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

Real income growth trends

Even though this post by Spencer England is from 2008 and hence dated, it reminds us of the overall experience of making it in America: by Spencer England Making comparisons over time of how real income grows is a difficult proposition with many data problems. One recent study was able to show how a current […]

America’s Most Wanted: Boeing

Boeing is America’s Most Wanted Corporation in two senses. First, now that the Machinists’ union in Washington state has refused the company’s contract demands, it is shopping production (h/t Pacific Northwest Inlander) of the 777x aircraft nationwide and lots of states are making offers for it. Second, it is emblematic of everything the 1% is […]

Brad DeLong Sez It! Inequality Kills Growth

Okay well he doesn’t say it quite so succinctly. Or categorically. In fact he hedges his statement several ways from Sunday, and uses a hundred-and-twenty-three-word paragraph to do so: The near-consensus view over here at Equitable Growth and at the Equitablog is that U.S. economic growth over the past generation has been very disappointing. Too-much of our economic growth […]

‘Socialism’ is a rough proxy for interventionist government? REALLY, Thomas Edsall?

Obama argues that government action is required to redress the growing disparity between rich and poor, diminished opportunities for upward mobility and economic stagnation. Public opinion, at least according to the Stimson analysis, is moving in precisely the opposite direction. A 2011 Pew Research Center survey gives us a glimpse of some of the headwinds […]

Shiller on Fama: “maybe he has a cognitive dissonance”

Here, emphasis mine: It must affect your thinking somehow that they really believe in markets. I think that maybe he has a cognitive dissonance. His research shows that markets are not efficient. So what do you do if you are living in the University of Chicago? It’s like being a Catholic priest and then discovering […]

Potential insights

In a post titled Potential Misunderstandings, Paul Krugman makes a really good point about potential GDP… many people do not understand what it is. He is absolutely right to say that it is a supply-side concept. Yet, in order to know where your potential output is, one must consider demand potential. I use effective demand […]

FLYING SAUCERS, THE YOUNG, and SOCIAL SECURITY

by Dale Coberly FLYING SAUCERS, THE YOUNG, and SOCIAL SECURITY What if the Social Security Trust Fund WAS Worthless IOU’s George Bush liked to tell us “the young” were more likely to believe in flying saucers than they were to believe they would ever see any benefits from Social Security. First, let me assure you […]