by Linda Beale Torture–It’s the Economy, Stupid….. Naked Capitalism ran a “guest post” by “George Washington” yesterday on Cheney’s role in furthering the Bush Administration’s torture agenda: Cheney Admits to Being a War Criminal, Naked Capitalism (Feb. 16, 2010). Washington notes that the mainstream media’s approach to Cheney–letting him argue for torture without ever challenging […]
by Rebecca Wilder (Rdan…published two day ago at Newsneconomics) Foreign holdings of U.S. Treasuries: was it really that bad? No. I can’t believe that the Financial Times can get away with this. From the FT, titled Foreign demand falls for Treasuries: Foreign demand for US Treasury securities fell by a record amount in December as […]
by Linda Beale Financial Reforms: no dearth of suggestions, but a lack of action As economists track the signs of a possibly receding recession, investors test the waters for investing, and Congress is pushed to focus more on deficit reduction than on economic stimulus (probably wrongly), the financial institution imbalance that started it all goes […]
by Brenda Rossercrossposted with Econospeak The currency quarrel with China is a dangerous distraction In an article in the Washington Post last November entitled ‘The currency quarrel’ [1] there were a number of assertions made about the economic relationship between the US and China that are questionable, to say the least. The opening sentence begins […]
“The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can throw the rascals out at any election […]
Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt The Independent Contractor Problem Continues and Grows HT: Associated Press The IRS and many state governments are stepping up enforcement of the use of “independent contractors” who are actually employees. While there are plenty of legitimate business-to-business independent contractor arrangements, other businesses sidestep the law by misclassifying employees as ICs. (lay […]
Marshall Auerback responds to Rebecca’s “I have to side with China on this one”. There’s another factor as well. There’s been an enormous increase in money and credit in the past year. In fact, it seems to be as great as 5 years’ growth in credit in the previous Chinese bubble. What happens is that […]
by Rebecca Wilder China,China.China! Why does the world care about Chinese monetary policy? In short, the ten countries below enjoy 60% of China’s import demand ($1.3 trillion annualized in December 2009), where the % are listed in the legend. The globe is watching Chinese policy. The People’s Republic of China raised bank reserve requirements another […]
by Linda Beale Congress appears doomed to fail on Jobs Creation Legislation The House passed a puny measure worth about $154 billion over a decade. The Senate, strangled by the GOP party of no, appears set to pass a bill that does almost nothing and costs only about $15 billion over a decade. See Deal […]