I’m constantly astounded that nobody on the left or the right ever mentions Milton Friedman’s proposal for taxes on corporate profits. On page 174 of (my edition of) Friedman’s libertarian bible Capitalism and Freedom, he proposes what seems a simple and sensible plan (transcription here): …the abolition of the corporate income tax, … with the requirement […]

In my ongoing efforts to clarify national-accounting-speak (for myself and others), I’d like to take a stab at some language that is often used ambiguously: the notion of “public” debt. (See also Thinking About the Fed.) If you don’t think anyone is confused by that term, understand: in “public debt,” “public” means government. In “debt […]

Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff wrote an angry open letter about how Krugman has been uncivil to them.  Krugman’s reply strikes me as being convincing even devastating. Update: My full fisking here. I want to focus on one sentence in the R&R letter   “politicians may float a citation to an academic paper if it […]

Just click the link and read it.  This is solid experimental evidence that if you just give her some money she will learn how to fish on her own so stop being so paternalistic.

I was poking around at the very interesting Divisia measures of money, and came up with the following chart. Update: Spreadsheet error in original graph. Result: this has little to impart. Never mind. Thanks to Mark Sadowski for pointing it out. Which has me, once again, asking monetarists the question in the title of this post. […]

The intellectual equivalent of medieval bloodletting: “We’ll just drain out the bad blood!“ Cross-posted at Asymptosis.

Angry Bear readers are familiar with Mark’s writings: Mark Thoma is a macroeconomist and time-series econometrician at the University of Oregon. His research focuses on how monetary policy affects the economy, and he has also worked on political business cycle models. Mark is currently a fellow at The Century Foundation, a columnist at The Fiscal […]

By Noni Mausa A Nation of the Non-productive? Over on Brad deLong’s blog, I tossed off a comment. Thought it was a throw-away, but is it really? ======= Now and then for fun, I dip into the Wealth of Nations. Here’s a snippet from the beginning of Chapter III: ““A man grows rich by employing […]

by Linda Beale How Apple avoids US taxes with shell games Tomorrow’s Congressional hearing on the ability of major multinationals to shift profits offshore to avoid US tax (and everywhere-else tax) may finally get the attention of the American public onto a tax issue worth thinking about. As today’s New York Times makes clear, Apple […]

Much ado is made of the Fed’s “credibility,” which is dog-whistle-speak for its ability, willingness, and decided inclination to jump all over any (expected or imagined) whiff of that horrifying threat — inflation! — especially the most terrifying bogeyman, “wage inflation.” You won’t, on the other hand, find “credibility” discussed when people speak of the […]