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

2018 Midterm election economic forecast: a struggling expansion that may amplify a wave

2018 Midterm election economic forecast: a struggling expansion that may amplify a wave We are now one year out from the 2018 midterm elections. Generally speaking, only the more involved voters show up for midterms, which seem to turn mainly on how much voters who “strongly” disapprove of actions in Washington outnumber those who “strongly” […]

Stranded Assets Rewind

Stranded Assets Rewind There’s a Dangerous Bubble in the Fossil-Fuel Economy, and the Trump Administration Is Making It Worse… “In reversing many of Obama’s keystone climate and environmental policies, Pruitt and Trump are conveniently ignoring these market signals in order to help out the fossil-fuel millionaires and billionaires who put them in office. Their actions […]

Ricardian Equivalence

This is going to be a very long post with independent chapters (I won’t impose by making a series of posts) I. What is “Ricardian Equivalence” The basic idea is that the timing of taxes has no effect on anything, and especially not on consumption/saving choices, because rational economic agents know that the state has […]

A Bit More on Inflation Expectations

I honestly surfed here just to see if anyone was still interested in inflation expectations now that The Fed has shifted from extraordinary efforts to stimulate to normal efforts to take away the punch bowl before workers get uppity. I was pleased to find the post by Bonddad immediately below However, I don’t agree entirely […]

This is Why Inflation Expectations Are So Important

by Hale Stewart (originally published at Bonddad blog) This is Why Inflation Expectations Are So Important Canadian Central Bank Head Poloz: The underlying trend in inflation is driven by the laws of supply and demand, which are as applicable today as they ever were. Excess demand pushes inflation up; excess supply pushes inflation down. Central […]

Fox’s Shep Smith on Tax Bill

I found this segment of interest from Fox News…while I differ on the generic federal deficit thinking, I notice while Obamacare repeal was ‘do or die’, Smith noticed the eight years of Republicans calling doom from the federal deficit gets hardly a peep. Student loan deductions and credits disappear, among a list. as well…his affect […]

Small businesses, tax cuts, and reporting

(Dan here…lifted from AB 2012) Small businesses, tax cuts, and reporting Dan Crawford | November 29, 2012  I sometimes get the ‘eyes rolling’ reaction from people in my social sphere when I insist that at least linking to  original documents is important, and that someone needs to follow up on what an author says someone else says […]

An Important Centennial

An Important Centennial Today marks the centennial of the Great October Socialist Revolution, known when I was young in the US as the Russian Revolution, and also perhaps more accurately described as the Bolshevik Coup. On March 8, 1917, people rose up from the streets behind women marching on International Womens’ Day, leading troops to […]