secular […]

Richard Thaler asks exactly the right question. This from the latest IGM Forum poll of big-name economists, on the effects of taxing income from “capital.” I’ve been over this multiple times before, but it’s nice to see the thinking validated by a real economist. If you’ve got money, there is no (practicable) alternative to “investing” […]

An acquaintance of mine who’s very statistically savvy (and quite conservative) posted the following link on Facebook today. I replied as follows (I’ve replaced a link here with a clickable image): As a statistics guy, you know way better than most how important sample size is. There was a 30-year plateau in the HADCRUT data, […]

Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency? — Joseph N. Welch, head counsel for the United States Army while it was under investigation by Joseph McCarthy‘s Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for Communist activities, an investigation known as the Army-McCarthy hearings.  Spring 1954. Shortly after the Denver debate two weeks ago, […]

Comes to mind: the one about the two British ladies who meet at the Ascot races. “My dear,” says the first. “What a lovely hat. Where did you get it?” “Oh darling,” says the second, looking somewhat pained, “don’t you know, we have our hats.” It comes to mind as I ponder the rather grudging […]