January 17, 2016 Marcus Nunes posted on the views of a possible Recession The “Plunging Economy.” Marcus asks the Question; What to make of these trends? Do they justify the “recession mania” that is taking shape? The Fed believes otherwise about the possibility of recession and clings to the only thing not plunging.
And they say only Sarah can toss word salad? Au contraire mes freres! Et Souers! Et comarades! Six months ago only morons believed the ‘morans’ would put this country in a position where there was even a tiny crack for a ‘democratic socialist’ or even a full out ‘social democrat’ to squeeze through a window […]
by Marco Fioramanti and Robert Waldmann This is the final post on European Commission decomposition of unemployment into cyclical unemployment and the NAWRU (non accelerating wage inflation rate of unemployment). This calculation is important because cyclical unemployment is used to calculate the output gap and cyclically corrected budget deficits, which are used to calculated allowed […]
Clinton put her presidential experience in stark terms by telling detail-laden stories about her political life, including one about dealing with a terrorist threat around President Barack Obama’s first inauguration from the White House’s Situation Room. “I was able to bring my years of experience to the forefront,” Clinton said about having to decide whether […]
A comment on Olivier Blanchard, Eugenio Cerutti, and Lawrence Summers: Inflation and Activity–Two Explorations and their Monetary Policy Implications: update: Anne in comments said it was impossible to understand what, if anything, I concluded. My conclusion is was that Blanchard, Cerutti and Summers have found striking evidence of hysteresis. They reject the null hypothesis that […]
Noah Smith posted an article about Zombie companies in Japan. He recognizes that creative destruction must take place. Zombies must die. So bail outs of inefficient businesses must stop. “Japan’s cycle of bailouts must end.” Noah Smith, January 20, 2016 I agree and have written in the past about the Zombie companies weighing down advanced […]
Sarah Kliff has a very helpful account of Vermont’s attempt to create a state-level single-payer health care system, and why it failed. It’s a bit like the old joke about the farmer, asked for directions, who says “Well, I wouldn’t start from here.” The point is not that single-payer is a bad idea. It is that given […]
What if our 2016 election ends up being between a socialist and a borderline fascist — ideas that died in 1989 and 1945 respectively? — Thomas Friedman, What If?, New York Times, today What if Thomas Friedman had decided not to claim in the Opinion Pages of The New York Times that Bernie Sanders is […]
The Clinton campaign is set to air this new, minute-long ad in Iowa and New Hampshire that has the feel of a closing argument: [picture from ad of a very solemn-faced Secretary of State Clinton standing next to Obama at the funeral of a fallen soldier or marine, and a link to the ad.] — […]