by Linda Beale Alice Rivlin spoke at Wayne State University’s FOCIS forum today on the economic crisis. Rivlin is an economist who served as the first director of the Congressional Budget Office (1975-83, when she was a critic of “reaganomics”), director under Clinton of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) (deputy 1993-94, director 1994-96) […]

by Linda Beale Detroit’s spring, anti-government rhetoric, and the importance of paying taxes Dear Readers: As you know, I’ve been offline for a few days. Spent a very nice holiday enjoying the outdoors. Spring has sprung in Michigan. Daffodils are blooming, bobbing their gay yellow heads in various corners of the yard where I tucked […]

Unedited videos released by the California Attorney General’s Office this weekend. Finally. ACORN is not around, but the news people are. Will there be any notice? Update: Based on the comments it looks like no one watched the unedited tapes. Others have been released in other states. Rachel Maddow has parsed the California tapes. Now […]

The New York Times notes the passing of an important man: Mr. Gates knew what many had forgotten: that Dr. Roberts had made an early and enduring contribution to modern computing. He created the MITS Altair, the first inexpensive general-purpose microcomputer, a device that could be programmed to do all manner of tasks. For that […]

by cactus Economic Views – a Thought Brought About by Yves Smith’s (Excellent Book) Econned I’m still reading Econned, by Yves Smith. Sadly, these days I only have two minutes here or five minutes there. One day I will post something about everything going on right now, but that’s for another time. Anyway, its not […]

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by Rebecca Wilder The GDP recovery is underway. But below the GDP hood, the picture is not as bright. The labor market is weak, and income-generating prospects remain muted. The latter portends a back-up of consumer spending down the road without substantial policy support. Please see Spencer’s post for a very nice interpretation of today’s […]

by Rebecca Wilder Edward Harrison at Credit Writedowns is theorizing why the saving rate is falling when it should be rising, as households scram to deleverage their balance sheets. My reaction to this is twofold: first this is a meaningless exercise; but second, and worse yet, there’s likely something very “unhealthy” going on here. Meaningless: […]