Update 1 pulled up here (Dean Baker says current dividends plus share buybacks are unsustainable) Update 2 Nick Bunker considers the dramatic example of Apple and the issue of unsustainable payouts to shareholders. The point of this post is to try to estimate the sustainable long run expected real return on US common stock. Historically, […]

Ed Kilgore, who is not a hypocrite, still advocates limited use of the filibuster even now that Republicans have a Senate majority. He wrote The filibuster has always been a monstrous but mitigated abuse—monstrous in its antidemocratic pretensions but mitigated by rare use. I see little reason for its use right now when the president […]

It is well known that the Federal Reserve in its three rounds of QE (and especially the first two) aggressively bought Treasury Notes and Bonds or collectively the ‘Long Bond’ of 10 Years and longer. But there has been relatively little discussion of what that means for such things as Federal Government Net Interest etc. […]

Well yes it is, and something of a constant theme of mine here at Angry Bear. But here is a chance to read the argument in the hands of real experts at CBPP, including Paul Van de Water who formerly held top positions at both SSA and CBO and is kind of a mentor of […]

Well, my west of Boston town has had about 75 inches of snow in the last couple weeks.  Any one have stories??   I believe Kenneth Thomas has moved to Boston a week or so before the storms, and “what a welcome!” pops into mind  for someone from the St. Louis area.

Some people around Clinton assume that any skepticism about her candidacy has to do with latent sexism, but I’m pretty sure that’s not my issue, either. Last week, my 6-year-old daughter informed me that she couldn’t be president because she’s a girl. So believe me, if Hillary Clinton takes the oath of office on the […]

These are the usual confused thoughts mostly stimulated by this excellent post by Simon Wren-Lewis You really should click the link and read that post. I will try to summarise it. First professor Wren-Lewis argues that monetary policy would not have offset less contractionary fiscal policy in the past 6 years, because short term safe […]

I was never aware of what impact I had over the years in my family until my youngest son reminded me of what I had done on an evening in a store called Woodman’s located on the west side of Madison, WI. I was out of work and I was busy supplementing my income by […]