Recently I learned about a proposal for Euro denominated “accountability bonds”. They are basically a clever way to enforce the stability and growth pact. I don’t like the pact, so I don’t support the proposal which I made by Clemens Fuerst here . The idea is that borrowing beyond the level allowed by the stability […]
I am aware of all internet traditions (with notably rare exceptions) and I think this might be another classic. In a generally very good article in Politico Tim Alberta wrote “Ryan is poor salesman with a great grasp of policy” [skip] “After he unveiled the bill, leading health care experts on the right like Yuval […]
Who can tell us how he feels knowing that no one likes his health care reform ? The Who can tell us how he feels knowing that no one likes his health care reform ! This is some cause for optimism, as we can note The Who’s further forecast that, by the last verse, he […]
To Recap what everyone knows now (in case anyone reads this months from now) On January 27th Donald Trump signed an executive order suspending the refugee admission program for 120 days and blocking US entry for citizens of 7 countries for 30 days. The order was written without input from the Justice, Homeland Security, State […]
Somehow Trump manages to bring out the best in people. In the January 21 women’s march demonstrations, millions of ordinary Americans peacefully engaged in the political process, expressing a variety of consistent opinions with passion and humour. I was delighted. But today I am amazed. It seems that Donald Trump has somehow managed to make […]
First note strong evidence that the rate of wage inflation is mean reverting. This is a pooled regression with data from the Old EU 15 from 1960 through 2015. Indicator variables for countries are included but the coefficients aren’t reported. dw is the percent rate of wage inflation. ddw is the change of dw. The […]
This continues joint research with Marco Fioramanti. Our aim is to understand something about European natural rates of unemployment and whether the European Commissions estimated levels which they call NAWRU (for non accelerating wage inflation rate of unemployment) are useful approximations. Here is a brief summary of work to date (prior to this note). Various […]
Foreign minister Paolo Gentiloni has been asked to attempt to form a government. He is a rather bland establishment figure who has two interesting histories. First, back in the day, Italy (then a monarchy) didn’t get along with the pope (they fought a war with a famous battle at the pious gate (no ti sto […]
It seems we have a cabinet nomination. Word is the Jefferson Beuregard Sessions will be nominated Attorney General. Sen Sessions is an extreme reactionary. He is also, pretty clearly, an old fashioned racist (to complement the new wave alt-right racists). In 1986, Reagan nominated him as a judge and the nomination was rejected by the […]
I had an interesting web experience. My tweet noting that the US Treasury made a profit on TARP got a relatively large number of replies. Many people were outraged in many contradictory ways. Twitter is damaging the discussion. Trump on twitter lowered the level of debate. I am now a carrier of Twitteritis into the […]