In a speech this week, the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Charles Evans, made a case for keeping the effective Fed rate low well into the foreseeable future. He concluded… “To summarize, I am very uncomfortable with calls to raise our policy rate sooner than later. I favor delaying liftoff until I […]
Remember Iceland? During the high-flying early 2000s, its three main banks went berserk, paying high interest rates to international investors that accumulated deposits equal to more than 100% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and making loans equal to 980% of GDP. When the collapse came, Iceland took a route not taken by Ireland, […]
How many remote controls do you have for your TV? Do you care to describe the tangle of cables and wires connecting your various components? If you’re like almost everyone I know, the answers are “at least three, probably five” and “No!” Have you had a housesitter recently? How long did it take for you to […]
Post has been cut-and-paste-typo-corrected. 9/28 at 11:43 a.m. —- There’s a palpable fear amongst Kansans, all across this state, that the America that we love, and cherish, and honor, will not be the same America for our kids and grand kids. And that’s wrong. That’s very wrong. As a result, unfortunately, people are losing faith […]
Brad DeLong has a video discussing Piketty’s book. In the video, the subject of labor share comes up, which has dropped to new lower levels in advanced countries. Robert Solow tries to make an analogy for labor share being an irrelevant factor. So he describes two islands. (36 to 38 minutes in video) and asks […]
PGL at Angry Bear wrote several posts on the privitizing of the Indiana Toll Road in 2006 as a commenter reminds me at hearing of the news the firm that bought it went bankrupt: Via Daily Kos In 2006, Mitch Daniels, then the Republican Governor of Indiana, signed into law a “major moves” bill that, […]
The school board proposal that triggered the [student and teacher] walkouts in Jefferson County calls for instructional materials that present positive aspects of the nation and its heritage. It would establish a committee to regularly review texts and course plans, starting with Advanced Placement history, to make sure materials “promote citizenship, patriotism, essentials and benefits […]
I’ve ranted about this phenomenon for a long time: Do Businesses Borrow to Invest in Productive Assets? Quoting JW Mason: “the marginal dollar borrowed by a nonfinancial business in this period was simply handed on to shareholders, without funding any productive expenditure at all.” We Need to Spur Business Investment. Yeah, Right. Quoting Floyd Norris: […]
Reader Tony Wikrent posted the following comment this morning to my Sept. 20 post titled “Freedom! Liberty! And Being For the Little Guy. As Brought to You By the Conservative Movement.”: Actually, it turns out that if you are against big government, you ARE against all government. I’m surprised that conservatives who spout the “enumerated […]