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

Washington Post Columnist Richard Cohen Gets It Right About the Clinton Foundation (in my opinion)

Back when I worked for the claims department of a major insurance company, I got stuff. Some of the stuff consisted of tickets to Broadway shows and sporting events, and sometimes I got bottles of booze, Canadian Club being a popular choice for some reason. These items were tendered to me by auto appraisers, repair […]

Chamber of Commerce Sues Treasury on Inversion Regs

by Linda Beale Chamber of Commerce Sues Treasury on Inversion Regs Back in April, the Chamber of commerce suggested that it might sue the Treasury Department for violating the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) over the new inversion regs that were issued in April (T.D. 9761, REG-135734-14).  See Fortune article (Apr. 6, 2016).   Well, now they […]

Question for Labor Day, 2016

“…it is often said that to regulate the hours of labour, or to introduce differential import duties, is to break economic law.” — Palgrave’s Dictionary of Political Economy, 1894 Do you agree that regulating the hours of labor is a violation of economic law?

Premature anti Republicanism

This is an open thread inviting discussion of the very serious people who discuss how opinions differ on shape of planet, but no longer claim both sides have a point. I am old enough to remember when only shrill dirty fucking hippies argued that the GOP had gone crazy. After the Trump nomination, that fringe […]

Will the Fed be Able to Respond to the Next Recession

On the blogosphere, there is an interesting debate about whether, when the next recession arrives, interests rates will be high enough that the normal approach of cutting the target federal funds rate will be sufficient. In chronological order David Reifschneider, Jared Bernstein, Paul Krugman and Dean Baker contribute their thoughts (and in the case of […]

Interesting Atlantic Article

“The Original Underclass” I have written on upward mobility several times at AB. This article goes along similar lines of what I have been saying. If you are already upper class, the chances of you dropping down to the lowest level are slim to none. If you are in that first quintile of income, the […]