Paul Craig Roberts says, “All the discipline is gone.” (Boom-bust video at 8-minute point) He is referring to the corrupt environment of deregulation that led to larger and larger banks with “untouchable” power.  He gives the example of “National Branch Banking” that developed in the late 80’s. Banks were given incentives to siphon savings from […]

He really likes the book, but expresses frustration that Piketty (emphasis mine): …doesn’t adequately differentiate among different kinds of capital… Imagine three types of wealthy people. One guy is putting his capital into building his business. Then there’s a woman who’s giving most of her wealth to charity. A third person is mostly consuming, spending a […]

Embarrassingly, I missed this reply by Tim Worstsall to my post “Understanding Piketty, part 1.” My apologies to Mr. Worstall and my readers; despite his writing it August 14, I just discovered it the other day when I was mindlessly looking at site traffic data from Alexa. In his post Worstall takes issue with Piketty’s […]

The more the Fed postpones raising of the Fed rate, the chances increase that it won’t rise at all before the next recession. Worry will mount about global growth. Worry will mount that the US is vulnerable. Pressure will build to keep the Fed rate low as the profits of more firms become increasingly vulnerable. […]

I am gaining respect for Tim Duy. He is seeing something that I have been saying for some time. The Fed rate is behind the curve and will not be able to normalize. Yes, Tim Duy makes great analyses of the economy to determine the future path of monetary policy, but he has always been […]

Guest Post by Steve Hutkins a literature professor who teaches “place studies” at the Gallatin School of New York University. This is Part 1 in a series of 3 articles as written by Steve Hutkins in 2012. These articles originally appeared on the “Save The Post Office Blog”. Steve lives in a small town in […]

“Poor people today have air conditioners and smart phones!” You hear that a lot. “You should be looking at poor people’s consumption, not their income. By that measure, they’re doing great.” The basic point is very true. If poor people today have more and better stuff, can buy more and better stuff each year, maybe we […]

Guest Post by Mark Jamison, retired Postmaster Webster, N.C. This post originally appeared at Daily Yonder Blog, entitled Speak Your Piece: Pray in Closet, Not Public Town of Greece v. Galloway SCOTUS in a 5-4 decision held the town of Greece’s practice of opening its town board meetings with a prayer offered by members of […]

Update re Rick Hasen’s position appended below. 10/11 at 11:18 a.m. (and edited for clarity and a typo correction on 10/11 at 6:27 p.m.). ____ Addendum on Purcell v. Gonzalez added below. 10/10 at 3:20 p.m. ___ At about the same time last night that the Supreme Court issued its one-page stay-of-the-stay in Frank v. […]