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

Dynamic model of tax transfers may see effective demand as an attractor state

A comment by Arne in a previous post raised the idea that a tax transfer from capital to labor would raise the effective demand limit. So a video was made using the dynamic model for the circular flow to test his idea. As it turns out, the model shows that the natural real GDP equilibrium […]

Can Demography Explain Portugal’s Growth Slump…

Can Demography Explain Portugal’s Growth Slump Before The Crash? The above still comes from a recent Financial Times video entitled “Portugal’s Brain Drain”, which I encourage everyone to watch. The issue being raised revolves around the current acceleration of emigration from countries on the EU periphery, largely towards the EU core. Typically the emigrants are […]

Janet Yellen serves all people, but trusts firms to set optimal wages

In her acceptance speech for Fed Chair, Janet Yellen said… (at the 1:30 point in this video from The Daily Conversation) “The mandate of the Federal Reserve is to serve all of the American people” And then it appears as though she almost choked on those words. She must sense the rage and power seething […]

Renouncing US citizenship

This change is common knowledge for many and as noted happens in many forms (globalization), but the following is another way to frame changing ownership patterns and attitudes about who you might be trusting to make the rules:   NEW CORPORATE TAX SHELTER: MERGER ABROAD American corporations increasingly are reducing their tax bill by buying […]

The things John Williams does not say…

John Williams who is the president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco published a letter yesterday explaining unconventional monetary policies. First I want to appreciate the clarity and simplicity with which John Williams is able to communicate complex ideas. His voice is honest, transparent and credible. What did he […]

60 Minutes does what? Social Security Disability

From the Los Angelos Times comes this article on Social Security Disability and reporting: Is it possible for a major news organization to produce a story about the Social Security disability program without interviewing a single disabled person or disability advocate? That’s the experiment “60 Minutes” conducted Sunday. The result was predictably ghastly. The news […]

An alternative IS-LM look into the future

The IS-LM model is built upon two markets, the goods market (IS) and the money market (LM). The alternative view in this post will incorporate the effective demand limit into the IS-LM model. Money Market First The money market is described by a plot of the interest rate (y-axis) and the quantity of money (x-axis). The […]