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

Build it anyway, and some of them may come

 “Build it anyway, and some of them may come” probably won’t sell bonds and loan programs to voters. If you build it they might not come But if the city and its residents are desperate to keep the Coyotes in town, they have to understand that doing so comes at a cost that likely won’t […]

Paul Krugman is Wrong about the Rise of the Robots

  Paul Krugman is Wrong about the Rise of the Robots  http://econfuture.wordpress.com/2013/01/18/paul-krugman-is-wrong-about-the-rise-of-the-robots/ Paul Krugman has recently taken a keen interest in the rise of robots and automation — an issue that I have been focusing on since the publication of my book on this subject back in 2009. In a recent post, Krugman says the […]

Oh, do tell us, Rep. Ryan, what exactly you think our spending priorities should be in order to avoid default if the debt ceiling isn’t increased. Pleeease.

Oh, do tell us, Rep. Ryan, what exactly you think our spending priorities should be in order to avoid default if the debt ceiling isn’t increased.  Pleeease.   Might they be similar to the priorities of the National Review’s editors?

Coastal damage to be more common and extensive?

From The Guardian comes this news: Marcia McNutt, who last week announced her resignation as director of the US Geological Survey, told a conference that Sandy had left coastal communities dangerously exposed to future storms of any size. “Superstorm Sandy was a threshold for the north-east and we have already crossed it,” McNutt told the […]

Will Obama Ruin the Economy to Ruin the Republicans?

Robert Waldmann notes a decent article defined by a ridiculous title (of course lifted from his musings): 1) Reasonable and reasonably honest conservative list update: Josh Barro is very reasonable and quite honest. But is he still a conservative?  He sure doesn’t always sound like one. 2) About  #1) see an example of the ness […]

A Modest Proposal for Jacob Lew: Acknowledge Three Simple Facts about U.S. Fiscal Reality

by Robert Pollin  who is  Co-director, Political Economy Research Institute and Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst (reposted with permission from the author from his website Back to full employment) A Modest Proposal for Jacob Lew: Acknowledge Three Simple Facts about U.S. Fiscal Reality January 15, 2013 by Robert Pollin In a reasonable world, […]

What I Missed These Two Days

Hmm, anything unusual in the world? Well, Greg Sargent tries to perpetuate the Myth of Moderate (but of course Unnamed) Republican Senators.  Stan Collender gets punked.  Nothing new on the first, but Collender’s previous piece about the realities of the Ancestral Party gives the lie to Sargent’s delusion.  Economics version: the Republican Party is at […]

Why Social Security Can’t go Bankrupt: Rerun

Reader mmcosker sends this e-mail pointing to Why Social Security Can’t go Bankrupt: Rerun at Forbe’s Magazine: John T. Harvey’s Pragmatic Economics column at Forbes is one of the best. He is a Professor of Economics at Texas Christian University, and has a knack for breaking down politically charged “third rail” economic topics into terms […]

Release of transcripts of 2007 Fed meetings

A note from Wonkblog For anybody who cares about how the country ended up in this precarious economic state, a very big day is coming soon, as information that has been under lock and key for the past five years will be shared with the world.  The Federal Reserve keeps transcripts of its meetings to […]