I’ve ground the axe quite a bit over the years for the argument that Kevin Drum makes — and dismisses — here. In brief: poorer people spend a larger share of their income/wealth than richer people. So if poorer people have more income/wealth — if the distribution is more equal — there will be higher […]

For a hot tip for a stock with a dividend yield over 10% averaged over the past five years, click more.

He’s only been blogging since March. His credentials? “Independent Researcher on the equation for Effective Demand.” That may explain why, aside from a lonely Steve Randy Waldman link, I’ve seen no mention of his work out there. Just another internet econocrank? I’m wildly unqualified to pass judgment, but Lambert’s built what strikes me as a […]

Mark Thoma had a tweet asking if the stock market is  in a bubble. I do not think so. The market PE  on trailing operating earnings is 15.5 and my model says that based on the historic relationship to interest rates and inflation the market PE should be 21.5%. Obviously, either the market does not […]

I’m quite tongue-in-cheek in asking that question, but nevertheless: I present for your delectation what at first blush seems like a revealing bit of chart porn (hat tip: Zero Hedge): You could flip this upside down and replace “Earning Yield” with “PE ratio.” The data displays a remarkably regular relationship. Equity investors seem to be most optimistic […]

The cost of hand-to-mouth living – Financial Times: A few weeks ago, when I was chatting with the head of one of America’s largest food and drink companies, he made a revealing comment about data flows. Like most consumer groups, this particular company is currently spending a lot of money to monitor its customers with […]

I’m joking of course. He’s still grinding the supply-side axe (though judiciously here, IMO). But you gotta admire a fellow when he follows the logic of the data where his own logic requires him to go. He’s just done three posts about Germany’s growth and unemployment rates through the great recession: Annualized change, Q1 2006 […]

Via Naked Capitalism comes more comment on two major global trade agreements also discussed here at Angry Bear. I keep wondering when our national conversation will get around to acknowledging ‘pro-business’ as having a second question to answer: which businesses mostly benefit and which lose out? And a third: what are the rules of free […]

Re-thinking macro policy: Joseph Stiglits, Davis Romer, Oliver Blanchard at  Columbia University, New York, and co-host of the Conference on Rethinking Macro Policy II: First Steps and Early Lessons. The Lessons of the North Atlantic Crisis for Economic Theory and Policy Posted on May 3, 2013 by iMFdirect   http://blog-imfdirect.imf.org/ post by: Joseph E. Stiglitz In analyzing […]

At risk of stating the obvious, in this post I’d like to highlight a pernicious misunderstanding that I find to be widespread out there in the world. This is not new thinking. You’ll find a more sophisticated historical account, stated very clearly though in somewhat different terms, in the first few pages of this PDF. Still, […]