Hillary Clinton’s performance wasn’t as clean or as crisp as her last one. Among other things, she invoked 9/11 in order to dodge a question about her campaign donors. But she effectively made the case that, though Sanders speaks about important questions, his solutions are ultimately simplistic and hers are better. Instead of railing about […]
The REALLY ANNOYING Don’t-Wanna-Subsidize-Wealthy-Kids’-College-Tuition Canard [With fun update!]
Oscar Landerretche on Inequality
Oscar Landerretche is an awesome economist from Chile. Below is an excerpt of his participation in a video forum with Brad DeLong on the Politics of Inequality in 2012. Since then he has become the President of the Board of Directors for Codelco, the largest copper producer in Chile. He is currently dealing with the […]
Clinton Campaign Spokesman Brian Fallon Says Healthcare Insurance Premiums Aren’t Paid by Families and Employers, Because They’re Paid to Private For-Profit Insurers. Seriously.
“Bernie Sanders has called for a roughly 9-percent tax hike on middle-class families just to cover his health-care plan,” said Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon, referring to legislation Sanders introduced in 2013, “and simple math dictates he’ll need to tax workers even more to pay for the rest of his at least $18-20 trillion agenda. If […]
High slack or Low slack?
One has to be crazy to disagree with Brad DeLong. Then, I must be crazy. He said… “After being wrong for eight straight years, critics of expansionary macro policies in a high-slack low-inflation economy–” Link It is true that if we look across America, we will see lots of slack and underemployment. Labor force participation […]
Open thread Nov. 17, 2015
ISIS: Rogue State or Organized Crime Gang/Mafia
The West has been at ‘war’ with the Mafia and other organized crime gangs for over a century now. And nobody really thinks there will be some final ‘victory’. On the other hand the Mafia is at one of its lowest ebbs in both the United States and Italy. And who among us really remembers […]
Why Tyler Cowen Doesn’t Understand the Economy: It’s the Debt, Stupid
In a recent post Tyler Cowen makes an admirable effort to lay out his overarching approach to thinking about macroeconomics, revealing the assumptions underlying his understanding of how economies work. (Even more salutary, this has prompted others to do likewise: Nick Rowe, Ryan Avent.) Cowen’s first assertion: In world history, 99% of all business cycles are real […]
Catching up to the Natural Real Rate
This is a comment on an article that came out yesterday called The equilibrium real funds rate: Past, present and future by James D. Hamilton, Ethan Harris, Jan Hatzius and Kenneth D. West. They talk about how difficult it is to determine an equilibrium real interest rate which is the real rate at full employment […]
Growth in the Emerging Market Economies
by Joseph Joyce Growth in the Emerging Market Economies In recent decades the global economy has been transformed by the rise of the emerging market economies. Their growth lifted millions out of poverty and gave their governments the right to call for a larger voice in discussions of international economic governance. Therefore it is of […]