There is discourse in the econoblogosphere currently about why interest rates are low and may stay low for a long time. Larry Summers says that we may even have a negative natural real rate at full employment, even though Ben Bernanke sees that as somewhat impossible. It is fairly common knowledge that excess debt and […]
I have been upset with Paul Krugman for years since he undermined the living wage movement in the 1990’s. Here is what he wrote back then… “In short, what the living wage is really about is not living standards, or even economics, but morality. Its advocates are basically opposed to the idea that wages are […]
by Joseph Joyce The U.S.: Inept Diplomacy, Indispensable Currency The announcements by several European governments that they would join the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) have been widely seen as indicators of the declining position of the U.S. The AIIB had been proposed by China for the purpose of funding much-needed infrastructure projects in […]
Noam Scheiber has a hard hitting article on the front page of www.nytimes.com “2016 Candidates and Wealthy Are Aligned on Inequality” The content should be familiar to AngryBear readers. A majority of Americans are alarmed by high and increasing inequality and support government action to reduce inequality. However, none of the important 2016 candidates has […]
Via Daily Kos, we learn that Wikileaks has released the investment chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). This is a critical chapter, as it was in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), because it establishes investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanisms. Despite its neutral-sounding name, ISDS is actually a radical concept. Instead of using the […]
I commented on Brad DeLong commenting on Dean Baker asking Brad Delong a challenging question. Brad decided my comment belonged on his front page, so I guess it belongs here too. Baker wrote Brad DeLong tells us that he is moving away from the cult of the financial crisis (the weakness of the economy in […]
Fed’s interest earnings approach $100b WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve said Friday it transferred a record $96.9 billion to the U.S. treasury in 2014, profits on its unprecedented $4.4 trillion in holdings designed to support the U.S. economy in the aftermath of the Great Recession. Returning to a topic I have raised a few times […]
Alice Rivlin has a wonderful speech about Fiscal & Monetary Policy in a Post-inflation World. Her basic point among many keen insights is that financial instability should be more of a priority now than inflation. I agree with her. Monetary policy should focus on the wild beasts of the economy, not the domesticated pets. Inflation […]
Uber wonk Matt O’Brien writes about The “weird way people talk about zero interest rates” He discusses Gillian Tett discussing her conversations with those who O’Brien calls the “the masters of the universe.” They don’t like the Fed’s extremly low interest rate policy. They can’t claim that loose monetary policy has causes excessive inflation, so […]
by New Deal democrat The Phillips curve in 3 dimensions, animated – Yesterday I wrote that the Phillips curve might best be considered as three-dimensional, where the third axis was commodity prices, and in particular Oil. A shock to underlying commodity prices would also “shock” the unemployment vs. inflation trade-off, moving the curve along the […]