Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Krugman, Mundell, Fleming, Summers, DeLong, and Rogoff

Here I go again, commenting on Krugman. But this time on a 5 year old talk on the risk that investors will lose confidence in the solvency of the US Treasury “CURRENCY REGIMES, CAPITAL FLOWS, ANDCRISES”. I think the talk about the risks of excessive budget deficits and unsustainable debt accumulation is much more relevant […]

March jobs report: surprisingly weak

March jobs report: surprisingly weak HEADLINES: +103,000 jobs added U3 unemployment rate unchanged at 4.1% U6 underemployment rate fell -0.2% from 8.2% to 8.0% Here are the headlines on wages and the chronic heightened underemployment: Wages and participation rates Not in Labor Force, but Want a Job Now: fell -35,000 from 5.131 million to 5.096 […]

Kudlow’s Trade Coalition of the Willing

Kudlow’s Trade Coalition of the Willing Who knew when I posted this: We could go back to 2002 and how the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 was sold to people like Senator John Kerry and Senator Hillary Clinton. The Bush-Cheney White House sold this as a means to encourage Iraq […]

Krugman, Heckscher, Ohlin, Samuelson, Autor, Dorn, and Hanson

Paul Krugman has been wondering why stock market indices fell so sharply soon after Trump began trade-war-mongering. (also less wonkily here) He starts by noting that it’s a mugs game to try to explain stock market fluctuations, but then tries all the same. The puzzle is that according to the very standard Heckscher Ohlin Samuelson […]

Total Blockchain Blocker Man

This essay is excellent. Just click the link. Kai Stinchcombe argues “blockchain is a … technology, not a metaphor” here’s what blockchain-the-technology is: “Let’s create a very long sequence of small files — each one containing a hash of the previous file, some new data, and the answer to a difficult math problem — and divide up some money […]

Are We in a Trade War?

Are We in a Trade War? President Trump sent two of his minions out yesterday to lie about this question. Kudlow: We are not in a trade war. What this is is an attempt to right some of the wrongs with respect to China. Our Treasury Secretary said essentially the same thing: Our objective is still not to […]

Trump’s job creation record

Trump and his administration love to brag about the number of jobs created since he became president.  But the only reason he gets away with claiming that a record number of jobs have been created since he took office is the poor job the press does reporting economic data. It only takes a quick glance […]

Trump’s Trade War, Stranded Assets, and Wilbur Ross’s Shipping Company

Trump’s Trade War, Stranded Assets, and Wilbur Ross’s Shipping Company Paul Krugman relates declines in stock valuations to the insanity of trade policy from Donald Trump and taught me a new expression – stranded asset: An asset that is worth less on the market than it is on a balance sheet due to the fact that it […]

A Half Century Ago Today

A Half Century Ago Today  A half century ago today Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot dead in Memphis, Tennessee.  This remains one of the saddest events in our history.  This will not be a long post other than remembering this event that ended the life of this great man.  I have only two observations. […]

Our Depleted National Defense Budget?

Our Depleted National Defense Budget? Our title is perhaps the most obnoxious line in the Hoover Five oped per some of the appropriately harsh comments to Cochrane’s post, which alas I did not cover here. Before I do so, let me turn the microphone over to Jonathan Chait: It is a foundational belief of Republican Party doctrine that tax cuts […]