by Dale Coberly Bruce Krasting tells us The sky is falling the sky is falling Social Security has run out of money 30 years before it was supposed to happen. The words here are mine, the tone is his. He writes: I think that the recession of 08 and 09 and the anticipated high unemployment […]
The Sky Is Falling Before Schedule. Again.
Systemic risk, finacial contagion, and Jeff Gordon on avoiding ‘8 alarm fires’
by Linda Beale I’m attending the American Association of Law Schools conference in New Orleans, where cold winds are blowing but revelry of Mardi Gras has already begun. This morning Jeff Gordon presented his views on what it will take to deal with the systemic risk to the banking system to avoid crises like the […]
Chinas trade balance points to inflation
by Rebecca Wilder The Customs Administration announced record trade flows in and out of China in December. Specifically, exports grew at a 17.7% annual pace, while imports surged 55.9% over the year. This is a remarkable one-month rebound; reported export growth beat consensus expectations by a factor of 3.5 (+ 5% export growth and + […]
Life insurance problem
by cactus Last week I found out I was turned down for a life insurance policy. Some background – I’m 40, I don’t drink, smoke or take any drugs or pharmaceuticals, am neither overweight nor underweight according to any table you might look at, and I exercise vigorously an hour a day, rain or shine. […]
Topical thread Jan. 8, 2009 GW
Industrial Policy
Atrios mentions one of the problems discussing trade and industrial policy by the federal governmentThe First Rule Of Industrial Policy at Eschaton. Herbert: “This is a society in deep, deep trouble and the fixes currently in the works are in no way adequate to the enormous challenges we’re facing. For example, an end to the […]
Notes on global income disparities
by Rebecca Wilder On Angry Bear, Tom Bozzo authored The Rich *Are* Different, focusing on the makeup of earnings across US tax payer brackets. And Cactus authors Poverty and the Real Median Income, where he comments on the poverty share and median income across U.S. Presidencies. So here is where I chime in on a […]
Is economic theory on the effects of higher taxes on higher incomes rational?
by Linda Beale Yves Smith (Naked Capitalism) links to an interesting post on “Economists for Firing Larry Summers” (I’ll call this EFLS). The author of the blog is a PhD student in economics, in a “top 30” department who is obviously fed up with much of current economic thought. He writes on “The Case for […]