As I said the other day, Mr. Krugman was saying that the economy was awash in excess savings. His words implied that the US was awash in excess savings. Then I said yesterday that the truth was in fact that the world was awash in excess savings. Yesterday, Mr. Krugman clarified his point and said… […]

And some vigilant independent watchdogs are tracking the negotiations with sources they trust, including Dean Baker and Yves Smith, who join Moyers & Company this week. Both have written extensively about the TPP and tell Bill the pact actually has very little to do with free trade. Instead, says Dean Baker, co-director of the Center […]

Part 1, Part 2, Part3 Yesterday I criticized Mr. Krugman for saying that savings were in excess. I said that personal savings is down, and domestic savings are not enough to cover investment such that the US has to borrow from abroad. This post will explore the relationship between domestic savings, domestic demand and the […]

From the Financial Times (pay wall I believe): Investors warn moves to curb climate change will hit fuel demand October 24, 2013 By Ed Crooks Investors managing assets worth about $3tn have written to the world’s largest oil, gas and coal companies, calling on them to prepare for a possible decline in demand for fossil […]

Mr. Krugman said yesterday that the economy is “awash in excess savings with nowhere to go”. If we are awash in excess savings, why do we borrow from foreigners? Let’s look at this equation to determine net borrowing from foreigners… Current Account deficit (net borrowing from abroad) is… (M – X) = (G – T) […]

In part #1 of this series on international flows, Norway’s trade deficit of the 1960’s was associated with foreign investment coming into their country. So the net trade deficit of the Current Account was matched by the net foreign investment surplus of the Capital and Financial Account. There is a principle in international income accounting… […]

by Linda Beale Deficit Disorder Symptoms–via Naked Capitalism/New Economic Perspectives Yves Smith over at Naked Capitalism has an insightful re-post today on the way the right in particular–and most in the media and public–talk about deficits and misunderstand the relative importance of failures to invest in physical and capital infrastructure (roads, education…) versus the relative […]

Is the US trade deficit a problem? Are we somehow incapable of competing in the international market? Is there anything good about being such a debtor nation to China? Is the US really losing jobs to other countries? These issues are heated. People are passionate about their views. Yet, it seems most people don’t understand […]

James Hamilton at econbrowser has a fascinating post titled, “Why isn’t inflation lower?” He presents a paper titled, Is The Phillips Curve Alive and Well After All? Inflation Expectations and the Missing Disinflation, written by Olivier Coibion at UT Austin and NBER and Yuriy Gorodnichenko at UC Berkeley and NBER. It would not be easy […]

Via the Washington Post: Here’s David Cay Johnston, interviewed by Joshua Holland (link from Joseph Delaney), in response to a question about “why we have a very low tax burden overall, relative to other wealthy countries, but a lot of Americans feel that they’re being taxed to death?”: Well, one of the reasons some Americans […]