Tolerance And Terrorism In Saudi Arabia On the one hand this past week, Thomas Friedman at the New York Times has written a praising column about Crown Prince Muhammed bin Salman (MbS). He is going to bring a new “wave of tolerance” into Saudi Arabia, along with more generally modernizing it. This claim is not […]
(Dan here…Lifted from Bonddad blog by NewDealdemocrat): More on housing I’ve elaborated on my dissection of October housing permits and starts over at XE.com. Anecdotally, I know of three twenty-somethings, two of whom are single, who are blue collar workers in the construction or retail sectors, all of whom are in the process of moving out […]
Has the Phillips curve vanished ? There is widespread discussion of the possibility that the Phillips curve has become horizontal. I am old enough to remember when all serious economists agreed that, in the long run, it is vertical. The reason for the thought that it might be horizontal is that large important countries have […]
The more people think about the Republican proposal to cut corporate taxes the worse it looks. Most people dismiss the argument that the benefits will trickle down to workers. Supporters’ argument is that reduced taxes on profits will cause increased investment which causes higher production and wages. There are strong arguments that the tax cut […]
Two Powerful Women Losing Power That would be respective Angela Merkel and Janet Yellen, both reported to have lost a lot of power in today’s Washington Post. During at least the last year, if not the last four, they have been probably the two most powerful women on the planet. In the case of Merkel, […]
Another article from Jared Bernstein Washington Post: There’s an interesting sort of argument going on between Stansbury/Summers (SS) and Mishel/Bivens (MB). My name has been invoked as well, so I’ll weigh in. It’s a “sort-of” argument because there’s less disagreement than first appears. It all revolves around this chart, which plots to the real compensation of mid-wage […]
Via Washington Post, Jared Bernstein writes: The Republican tax cut plan has been justly criticized for worsening both income inequality and the national debt, but the plan has another big problem: It’s likely to lead to more outsourcing of U.S. jobs and a larger trade deficit. That’s obviously a negative for factory jobs and net […]
by Joseph Joyce Venezuela and the Next Debt Crisis The markets for the bonds of emerging markets have been rattled by developments in Venezuela. On November 13,Standard & Poor’s declared Venezuela to be in default after that country missed interest payments of $200 million on two government bonds. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro had pledged to […]
by Hale Stewart (originally published at Bonddad blog) John Hinderaker Renews His “Tax Cuts Pay For Themselves With Growth” Nonsense It’s been awhile since John “Everything I wrote about economics for an entire year was wrong” Hinderaker has written about economics. The respite has been glorious. But now that Republicans in the House have passed […]
No, We Won’t See a Torrent of Investment From the Tax Bill One of the arguments that Republicans are using to support their tax bill is that it will unleash investment. The data says otherwise. Currently, most US economic sectors are operating far below maximum capacity utilization. As the debate on tax policy and its […]