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

Karl Rove on the so-called "fiscal cliff"

by Linda Beale Karl Rove on the so-called “fiscal cliff” In a video interview available from Dow Jones/Wall Street Journal, “Karl Rove Doubts a Fiscal Cliff Deal Will Get Done” (Nov. 20, 2012),  Karl Rove’s pre-Thanksgiving news to the world is exactly what one would expect from one of the most successful GOP strategists.  He […]

Housing wealth effect, Baker, Goldfarb and Waldmann

by Robert Waldmann Everything is possible and I think that Dean Baker just lost a debate with a Washington Post reporter.  Post reporter Zachary A. Goldfarb  wrote The two economists compared what happened in U.S. counties where people had amassed huge debts with those where people had borrowed little. It had long been thought that […]

Marginal Rates and Economic Growth: They Go Up Together

With Republicans frantically clinging to discredited ideology and digging in their heels on raising top marginal tax rates, I thought it would be worth revisiting a post from a couple of years ago, showing some excellent long-term evidence that higher marginal tax rates are not associated with slower growth. Quite the contrary, in fact. Here […]

Politics and specific policies

by Robert Waldmann At Frum forum Justin Green extensively quotes Jeb Golonkin on how conservatism could be much better if conservatives made specific policy proposals.  Sad but true, almost all of the proposals that have been signed into law are by Barack Obama.  This is not a rare event.  While many conservatives stick to slogans, […]

Via Barry Ritholtz’s  Big Picture comes this PBS six minute video on why health care costs so much. Watch Documentary: Why Does U.S. Health Care Cost So Much? on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

Wages, prices, "profit", and productivity…and Black Friday too

Black Friday around here in New England begins to night in stores about 8 P.M. On the internet Black Friday’s discounts began last week as the competition heats up between companies with stores and internet based sales. Stores have responded with aggressive discounts, especially visible is Walmart. This post is relevant to the issue of […]

Thanks from a reader to Bears

Mr. Dan, When I started reading Angry Bear I was working as a technical editor (degree in English) and had zero knowledge of economics, but I was watching the (to me) economic weirdness going on in the 2000’s, and started reading economics blogs in a mostly vain attempt to discover what the heck was going […]