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

Stinting and saving… without stint or shirk!

by Sandwichman at Econospeak Stinting and saving… without stint or shirk! ‘Tis work, work, work, without stint or shirk. Till the world of his wares is full; This worker, I trow, we all of us know, And his name it is John Bull. —- “Oh, then,” cried the lad, “where’s the good, I should like […]

China’s Outward foreign direct investment

by Joseph Joyce China’s Outward FDI According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s latest World Investment Report Overview 2014, Foreign Direct Investment inflows to China reached $124 billion last year, while outflows rose to $101 billion. The Report anticipates that outflows will surpass inflows within the next few years, changing China from […]

Closing SS offices for your benefits

Reduction in face to face services Summary–Don’t worry, people! We not going to take away all your local SSA offices. Perish the thought! We’re just going to “consolidate” some to provide “better service.” Any thought given to asking for more money to keep current system and improve it? Naw, wouldn’t want to raise anyone in […]

A thought for Sunday: the new 3/5’s Rule and plight of the DREAMers

by New deal democrat at Bondadd blog on Monday morning: A thought for Sunday: the new 3/5’s Rule and plight of the DREAMers The 3/5’s rule was one of the ugly compromises that had to be made in order to bring the slave-owning South into the Federal republic under the Constitution.  It stated: Representatives and […]

Right Irrationality: Feature not Bug

I thought it worthwhile to re-post this quote from a time before the Tea Party even thought of being as a reminder that the current struggle between the Republican ‘Establishment’ and the Tea Party has nothing to do with the former being some remnant of the 50s-60s era of mainstream Republicans being the ‘Goo-Goo’ Party. […]

Alan Collinge (Student Loan Justice Org.) briefly points out some of the Issues with the Brookings Institution Study as Written by Beth Akers and Matt Chingos

There are what I perceived as problems with the Brookings Study. Just one example: they base much of their analyses upon “lifetime earnings associated with earning a bachelor’s degree”. The average lifetimes earnings of degree holders is certainly skewed significantly upwards by the top 10% of earners (who account for over 40% of all earnings, […]

Is Economy nearing Natural Limit?

Unemployment dropped to 6.1% in June and down to 6.2% for the 2nd quarter. Unemployment is dropping faster than many economists expected. I would explain the fast drop as a reaction by firms to maintain their profit rates as labor share and productivity are both stationary now. The recent drops in unemployment are evidence that […]

Global Warming and the Which Way Is Up Problem in Economics Print

From Center for Economic and Policy Development comes this framing….Global Warming and the Which Way Is Up Problem in Economic Print It is painful to read Eduardo Porter’s column on the prospects for slowing global warming and China’s greenhouse gas emissions. It’s not that Porter got anything in particular wrong; he is presenting standard projections […]

Supply Creates Its Own Demon II: You Don’t, Say!

by Sandwichman at Econospeak  (reposted with permission from the author)   Supply Creates Its Own Demon II: You Don’t, Say! Karl Marx could hardly bring himself to utter the name of J. B. Say without affixing to it some contemptuous description or sarcastic remark: “Say’s earth-shaking discovery…” “…adopted by Ricardo from the tedious Say (and […]