Via Taxprofblog comes David Cay Johnston’s Income Inequality Increases as Bank Regulation, Prosecutions Decrease through Reuters, The Taxpayers’ Burden, by David Cay Johnston: These findings about bank failures, income inequality and lack of prosecutions all take us back to the coordinated attempt by the central banks of the United States, Britain, Canada, the European Union, […]

by Mike Kimel The Numbers Behind Newt’s Plan to Balance the Budget Newt Gingrich’s website provides information on The Gingrich Jobs and Prosperity Plan. It starts with this: America only works when Americans are working. Newt has a pro-growth strategy similar to the proven policies used when he was Speaker to balance the budget, pay […]

A really well done basic reading of the employment to population ratio is done by Bill McBride at Calculated Risk, and includes a mention of Paul Krugman’s article on the same topic. It is best to pay a visit to follow the reasoning and the detail involved. The implications are certainly also worth exploring.

Mike Konzcal reviews Lost Decades by Menzie Chin and Jeffrey Friedan at New Deal 2.0: What caused the housing bubble? This is a different, though related, question from what caused the collapse of the financial sector or why unemployment is sky-high right now. Why did housing value skyrocket and then collapse? More broadly, why did […]

A few thoughts from a friend of mine and an introduction from a movie I (run75441) watch each year. “I don’t need 24 hours. I don’t have to talk to anybody. I know right now, and the answer’s no. No! Doggone it! You sit around here and you spin your little webs and you think […]

From Boston.com comes news of: Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is suing five major US banks for allegedly seizing properties unlawfully and failing to help struggling borrowers keep their homes by lowering mortgage payments. The civil lawsuit — filed yesterday in Suffolk Superior Court — targets Bank of America Corp.,Wells Fargo & Co., JPMorgan Chase […]

[Update…Taryn Hart at the Plutocracy Files has a daily OWS blog with news & videos from around the country, and has also done a number of interviews with economists & other left luminaries, including dean baker, larry mishel, john quiggin, jeff madrik, et al, with more coming…hat tip reader rjs] In noting other OWS scenarios […]

Mike’s response to a short note from me I lifted and summarized from an advertisement/advice for investors on Brazil. Mike’s response below the fold: Today, Brazil moved aggressively to ensure that the widening global financial crisis will not reach its shores, taking several measures to stimulate consumption and investment in the world’s seventh largest economy. […]

Andrew Gelman points to our confusions regarding merit in our social perceptions of winners and losers. I might make a list of naughty and nice sayings for another post. Tyler Cowen pointed to an article by business-school professor Luigi Zingales about meritocracy. I’d expect a b-school prof to support the idea of meritocracy, and Zingales […]