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

The most important endorsement of Clinton other than Sanders’ and Warren’s came today … from Al Gore

Paul Waldman has a lengthy post today at the Washington Post’s Plum Line blog titled “Despite what you’ve heard, Democrats aren’t in disarray. Their party is under attack from the outside.”   He argues that the Democratic Party itself isn’t that divided, and that the divisions really are between Democrats and the outsider Sanders supporters who […]

Exponential Decay of Inflation

Yesterday, I wrote about the connection between inflation and corporate profits. (link) I posted this graph. (quarterly data since 1958 to 1st quarter 2016) The graph shows how inflation drops as net corporate profits rise. Net corporate profit rate = Corporate profits/GDP – nominal interest rate The trend line (bright red curving downward) implies an […]

Trump’s Son inLaw’s paper says Putin Hacked DNC to help Trump

This is genuinely amazing (h/t @jbarro) http://observer.com/2016/07/wikileaks-dismantling-of-dnc-is-clear-attack-by-putin-on-clinton/ New York Observer is a weekly newspaper… . Since July 2006, the paper has been owned and published by the American real‑estate figure Jared Kushner. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Observerqqq I quote without comment It’s no secret that the DNC was recently subject to a major hack, one which independent cybersecurity experts […]

The Great Growth Target Leak of 1961

In Doctor Strangelove, General Ripper explains to Captain Mandrake why Clemenceau’s dictum on war is now obsolete: He said war was too important to be left to the generals. When he said that, 50 years ago, he might have been right. But today, war is too important to be left to politicians. They have neither […]

Hacked E-mail Servers

Of course the big news is that Russian hackers (probably linked to the Russian government) hacked Democratic National Committee servers and leaked embarassing e-mails (and deliberately leaked social security numbers) via Wikileaks. This supports the hypothesis that Putin is trying to get Trump elected. It sounds like a fringe tinfoil hat conspiracy theory, but I […]

PPACA Premiums are Lower than You Think

Or so The Brookings Institute would like us to believe. What would cause Brookings to take such a stance especially since parts of the PPACA increased costs dramatically and premiums have increased dramatically? Coverage such as: mandated guaranteed issue regardless of health status; restrictions on the ability to charge different premiums based on anything besides […]

Inflation & Corporate Profits

Is there a relationship between Inflation and Corporate Profits? I think so. But I do not know of anyone talking about the relationship, so I will. The point I want to make is that corporations control prices. They set prices. They are not just price-takers. Corporations will change prices with an eye on their profits. […]