by Dale Coberly How to Sound Insane by Talking Like a Bi Partisan Expert on Social Security I apologize for the next couple of paragraphs because they sound overworked and insane,  but that’s what happens when you try to illustrate the way Washington talks about Social Security. Try to imagine you have to buy a medicine […]

Many people look for an inverted yield curve to signal a recession. The track record is good. The yields on longer term maturities decline in relation to shorter term yields. Let me show a version of the inverted yield chart that I haven’t seen anyone do yet. I take the 3-year Treasury constant maturity rate […]

Part 1, Part 2, Part3 Yesterday I criticized Mr. Krugman for saying that savings were in excess. I said that personal savings is down, and domestic savings are not enough to cover investment such that the US has to borrow from abroad. This post will explore the relationship between domestic savings, domestic demand and the […]

by Linda Beale Deficit Disorder Symptoms–via Naked Capitalism/New Economic Perspectives Yves Smith over at Naked Capitalism has an insightful re-post today on the way the right in particular–and most in the media and public–talk about deficits and misunderstand the relative importance of failures to invest in physical and capital infrastructure (roads, education…) versus the relative […]

Via Alternet: The list of Democrats who are entering these negotiations embracing the GOP’s terms continues. There are at least nine in the Senate. California’s Dianne Feinstein, Montana’s Max Baucus, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, Delaware’s Chris Coons and Tom Carper, and Colorado’s Michael Bennett have all said they support cuts to entitlements in letters to […]

I wrote in February of 2012 about welfare: Welfare, I’m not hurting from it and neither are you. I noted the following: but it looks to me like what we spend on welfare is not much more than what the government is spending on just doing the government thingy, unless of course people can’t get […]

Real GDP has dropped to a new level. Many economists think it will return to its previous trend before the crisis. I made this video to explain how real GDP can drop to a new level as a result of labor share of income dropping after the crisis.   Capital income rose after the crisis, […]

by Mike Kimel California v. Red States, What Causes Growth, and the Great Stagnation Lately there has been a small cottage industry of California v. Texas comparisons, with California getting the apparent short end of the stick.  Heavily regulated, high tax, big gubmint California is the past, and free wheeling low tax small government Texas […]

I can not help but wonder if Friedman takes delight in the predicament of the Young and Baby Boomers as he writes about Druckenmiller excursions on to college campuses . I envision  a bit of Schadenfreude as evidenced by his choice of titles for his latest column. October 15, 2013, Tom Friedman writes in the […]

One thing that several people have requested (including Mrs. Rdan) is more easily read material more accessible to non-finance readers, or with our AB audience also people well versed in finance and macro, without dumbing down the issues into ideas that have no context nor links to what actually happens in the world.   We […]