by Peter Dorman    Re posted from Econospeak It’s the Political Economy, Stupid! Sometimes living in the world of ideas makes it harder to understand the real one. If you happen to be an economist, and the time is now, that is true in spades. Take Paul Krugman, for instance. After bemoaning the terrible policy […]

In a close and insightful  reading of Chief Justice Roberts’ opinion in McCutcheon, reproduced here with his permission from the election law listserv, Marty Lederman has called attention to this first paragraph: “There is no right more basic in our democracy than the right to participate in electing our political leaders. Citizens can exercise that […]

Clarification appended below. —- During oral arguments in a freedom-of-speech case out of Alabama, several justices challenged the notion that public employees who testify truthfully about an issue of significant public concern aren’t shielded from retaliation by the First Amendment. “What kind of message are we giving when we’re telling employees, you’re subpoenaed in a […]

by Joseph Joyce (is a Professor of Economics at Wellesley College and the Faculty Director of the Madeleine Korbel Albright Institute for Global Affairs.  His book, The IMF and Global Financial Crises: Phoenix Rising?, was published in 2012 by Cambridge University Press.) Recovery in Europe? Greece has returned to the bond market, issuing $4.2 billion […]

David Zetland just published Living with Water Scarcity.  Ed Dolan at Economonitors reviews the book…(the review is re-posted with permission of the author). Living with Water Scarcity: A Refreshing Take on a Hot-Button Issue by  Ed Dolan   (is an economist and educator with a Ph.D. from Yale University. Since 2001, he has taught at several universities […]

Re-posted from Naked Capitalism (with permission from the author) comes a well written piece on an important court case concerning damages to health and property from fracking operations in Texas (hat tip Run75441): Texas Family Awarded $3 Million in America’s First Fracking Trial by Lambert Strether of Corrente $3 Million? More like this, please. Here’s some […]

Jon Chait has a great time with Paul Ryan and someone named McCay Coppins who asserted (without feeling any need to present evidence) that Chait is a “rabid” critique of Paul Ryan. Do click the link and read the whole post. You won’t regret it. (Don’t you hate the way the internet makes it possible […]

[Annotation added below.] I’ve written here on AB, extensively now, about the invidious co-opting of the word “freedom” by the political far-right.  I’ve addressed this mainly in the context of the conservative Supreme Court justices’ neat trick of disconnecting the word from any relation to actual physical freedom as long as it is a state court […]

  Low inflation in an atmosphere of low nominal interest rates brings up the issue of the Fisher Effect. Here is the long run Fisher equation for a “steady-state” nominal interest rate… Inflation rate = steady-state nominal interest rate – natural real interest rate The steady-state means that the nominal interest rate is projected to […]