The extreme conflict between the establishment and the new natonal populist majority in Parliament has spooked investors. The difference between the Italian and German 10 year treasury rates just jumped up about 100 basis points. This isn’t a crisis yet. I recall back when Italia caught a bit of Greek contagion (before ECB president Mario […]
Updated, also fixed last link This past weekend, I was in North Adams, Ma. We did some exploring of the area and came across a company started in 1837 that still exists today in Buckland. It no longer produces there, as it has moved to Westfield, Ma. It’s only move in 178 years. […]
Carlo Cottarelli was asked to try to form an Italian government by President Sergio Mattarella. There is no chance that Cottarelli will obtain the confidence of Parliament (parties including a majority of deputies have brought up the possibility of impeaching Mattarella for nominating Cottarelli). Mattarella is using his extraordinary powers to fight populist nationalists who […]
(literally the surrender of Conte but a reference to The Big Gundown). updated to comply with the Italian criminal code (which forbids vilifying the President of the Republic) I have to write about Italian politics, because everyone is (and I live in Rome) but you don’t have to read it. I will try one paragraph […]
I wrote about how high house prices are correlaed with poor growth (partly because that which has gone up goes down). The data set was heroically collected by Jorda, Schularick, and Taylor who also used it for a paper which is actually very worth publishing (and published here). They find that high housing prices and […]
Regulation: A Gut Check How do we get the word out that our underlying conception of how regulations should be designed and enforced needs to change? The New York Times has an ominous article about the overuse of antibiotics by the livestock industry and its risks for animal health and ours. Flooding our digestive system […]
$3 a gallon gas has returned! According to GasBuddy, as of this morning the average price of gas in the US is $3 a gallon: This is the highest in 3 1/2 years. YoY gas prices are up a little over 25%. I suspect that this is a significant psychological threshold. While it’s not a “shock,” […]
Gorz: “The Right to an Income and the Right to Work,” part one From “Orientations and Proposals — The Reduction of Working Time: Issues and Policies” of Andre Gorz’s Critique of Economic Reason (1989) translated by Gillian Handyside and Chris Turner. I am posting the section on “The Right to an Income and the Right to Work” […]
Iran Responds to Plan B Juan Cole reports that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khameini has responded to Trump’s withdrawal from the JCPOA and Pompeo’s Plan B 12 demands with 6 demands for Europe: 1) condemn the US withdrawal, 2) stop pressing Iran on missile development, 3) criticize any further US boycotts, 4) undo damage to […]
Dear Professor Krugman, Say Its Name!!! “Taboo” Paul Krugman is coming closer to embracing my “taboo” argument. A month ago I wrote that raising wages was becoming a taboo. I considered three alternative hypotheses: 1. monopsony (quoting Vox) [I]n recent years, economists have discovered another source: the growth of the labor market power of employers — namely, their […]