Via Big Picture, Barry Ritholz points us to discussion on the role of ‘war’ in our economy: Preface: Many Americans – including influential economists and talking heads – still wrongly assume that war is good for the economy. For example, extremely influential economists like Paul Krugman and Martin Feldsteinpromote the myth that war is good […]
Even the big mutual fund giants won’t guarantee the principle in money market funds (the dollar threshold). Now here is an interesting notion for people to think on for a policy occurring in EU policy debates. What would this mean? From the New York Times: First there was ZIRP. Now get ready for NIRP. The first […]
It is common to see economists saying that once wages start to rise, inflation will rise too. Yet, I have been writing that inflation may not rise if wages rise. The reason is that capital income is consuming in historically tremendous amounts. And a rise in wages could mean a decline in profits, which would […]
No sooner had I finished my mini-series on evaluating proposed location subsidies then @varnergreg sends me this story about a new copper tubing manufacturing facility opening in one of the nation’s poorest counties, Wilcox County, Alabama. This is clearly the sort of place where I think we should consider using investment incentives, but the sheer […]
I chased prisoners in 71 at Camp Lejeune as a sergeant and stood duty NCO at the Barrel Club Leeward side Gtmo, Cuba 1970 as a Corporal. It was not much fun dealing with those being discharged or drunk. I think some have the right idea on how to handle hostile drunks. Enjoy. Hat Tip: […]
Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism showed concern over my last post on rising labor share… “In reality, it’s even worse than that. I hate criticizing writers whose work I generally like, but as a contrast to this talk, I suggest you look at a new post by Ed Lambert at Angry Bear. In it, a […]
Steve Randy Waldman has utterly pre-empted the need for this post, cut to the core of the thing, in the opening line of his latest (collect the whole series!): When economics tried to put itself on a scientific basis by recasting utility in strictly ordinal terms, it threatened to perfect itself to uselessness. But I’ll try […]
The Table above is extracted from Table VI.F9 in the 2013 Annual Report of Social Security. It is radically simplified because I want to make a very simple set of points, ones that have little or nothing to do with the proper policy approach to Social Security or to the adequacy of the model that […]
June’s issue of Atlantic Monthly brings to the reader a series of graphs as presented by Derek Thompson’s “How the Rich Shall Inherit the Earth”. The article gives a pictorial representation of what has taken place since the eighties in skewing income to a small, very small group of individuals numbering < than a hundred […]