I’m getting to this a little late due to extensive travel (in South Africa now), but David Cay Johnston has a nice writeup of a recent paper on inequality based on the World Top Incomes Database. The paper, by Facundo Alvaredo et al., is important because it largely refutes the idea that technological change is […]
Update: Charts and data after the read more. With the Fed completing a two day meeting and Bernanke holding a press conference today it may be a good time to make a few comments about bond yields. In an open economy with a current account deficit the equilibrium interest rate is the one that attracts […]
Starting in 1994, soon before the 1996 welfare reform bill (PRWORA) the state of Florida explored what was roughtly a pilot version the “Family Transition Program” (FTP). I recall reading at the time that this was the only reformed welfare program with a hard time limit on benefits. Importantly, Florida officials decided to conduct […]
Sorry for the thin posting lately…I have had some SI joint problems which makes for difficulty sitting still to focus. Via Keven Drum comes this research paper addressing the issue of sticky wages in the economics of today: First off, a new paper by a trio of researchers confirms some old news: Adjusted for inflation, […]
Recently, I was pleased to note a disagreement between Paul Krugman and Dean Baker. Finally, I hoped, a chance to prove I am not a knee jerk acolyte of Krugman. Sadly I found I agreed with Krugman and not Baker (ouch). But I didn’t give up hope, until yesterday. Surely, I can disagree with Krugman […]
Andrew Bacevich writes: Twelve and a half years after Congress didn’t declare war on an organization of hundreds or, at most, thousands of jihadis scattered mainly across the backlands of the planet, and instead let President George W. Bush and his cohort loose to do whatever they wanted; twelve and a half years after the […]
Update: Link at Scotus blog http://www.scotusblog.com/2013/06/wednesday-round-up-187/. As prosecutors, police agencies and civil libertarians consider the ruling’s implications, Justice Scalia’s stark dissent — and the fact that President Obama’s two appointees to the court so far agreed with it — makes it worthy of scrutiny, even if he was on the losing side. His argument is […]
This is a companion piece to Steve’s AB post from earlier today, where he points out the specious reasoning of “the likes of Scott Sumner, David Beckworth, Lars Christensen, et al., claiming that fiscal austerity has obviously had no effect on GDP growth.” I wrote Sumner off a few years ago due to a highly […]
You’re seeing a lot of crowing these days from the likes of Scott Sumner, David Beckworth, Lars Christensen, et al., claiming that fiscal austerity has obviously had no effect on GDP growth. “Look!” they say: “Even with the sequester and all the other government spending cuts, growth in 2013 has been the same as 2012! […]
by Mike Kimel An Open Letter to the Board of Trustees of Purdue University Dear Board of Trustees of Purdue University, If I may, I’d like to bring some facts about your President, Mitch Daniels, to your awareness. Now, it may be odd for me to do so, as I am not actually affiliated in […]