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

Tax Justice Network Taxcast, March 2017: Brexit and Tax Havens; Losses to Tax Avoidance

by Kenneth Thomas Tax Justice Network Taxcast, March 2017: Brexit and Tax Havens; Losses to Tax Avoidance Will Brexit harm the City of London’s tax haven? With weak regulation, money laundering, and satellites like BVI, Cayman Islands, and Jersey, everyone knows it’s already a tax haven. The UK is threatening to be more of a […]

The Blood of Christ

I recently saw a rather alarming poster advertizing a blood drive The title is “donate blood and follow your artistic inclinations” which, given the image, I interpreted as “donate blood and faint, so that you are inclined head down just like the recently crucified Christ. You will be resurrected too (by some fluids not the […]

Real wages and spending: I don’t think consumers will roll over that easily (part 2)

by New Deal democrat Real wages and spending: I don’t think consumers will roll over that easily This is the second part of a post about “hard data” and consumer spending. (Dan here…First part here) Yesterday I noted that self-reported consumer spending, as measured by Gallup, has been running 10% or better YoY since the […]

The Amazon.com effect: retailers say they’re not selling, but consumers report they are buying

by New Deal democrat The Amazon.com effect: retailers say they’re not selling, but consumers report they are buying This was originally one post but I think it works better divided into two parts. One of the issues I keep reading about recently is the (alleged) divergence between “soft” and “hard” data.  For example, consumer sentiment […]

Crises and Coordination

by Joseph Joyce Crises and Coordination Policy coordination often receives the same type of response as St. Augustine gave chastity: “Lord, grant me chastity and continence, but not yet.” A new volume from the IMF, edited by Atish R. Ghosh and Mahvash S. Qureshi, includes the papers from a 2015 symposium devoted to this subject. […]

It was actually quite amusing to see an article in my provincial newspaper a while back where two sides were arguing about a reduction in the work week, and you could play bingo with the excuses the anti-side used. There wasn’t an original idea in the whole article, as the pro-side was almost apologizing and […]