Brad DeLong made a case for big government and higher deficits. Paul Krugman wrote an exagerated pun of praise. The part he liked was the appeal to myopia and paternalistic proposal “The problem is that as we move into the twenty-first century, the commodities we will be producing are becoming … more subject to myopia […]

There is discourse in the econoblogosphere currently about why interest rates are low and may stay low for a long time. Larry Summers says that we may even have a negative natural real rate at full employment, even though Ben Bernanke sees that as somewhat impossible. It is fairly common knowledge that excess debt and […]

I live in Michigan, a state which felt in its infinite Republican legislator wisdom it was important to remove all input from the cities, counties, and townships and leave the industry unfettered with any controlling influence. For those who are worried about capitalism and free enterprise if you own the land, there is such a […]

I have been upset with Paul Krugman for years since he undermined the living wage movement in the 1990’s. Here is what he wrote back then… “In short, what the living wage is really about is not living standards, or even economics, but morality. Its advocates are basically opposed to the idea that wages are […]

An understanding between Iran and the 5+1 countries about Iranian nuclear technology has been announced. Given my lack of expertise, no one should care what I think of the deal. That warning typed, I will write as if I were expert after the jump.

Nothing could be more predictable than this headline from CNN today: Does Israel have a military option vs. Iran nuclear program? (CNN)The Iran nuclear negotiations in Lausanne, Switzerland, reportedly have made substantive progress, inching closer toward a provisional agreement between the P5+1 and Iran. While the talks continued to unfold this week, Israeli Prime Minister […]

Some of AB’s regular readers might have picked up on the fact that I’m obsessed with animal rescue.  (Dan Crawford sure has!)  And since AB is mostly an economics/fiscal-policy blog, it probably has readers who buy art and antiques. Soooo …. I thought I’d pass this along.  The key sentence is near the end of the article: […]

by Joseph Joyce The U.S.: Inept Diplomacy, Indispensable Currency The announcements by several European governments that they would join the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) have been widely seen as indicators of the declining position of the U.S.  The AIIB had been proposed by China for the purpose of funding much-needed infrastructure projects in […]