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

“If you tax investment income what will people do? Stuff their money in the mattress?”

“If you tax investment income what will people do? Stuff their money in the mattress?” Steve Roth | October 15, 2012 9:25 pm Richard Thaler asks exactly the right question. This from the latest IGM Forum poll of big-name economists, on the effects of taxing income from “capital.” I’ve been over this multiple times before, […]

It’s a hoax says Limbaugh

Think Progress reports: Limbaugh did not recant his earlier statements about Irma, and he did not encourage his listeners in the area to evacuate. In fact, Limbaugh seemed to even double down on his earlier views. “The views expressed by the host of this program [are] documented to be almost always right 99.8 percent of […]

Why Economists Don’t Know How to Think about Wealth (or Profits)

by Steve Roth (originally published at Evonomics 2016) Why Economists Don’t Know How to Think about Wealth (or Profits) Until 2006, they quite literally weren’t playing with a full (accounting) deck. Most still aren’t. By Steve Roth In the next evolution of economics taking shape around us and among us, perhaps no school has been so transformational […]

Trump and International Finance

by Joseph Joyce Trump and International Finance International trade and immigration were flashpoints of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, and in his first year he has shown that he intends to fulfill his promises to slow down the movements of goods and people. Last month negotiations over NAFTA began with Canada and Mexico, with the U.S. […]

Trump Labor Policy

Trump Labor Policy  by Noam Scheiber via NYT: In June, Labor Secretary R. Alexander Acosta announced the withdrawal of two prominent Obama administration guidances — documents that do not change the law but indicate how a department interprets it and can influence employers. The first had clarified when a worker could be classified as an […]

Warranted behaviors

Much of the coverage of this incident at a hospital in Utah write of ‘recent changes’ in the law concerning drawing blood, but that, as far as I can tell, was a year ago. Is that a recent change? Certainly not changed by an obscure agency or executive order. Perhaps this kind of optic will […]