There have been calls for a 4% inflation target. But a 3% target would work better. Let me show you why. I will use this chart that plots net profit rate with core inflation… (quarterly data since 1958!!!) Net profit rate = Corporate profit rate – nominal interest rate The plot has hugged and slid […]

The Clinton campaign has been strangely remiss in not publicizing the Trump campaign’s aggressive screening of journalists at Trump’s events—especially its denial of press credentials to several news media organizations, including the Washington Post and Politico. But this report by Paul Farhi, the Washington Post’s media reporter, this morning, titled “Post reporter barred, patted down […]

Via Dealbook: CONSUMER AGENCY PROPOSES NEW RULES FOR DEBT COLLECTORS There will be some respite for people being hounded for debt as federal regulators are preparing to significantly strengthen the rules that govern debt collection for the first time in nearly 40 years. Under proposed regulations, debt collection companies will have to provide fuller documentation […]

by Mike Kimel Google Trends and the Presidential Election I’m sure somebody has done this before, but I don’t remember seeing it. I used Google Trends to see how searches for the Democrat and Republican nominee for President stacked up in the first ten months of 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016 (YTD). I’d go back […]

Well, by now y’all know that Donald Trump held a press conference today at which he invited Russia to hack into Hillary Clinton’s email server and retrieve the 33,000 emails she deleted.  When questioned about the propriety of encouraging anyone—much less a foreign power—to commit cybertheft, he said Russia probably already had the emails and […]

The changes to the platform testify to the strength of the Sanders campaign, and, like that campaign, they are a sign that the dynamism within the party arises right now from its left­wing faction, led by politicians like Mr. Sanders and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. What is less clear is if Mrs. Clinton is […]

I always Google my headline ideas to try to avoid the appearance of plagiarism. I was thinking of the title for this post as I was looking at a cartoon adaptation of Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom, originally published by Look magazine in 1945 and subsequently distributed in the 1950s as a pamphlet by the General Motors […]

Campaigns are complicated things. No one gets every piece of them right. Some candidates are great at big rallies. Some are good only at small events. Some are terrific TV communicators but bad on the stump. Some delegate well, and others don’t. Some never waver from a message, while others can’t seem to find one […]