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

Trade deficits, offshoring jobs, Republican tax plan

Via Washington Post, Jared Bernstein writes: The Republican tax cut plan has been justly criticized for worsening both income inequality and the national debt, but the plan has another big problem: It’s likely to lead to more outsourcing of U.S. jobs and a larger trade deficit. That’s obviously a negative for factory jobs and net […]

Venezuela and the Next Debt Crisis

by Joseph Joyce Venezuela and the Next Debt Crisis The markets for the bonds of emerging markets have been rattled by developments in Venezuela. On November 13,Standard & Poor’s declared Venezuela to be in default after that country missed interest payments of $200 million on two government bonds. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro had pledged to […]

Do Android Phones Dream of Electoral Sheeple in 1984

(Dan here…Lifted from Robert’s StochasticThoughts) Do Android Phones Dream of Electoral Sheeple in 1984 Signs of the times A photo tweeted by the Russian Ministry of Defense Tuesday as “irrefutable” proof that the United States has allied with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria turned out to be from a video game. @umpire43 a […]

More on why so many parents lose under the TCJA

Ernie Tedeschi writes: As a followup to my post earlier this morning, I’ve created a table below detailing how each policy in the TCJA affects the number of parental families in 2027 seeing a tax hike. Using refined policy parameters that have been added to the OSPC model since yesterday, I find that under the TCJA […]

Crack v. Opioids and Violence v. Racism

Here’s is a PBS commentary by law professor Ekow Yankah: That Kroger, the Midwestern grocery chain, has decided to make the heroin overdose drug naloxone available without a prescription is a sign of how ominous the current epidemic has grown. Faced with a rising wave of addiction, misery, crime and death, our nation has linked […]

Tax Cuts Pay for themselves nonsense

by Hale Stewart (originally published at Bonddad blog) John Hinderaker Renews His “Tax Cuts Pay For Themselves With Growth” Nonsense It’s been awhile since John “Everything I wrote about economics for an entire year was wrong” Hinderaker has written about economics.  The respite has been glorious.  But now that Republicans in the House have passed […]

No, We Won’t See a Torrent of Investment From the Tax Bill

No, We Won’t See a Torrent of Investment From the Tax Bill One of the arguments that Republicans are using to support their tax bill is that it will unleash investment.  The data says otherwise.  Currently, most US economic sectors are operating far below maximum capacity utilization. As the debate on tax policy and its […]

Many parents face higher taxes under TCJA, even if Congress makes its credits permanent

Ernie Tedeschi as linked by Paul Krugman points to an interesting author. The math is in follow up post.: Many parents face higher taxes under TCJA, even if Congress makes its credits permanent This quick post looks at the effects of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act (TCJA, the House GOP’s proposed tax plan introduced […]