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

March jobs report: participation up, unemployment down, wage growth miserly

by New Deal democrat March jobs report: participation up, unemployment down, wage growth miserly HEADLINES: +98,000 jobs added U3 unemployment rate down 0.2% from 4.7% to 4.5% U6 underemployment rate down 0.3% from 9.2% to 8.9% Here are the headlines on wages and the chronic heightened underemployment: Wages and participation rates Not in Labor Force, […]

War is the Health of the State

Excerpts from Randolph Bourne’s The State: War is the health of the State. It automatically sets in motion throughout society those irresistible forces for uniformity, for passionate cooperation with the Government in coercing into obedience the minority groups and individuals which lack the larger herd sense. The machinery of government sets and enforces the drastic penalties. […]

The Overseas Cash Grab

NYT Dealbook points to a how the 2 trillion dollar overseas money can come “home” and how money is spent.  2005 comes to mind the last time repatriation of “overseas money” comes to mind. Linda Beale Repatriation holiday lobbying – Money Speaks and More on repatriation. Taxprof blog here and Senate report here. The Overseas Cash […]

Could Incompetence Lead To Reelection?

by Barkley Rosser  (originally published at  Econospeak) Could Incompetence Lead To Reelection? I know, I know, it is way too early to talk about the presidential election of 2020, so maybe this is more relevant to midterms, and more likely it is just something merely momentary.  Nevertheless, it occurs to me that the increasingly apparent […]

Why Economists Are Bad At Economics

by Sandwichman Why Economists Are Bad At Economics If you want an informed, thoughtful analysis of the effects of robotization on productivity, investment, employment and wages, ask an art school professor. Jason E. Smith’s two-part series, “Nowhere to Go: Automation, Then and Now,” (part one and part two) at Brooklyn Rail cuts through all the […]

The Murder Rate – A Regression with Many Variables

In this post, I want to look at the murder rate, by state. I ran a regression with the state murder rate for 2015 as the dependent variable, and literally threw the kitchen sink at it: demographics, weaponry, income, education, population density, etc. Basically, if its something some reasonable percentage of the population believes matters, […]