Re-thinking macro policy: Joseph Stiglits, Davis Romer, Oliver Blanchard at Columbia University, New York, and co-host of the Conference on Rethinking Macro Policy II: First Steps and Early Lessons. The Lessons of the North Atlantic Crisis for Economic Theory and Policy Posted on May 3, 2013 by iMFdirect http://blog-imfdirect.imf.org/ post by: Joseph E. Stiglitz In analyzing […]
The Lessons of the North Atlantic Crisis for Economic Theory and Policy
Medicaid Austin Frakt, Aaron Carroll and Kevin Drum are Good for the USA
by Robert Waldmann An important study of the effect of Medicaid on health was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study was based on a genuine experiment where some people were given Medicaid and other people weren’t based on a lottery. Unfortunately, the results were communicated with a NEJM press release and […]
Key phrase to remember
Lifted from an article in the NYT. In the heat of media debates certain fundamental narratives get lost regarding the tools we use to evaluate policies. Pre-occupation with unemplayment is one of them. While familiar to readers of Angry Bear, it bears reminding ourselves that while ‘economics’ attempts to figure out how the economy works, […]
Open thread May 1, 2013
Too big to fail
Reader rjs points us to: Everyone’s Missing the Bigger Picture in the Reinhart-Rogoff Debate – But whether you believe that the errors in the RR study are fatal or minor, there is a bigger picture that everyone is ignoring. Initially, RR never pushed an austerity-only prescription. As they wrote yesterday: The only way to break […]
Seniors and chained cpi
by Linda Beale Robert Reich: Chained CPI Makes No Sense For Seniors With MoveOn.org, Robert Reich has produced a new video on the proposed change to Social Security that would REDUCE BENEFITS for seniors and wreak the most havoc on the most vulnerable. As he notes in the video, the proposed change–which the Obama Administration […]
Tax increases
Joseph Rosenberg of Tax Policy Center notes that the chained cpi changes taxes for ppeople as well: Obama Budget Plan Results In ‘Back Door’ Tax Increase For Middle-Class Households: Analysis: For those looking to put the woes of Tax Day behind them, we have some bad news: It’s probably only going to get worse. President […]
Michael Ash and Bob Pollin
Robert Walmann and Kenneth Thomas have traded e=mails with Michael Ash. Michael Ash and Bob Pollin, two economists at PERI, respond to Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff in the New York Times: THE debate over government debt and its relationship to economic growth is at the forefront of policy debates across the industrialized world. The […]
Baucus Will Not Run in 2014 (yay!)
by Linda Beale Baucus Will Not Run in 2014 (yay!) Max Baucus announced to his fellow Senators today that he will not seek re-election to the Senate in 2014. He has been the top Democrat on the Finance Committee since 2001. See Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus Won’t Run Again in 2014, Bloomberg.net (Apr. 23, […]