https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/01/business/economy/tax-plan-economists.html?_r=0 Douglas Holz-Eakin balanced with Kimberly A. Clausing in the NYT.   Link in the picture.  To think that looting could be so calmly described with ballance.    

I will ease the pain from this early morning (when GOP senate slashed corporate taxes) by escaping into fantasy, I mean theory, but I repeat myself. A key theoretical argument about taxing profits (due to Diamond and Mirrlees I think) is that the tax can be very very high if firms maximize profits, because maximizing […]

by Hale Stewart (originally published at Bonddad blog) Where’s Waldo, er, I Mean Inflation? Just a quick note: according to the 3, 6 and 12 month moving average of Y/Y percentage change in total and core PCE price indexes, there is little to no inflation to worry about.

by Biagio Bossone (Biagio BOSSONE is an Italian national,  currently advises international financial organizations on financial sector development issues and technical assistance programs in several countries in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America, and Northern Africa and the Middle East. He is a consultant to private-sector organizations. He has taught at various universities in Italy.) (Warning…wonkish) […]

I have been doing my typical reading on healthcare in the US and ran across several articles which seemingly come together at various points in the dialogue and are written by different authors. I decided to tie them together into a much wider and telling story. An interesting point being was made by MedPage Today’s […]

A Race To Suppress Academic Freedom? The race is between the two nations competing for global dominance, the US and China.  This post is triggered by an unnamed editorial in today’s Washington Post (probably authored by Fred Hiatt) criticizing China for imposing ideological limits on Chinese universities.  Since the recent party congress, 40 universities have […]

The more people think about the Republican proposal to cut corporate taxes the worse it looks. Most people dismiss the argument that the benefits will trickle down to workers. Supporters’ argument is that reduced taxes on profits will cause increased investment which causes higher production and wages. There are strong arguments that the tax cut […]

Proposing A Judicial Coup Via A Tax Bill On today’s Washington Post editorial page in a column entitled “Packing the courts like a turducken” (a deboned duck within a deboned chicken within a deboned turkey, or something like that, all for Thanksgiving, thank you), Ronald A. Klain not only reports on the actual push to […]

Another article from Jared Bernstein Washington Post: There’s an interesting sort of argument going on between Stansbury/Summers (SS) and Mishel/Bivens (MB). My name has been invoked as well, so I’ll weigh in. It’s a “sort-of” argument because there’s less disagreement than first appears. It all revolves around this chart, which plots to the real compensation of mid-wage […]

Lifted from comments reader Denis Drew: Donald Trump’s Response to Disaster Aid for California: Nothing Kevin DrumNov. 20, 2017 http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/11/donald-trumps-response-to-disaster-aid-for-california-nothing/ “A few weeks ago, California requested $7.4 billion in disaster aid following the massive series of wildfires in the northern part of the state that killed 43 people and destroyed nearly 9,000 structures. Actually, let’s […]