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

Brad DeLong Rejoins the Reality-Based Community; Mark Thoma tells us why it is so

Even if his inspiration for doing so comes from (of all places) the HuffPo, This is spot-on: Unless something big and constructive in the way of global economic policy is done soon, we will have to change Stiglitz’s first name to ‘Cassandra’ — the Trojan prophet-princess who was always wise and always correct, yet cursed […]

Back to back quarters of Corp. profit declines… What could it mean?

I saw this tweet today… Just fyi, the US stock market has never NOT crashed post back to back quarters of corp profit declines — Keith McCullough (@KeithMcCullough) January 6, 2016 Profits peak when the economy reaches its effective demand limit. A recession eventually follows. How much can the psychology embedded in the tweet move […]

Is there a model in which a Country which borrows in it’s own currency has a Greek style crisis ?

usa = Greece ? A challenge. Paul Krugman asks how a country like the USA could have a Greek style crisis. In his Mundell-Fleming Lecture Krugman defined Greek style crisis twice ” a Greek-style crisis of soaring interest rates” and ” a Greek-style scenario of higher rates and a slump in the real economy” . […]

Ireland still isn’t back

Ireland remains, in some circles, a poster child for austerity’s success: It paid off its bailout loan early! It regained its 2007 Gross Nation Income per capita in 2014! Unemployment is only 8.9%! Don’t believe the hype. Paul Krugman recently pointed out that Ireland’s employment performance continues to be dismal, especially in comparison with currency-devaluing, […]