Today Paul Krugman wrote a piece (and a blog post) about China’s high level of investment in the face of low domestic consumption. It is obvious to me that he is making headway in understanding the importance of low labor share of income. Remember low labor share means high capital share. Capital income is dedicated […]

Paul Krugman writes in Hunger Games USA. Facts and figures at his column. To fully appreciate what just went down, listen to the rhetoric conservatives often use to justify eliminating safety-net programs. It goes something like this: “You’re personally free to help the poor. But the government has no right to take people’s money” — […]

The subject of potential real GDP is important. As Paul Krugman had a post entitled, “Potential Mistakes”. Today Dean Baker had a post entitled, “GDP Growth Remains Below Potential Growth”. Paul Krugman said, “It is important to have an idea of how much the economy could and should be producing, and also of how low […]

Partnering with Visa, McDonalds’ Suggests a Budget for Employees which Ironically Shows in the End Just How Impossible It is to Get by on the Minimum Wage. The budget does not include gasoline, food, or heating expenses and incorporates $20/month for Healthcare Insurance. Besides skipping certain expenses and skimping on others; to meet the income […]

Via Daily Kos It’s been quite a day for Elizabeth Warren. First, her CFPB finally gets its director, after Reid plus 50 finally show some cojones. Then she appears on CNBC’s The Squawk Box and responds to the hostile and ill-informed questioning of that crew… Video of Elizabeth Warren interview here.

Via Truthout 21st centurty Glass Steagall Act You need to know this. Senator Elizabeth Warren wants to make banking boring again. Yesterday, the freshman senator introduced the 21st Century Glass Steagall Act, which would break up the big banks, and rebuild the wall between traditional banking and Wall Street gambling. In a statement, Senator Warren said, […]

I have had some trouble disagreing with anything written by Paul Krugman. Now I think I have a case. Also it was written in 2007 well into the shrill phase. In 1958 the New Zealand–born economist A.W. Phillips pointed out that there was a historical correlation between unemployment and inflation, with high inflation associated with […]

The last few weeks oil prices have been moving higher and few analysts seem to understand the full story. If there is any commodity that trades at a one world price it is oil.  So the recent weakness in West Texas Intermediate ( WTI)  is very unusual and stems from temporary bottlenecks.  Over the last […]