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

“able-bodied adults to work for food stamps”

“Gov. John Kasich’s administration will limit food stamps for more than 130,000 adults in all but a few economically depressed areas starting Jan. 1. To qualify for benefits, able-bodied adults without children will be required to spend at least 20 hours a week working, training for a job, volunteering or performing a similar type of […]

Rational Nonexuberence – Part 1

In comments to this post, the idea is floated that capacity utilization (TCU)  is about to surge. Mark Sadowski, in comment 5 at this post, reminds us that, “Capacity utilization only applies to industrial production, and industrial production consists of only manufacturing, mining and utilities. Thus it is not very representative of the entire economy, […]

Robert Skidelsky: “We have a problem of deficient aggregate demand… full stop.”

INET has a great interview with Robert Skidelsky. It is well worth watching. Here is the link… He talks about political power in determining which economic theories get applied. He talks about fiscal policy. He mentions that trying to re-work supply side reforms while the markets are weakening in demand can be unproductive. Many other […]

Paying Fast Food Workers More . . . “Moo Cluck Moo”

                                         Picture by K Manley   With all the activity by fast food workers to increase their salary, one fast food restaurant located in Dearborn Heights (just outside of Detroit) and north of 94 on Telegraph is leading the way with increased hourly wages for its workers. Presently at $12.00/hour, “Moo Cluck Moo” is […]

New Jersey Subsidies More Out of Control than Ever Under Christie

I have written before how state and local subsidies are more out of control than ever, and more recently how the number and size of megadeals has increased substantially since the Great Recession. Now a new study from Governing magazine (h/t to Al at LinkedIn group Economic Development 2.0) exhaustively analyzes New Jersey’s five largest […]

Assuming Full-employment is foolish

Nick Rowe brings up an important issue and sends a warning. He says that New Keynesian economists are assuming full-employment. And it is foolish. Nick Rowe is correct. Keynes himself talked about how effective demand could stop output before full-employment is reached. The cause is deficient effective demand. And through the research that I do, […]

Econobloggers: Does Big Government Help or Hurt Growth? Or Neither?

Tim Kane was nice enough to include my question in this year’s Hudson Survey of Leading Economics Bloggers (PDF). Here’s the question and the results: Judging based on post-war economic data, how do prosperous, high-GDP/capita countries compare with one another? Countries with larger government sectors have _____ growth rates compared to countries with smaller government sectors. As a group, […]