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

Northwest Plan for Social Security: Conservative “Workers – Take Your Medicine”-ism (and why this Social Democrat likes it)

Long time readers of Angry Bear will be familiar with the Northwest Plan for a Real Social Security Fix. It has been pushed here in a series of posts and in innumerable comments (mostly by Dale Coberly) since 2009 including this core post: NW Plan for a Real Social Security Fix Ver 2.0: 2009 Trigger. […]

National Debt: Since When is the Fed “The Public”?

This issue has been driving me crazy for a while, and I never see it written about. When responsible people talk about the national debt, they point to Debt Held by the Public: what the federal government owes to non-government entities—households, firms, and foreign entities. Recently, financial analysts have observed increased spending activity from younger […]

Why you should be afraid: the next recession is likely to include wage deflation

by New Deal democrat Why you should be afraid: the next recession is likely to include wage deflation Beginning 3 years ago, I identified poor wage growth  as the shortfall in the economy that worries me the most. And it still worries me, even though there has been some modest improvement. Why? Because unless there […]

A thought on GE’s opting out of the Finance Business

Paul Krugman writes about GE’s announcement to get out of the finance business. Why are they getting out? Financial reform from the Dodd-Frank legislation that includes “greater oversight, higher capital and liquidity requirements, etc.” Paul Krugman says… “And sure enough, what GE is in effect saying is that if we have to compete on a […]

Good Jobs First reveals top federal subsidy recipients: Subsidy Tracker 3.0

Slow to be getting to this, but I have to come back to such a major development. Good Jobs First, a national non-profit best known for its work on state and local subsidies to business, unveiled in March its Subsidy Tracker 3.0. This work differs from previous publications on federal subsidies by being project-based/firm-based, rather […]

Avoiding the “New Mediocre” – Christine Lagarde

Today the IMF published a short video with Christine Lagarde about avoiding the “New Mediocre”. My view is that carefully raising interest rates in the US will help raise the standard for productivity getting us eventually out of this “New Mediocre”. What do the readers of Angry Bear suggest is the answer? Leave ideas in […]

A Fractal Case for Big Government

Brad DeLong made a case for big government and higher deficits. Paul Krugman wrote an exagerated pun of praise. The part he liked was the appeal to myopia and paternalistic proposal “The problem is that as we move into the twenty-first century, the commodities we will be producing are becoming … more subject to myopia […]