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

Effective Demand and the Labor Market… response to Simon Wren-Lewis

Simon Wren-Lewis wrote about Aggregate Demand and the Labour Market. He shows that an aggregate demand constraint can keep employment from reaching its natural rate. He is essentially describing Keynes’ effective demand in his post. So I have made 2 changes to his title in the title of this post. I have changed aggregate demand […]

Social Security: What do Americans Want

The above is an extract from a 2012 National Academy of Social Insurance publication entitled Social Security: What do Americans Want. There is much to see and read in this publication and I urge people to take a look at this longish PDF of 57 pages and many Tables, of which this is just one. […]

Living without a Car

Paul Krugman wrote today about Life Without Cars. This subject strikes home for me. I have lived without a car since 2005. I lived 5 of the past 9 years in Chile and used the bus system there. I came back to the United States and have used a combination of walking, a bike and […]

CBO Releases 2014 Long Term Budget Outlook

2014 Long Term Budget Outlook (pdf 64pp) While we are still waiting on the 2014 Social Security Report we do have today the release of CBO’s annual Budget Outlook which among other parts does include a chapter on Social Security. I plan to extract and post some Tables from it but in the meantime people […]