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

Economists are disingenuous about Sweden’s interest rate slump

An economic slump or recession is considered a bad thing by economists. They point to Sweden and blame Sweden for raising its interest and causing a recession. “Bad Sweden, Bad Sweden”. But those economists are being short-sighted. They do not mention that Sweden is now doing much better than the rest of Europe. They have […]

EU slams Starbucks and Fiat advanced tax rulings as state aid; Is Apple next?

The European Commission decided two of its major tax subsidy cases on Wednesday, October 21, and the rulings could not have been worse for Starbucks and Fiat (h/t Chillin’ Competition). These cases can be seen as a barometer of what is to come in the legally similar but much larger case of Apple, where potentially […]

A Truth about Sweden’s Recession & Raising its Interest Rates

Within an economy, there are different industries. and each industry would require a different central bank interest rate to function best. But there cannot be a different interest rate from a central bank for each and every industry. What happened when Sweden raised its interest rate? We hear that Sweden raised its interest rate a […]

Hamlet’s Decision is Bad News for Janet Napolitano

Okay, I get Joe Biden’s extreme, unabated grief over the death of his son last May.  But there are, in my opinion, no circumstances under which the Hamlet pose, with its many, many leaks from friends, should have gone on beyond Labor Day.  There are, after all, (or should have been, anyway) some important considerations […]

Yet another mindless canard re ‘Denmark’, this one offered by MIT economist Daron Acemoglu: That the U.S. was less innovative during the postwar decades, because of, y’know, those high tax rates on high incomes.

The sophisticated safety net that ensures few Danes ever experience poverty, fear hunger or lack in health care does not come cheap. The Danish economy may be the most heavily taxed in the world, with rich Danes paying over 55 percent of their total income in taxes to support generous social services. Even if high […]

The mindless canard stating as unexplained fact that it would be worse to expand the federal government by a third in order to accommodate single-payer healthcare insurance than it is to have private, for-profit health insurance companies playing this role instead

No one would ever accuse Bernie Sanders of thinking small. The senator from Vermont and Democratic presidential candidate wants to transform one of the world’s most boisterous free-market economies into an exemplar ofScandinavian-style “democratic socialism.” He wants to jail Wall Street executives and double the minimum wage. And he wants to spend taxpayer money, lots of it. According to an estimate by The Wall […]

Public Service Announcement

I received this email this morning from “FedEx”: Subject: Copy From: fedex@service.com Today at 10:06 AM To: [Me] This is to Remind you that this Parcel has arrived at our Local FedEx Office since 12th october 2015. However, our courier dispatch was unable to deliver the parcel to you due to incorrect delivery instructions / details. […]