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

Ho hum or bizarre?

Any one knowledgeable?…leave a comment on winners and losers. Deal book today describes rather ho hum changes in capital requirements for banks with a positive spin: FED’S DIET PLAN FOR BANKS The Federal Reserve said on Monday that it planned to increase the pressure on large financial firms to slim down, DealBook’s Peter Eavis writes. […]

Measuring Slack with Short-term & Long-term NAIRUs

It is commonly known that the CBO projects potential output, but they also have 2 measures for the natural rate of unemployment… a Short-term & a Long-term rate. (link) The description at FRED economic data says… “The natural rate of unemployment (NAIRU) is the rate of unemployment arising from all sources except fluctuations in aggregate […]

Ted Olson Wants Congress to Bar the Koch Brothers’ Contributions to Incumbents. I Say: Good Idea!

Post updated below. —- Forty-six Senate Democrats have concluded that the First Amendment is an impediment to re-election that a little tinkering can cure. They are proposing a constitutional amendment that would give Congress and state legislatures the authority to regulate the degree to which citizens can devote their resources to advocating the election or […]

Ballooning Finance: How Financial Innovation Produces Overgrowth and Busts

Via Naked Capitalism: Ballooning Finance: How Financial Innovation Produces Overgrowth and Busts Yves here. It’s a welcome surprise to see economists devise a model that delivers generally sensible results. Here, three economists looked at how financial innovation leads to an bloated financial sector as well as greatly increasing the risk of meltdown. One quibble is […]

Nevada is Biggest Loser of Tesla Auction

On September 4, Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval announced that electric car-maker Tesla had chosen Nevada for the location of its much sought-after Gigafactory. Contrary to its claim that it wanted $500 million, Tesla in fact wanted speed plus the highest bidder. As I analyzed last month, a $500 million subsidy would have been relatively low […]

Overlay of Effective Demand rule upon Taylor and Rudebusch rules

Tim Duy posted a graph of various rules to determine the base nominal interest rate of the Federal Reserve. Here is the graph that he posted. (link) The graph includes versions of the Taylor rule and the modified Taylor rule used by Glenn Rudebusch at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Now I will […]