(Dan here. NDD takes a shot at one reason for the loss of Democratic candidates in this election.) – by New Deal democrat It’s (also) the interest rates, stupid! You know the old saw, “it’s the economy, stupid!”  Both Robert Reich and Atrios have boiled last week’s election results down to that maxim. Atrios said, […]

Calculate Risk reminds us of the importance of education… Unemployment by Education This graph shows the unemployment rate by four levels of education (all groups are 25 years and older). Unfortunately this data only goes back to 1992 and only includes one previous recession (the stock / tech bust in 2001). Clearly education matters with […]

Let’s go beyond the issue of the Fisher Effect and visualize the whole issue of nominal interest rates, real rates and inflation. The Fisher Effect is only a part of the whole issue. So we start with a model that blends all 3 rates… nominal rates on the y-axis, real rates on the x-axis and […]

This is a 7 minute video that looks at the way money has reduced the voter population that counts down to a handful.  Sure, we all get to vote, but it’s the things that happen before the final vote that makes the real decision.  How often do we hear that there is no one to […]

Core inflation is low in China… 1.4%. (link) Inflation is always pretty low in China due to weak labor share and weak domestic demand. But there is a concern that inflation will continue to fall as over-productive capacity reveals itself more and more. China is able to produce much more than there is demand for. […]

Guest Post by Mark Jamison, retired Postmaster Webster, N.C. It’s been said that “life imitates art” but the idea of government spying on its citizens didn’t originate with George Orwell and his version of “Big Brother”. The United States has a long history of spying on its citizens. The revelations of the U.S. Senate Select […]

In response to the the Neo-Fisherite view that persistently low interest rates leads to low inflation, Nick Rowe writes that we have to see what happens to the money base in order to determine inflation. He implies that the Fisher Effect has to have an explanation based on the growth rate of the money supply. […]

Amateur Socialist at Angry Bear asked me about how much was being spent per vote in 2014, and did the due diligence of finding me a spreadsheet showing how many ballots were cast per state. Ask and ye shall receive. Based on that data, here’s a rough-and-ready calc of how much was spent on each […]