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

My response to Run’s and Barkley Rosser’s analogies to the 1980 election

Run’s post here discusses and elaborates on a comment by Barkley Rosser in the Comments thread to this post of mine.  I posted the following reply to Barkley’s comment, and reposted that comment as a comment to Run’s post: Barkley, I certainly share your fear that Trump actually could pull this off, but I don’t […]

Remembering the Carter-Reagan Race

Barkley Rosser made an interesting comment on one of the threads which is worthy of a separate posting. He is pointing out similarities between Trump and Reagan in saying whatever they want to say, backing away from them (it was just a suggestion), and never being held accountable for making statements devoid of facts. People […]

President Chauncey Gardiner: ‘Being There’ at the Bait-and-Switch [Updated]

But one of Trump’s campaign advisers suggested Wednesday that Trump might indeed change Social Security and Medicare — but only after he has been in office for a while. “After the administration has been in place, then we will start to take a look at all of the programs, including entitlement programs like Social Security […]

The Role of the U.S. in the Global Financial System

by Joseph Joyce The Role of the U.S. in the Global Financial System The mandate of the Federal Reserve is clear: “…promote effectively the goals of maximum employment, stable prices and moderate long-term interest rates.” How to achieve those goals, of course, has been the subject of great debate: should the central bank use interest […]

The Most Successful Trojan Horse Since the Trojan War

A key to beating Trump is to point out that on fiscal and other domestic policy at least, the election contest will not be to determine whether there will be another President Clinton or instead a President Trump.  There will be either a new President Clinton or a President Manafort. Every time Trump tries to […]

Religion and Tax–not an easy issue

by Linda Beale Religion and Tax–not an easy issue The Atlantic magazine has an article in the May 3 2016 issue asking “Should Courts Get to Define Religion?” The article deals with a Catholic shrine in Attleboro Massachusetts, Shrine of Our Lady of LaSalette, that covers almost 200 acres of land and includes what are […]

Quick Links, 10 May 2016

Kevin Drum discovers what I’ve been telling people for more than a decade. Brad DeLong admits that the reason economists don’t know jack about economic growth is that their models don’t support it. There’s a reason Mankiw, Romer, and Weil (1992) is the most dangerous short-form piece of immature fiction since Atlas Shrugged.* (Original source, […]

The Revenge Of Joan Robinson: Capital Theory Controversies Revive

by Barkley Rosser The Revenge Of Joan Robinson: Capital Theory Controversies Revive It is easy to argue about what is the most important or influential thing that the late Joan Robinson did in economics.  More conventional types would probably point to her widely accepted and even textbookified Economics of Imperfect Competition.  Some would point to […]