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

Labor share affects the potential of investment to raise GDP

The circular flow is a model used to show how money and products move through an economy. I am going to use a simplified version to show the effect of labor share of income on GDP. Many people think that labor income is not quantitatively different than capital income. I will show that the equilibrium […]

Let’s Debase the Dollar!

A lot of people, especially conservatives, complain about the so-called debasement of the U.S. dollar. For example, Craig R. Smith, who is apparently important enough to be interviewed by “FOX News, CNN, CNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, CBN, TBN, Time, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Newsweek,” wrote a book last year […]

Guest post: Under Obamacare, Will You Receive a Subsidy…We Now Have Real Numbers

 by Maggie Mahar Under Obamacare, Will You Receive a Subsidy to Help You Buy Your Own Insurance? We Now Have Real Numbers That Will Let You Calculate How Much You Will Receive Note to Readers: A longer version of this post appeared yesterday on HealthInsurance.org. Up until now, when Obamacare’s supporters and reform’s opponents squabbled over […]

Part Time Employment and the Sequester

Part of the reason employment and hours worked, in particular, have been so weak in early 2013 is the rapid growth of part-time employment. Part time employment is volatile and subject to many influences.  From December to June part time employment rose 589,000.  That is a 2.2% — almost 5% annualized – growth rate. Part […]

"pensioners: 17 cents on the $; BoA, UBS 75 cents on the $"

Detroit Said to Reduce Swaps Debt by 25% in Deal With Banks . The swaps were a “bet” on the direction of interest rates. With the decline of variable interest rates, Detroit found itself owing to the banks. With the decreased credit rating to B2, the same as AIG, Detroit found itself at the mercy […]