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

ALEC: Destroying the American Economy, One State at a Time

The American Legislative Exchange Council — which authors ultra-conservative legislation and promulgates it to state legislatures nationwide — has a little index measure of states’ “competitiveness,” which supposedly results in greater prosperity for those states that rank highly. Does it? Let’s let the numbers speak for themselves: Source (PDF). Cross-posted at Asymptosis.

SLAPP Happy Dog-Shooter

From Howard Bashman’s How Appealing blog today: Florida’s Fifth District Court of Appeal yesterday issued a ruling in a case described as “SLAPP Happy Dog-Shooter“: The “Siouxsie Law” blog had this post about the case back in March 2010. And in July 2011, “Siouxsie Law” had a related post titled “Court rules in favor of […]

What’s happening with the Phillips curve ?

Paul Krugman notes that it is standard practice to estimate an accelerationist Phillips curve in which the change in inflation is related to unemployment. He also notes that recent data seem to form the original Phillips curve, that is the scatter of inflation on unemployment forms a curve. He asked if someone might have rolling […]