Reflects much of what Bill H.,  Maggie Mahar, and Linda Beale have written… Via USA Today comes this article and chart:   Health care spending growth

Via Alternet Jim Hightower offers a simplified look at the possible consequences of this trade deal: Twenty years later, the gang that gave us NAFTA is back with the TPP, a “trade deal” that mostly does not deal with trade. Of the 29 chapters in this document, only five cover traditional trade matters! The other […]

How much spare capacity remains in the economy in terms of labor and capital? This question is an incredibly important one… and economists such as Krugman, Bernstein and Baker are deluded by past grandeur… You will hear Paul Krugman say that the Fed rate must stay at the zero lower bound in spite of the […]

Recently Paul Krugman wrote a typically diplomatic post entitles “What to do when You’re Wrong” . I thought of that while advising Alessio Marchetti’s undergraduate thesis. He argues at some length that the Abe/Kuroda efforts stimulate an economy at the lower bound with monetary policy have been successful. Of course I had vaguely noticed this. […]

Secular stagnation involves the idea that Central bank interest rates will be at the zero lower bound (ZLB) for a long… long… time. And they will be because of falling labor share around the world. Yet, other economists are not even including labor share as a factor. Paul Krugman and Simon Wren-Lewis for examples. Labor […]

by Linda Beale FATCA Agreement with France On November 14, the US Treasury Department announced that it had signed an agreement with France relating to the implementation of the 2010 Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) law.  That makes the 10th such agreement signed between the US and other countries to date, and helps move […]

I have written lately about the how the cultural economics of China will fail to raise wages of labor and thus fail to re-balance their domestic demand. A video interview with Minqi Li by The Real News Network notes that recent decisions by the Chinese government are meant to raise income for the owners of […]

Skeptical Science offers a nice, concise history of climate science: Two Centuries of Climate Science: part one – Fourier to Arrhenius, 1820-1930 Two Centuries of Climate Science: part two – Hulburt to Keeling, 1931- 1965 Two Centuries of Climate Science: part three – Manabe to the present day, 1966-2012 (h/t reader Jan)

Senator Elizabeth Warren says it well: Transcript is found at Floor Speech by Senator Elizabeth Warren The Retirement Crisis November 18, 2013 As Prepared for Delivery.