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

Reform: Looking at the Glass Half-Full, Part 2

November 12, 2009Reform: Looking at the Glass Half-Full Part 2   by Maggie Mahar, Health Beat Blog Reform: Looking at the Glass Half-Full, Part 2 The Truth about the Public Option For reasons I don’t understand, progressive pundits have been swallowing Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf’s dispiriting speculation about the public plan, hook, line and […]

JP MORGAN: THE JOBLESS RECOVERY WON’T BE SO BAD

Rdan Pragmatic capitalist points us to thinking that works for some. The strategy outlook at JP Morgan is little changed over the last week despite some sobering news out of the labor department last Friday. The bad news on jobs is no longer a surprise to investors and history has shown that past jobless recoveries […]

Photographing Phantom Invisible Bond Vigilantes

Robert Waldmann A specter is haunting Paul Krugman — it is the specter of apparently sophisticated forecasters who predict a huge spike in US long term bond rates in the near future. He notes that most investors can’t believe this or rates would already be high. He also notes that some of those who are […]

Comment woes.

Js-kit has some comments embedded in the post, at the bottom of each post after clicking on the title of the post you want to read. There is a disconnect with the blue comment link at the top of the post (blogger comment format). Very inconvenient. Sorry. Update: Blogger and js-kit are synchronized in ‘below […]

The Phantom Menace

Robert Waldmann The one by Paul Krugman is a must read. what I hear is that officials don’t trust the demand for long-term government debt, because they see it as driven by a “carry trade”: financial players borrowing cheap money short-term, and using it to buy long-term bonds. [skip] the remedy should be financial, not […]

Quantitative Easing

Robert Waldmann Can the Fed do any more to stimulate the economy ? The question is back. The answer is only by making credible promises about the fairly distant future. My view is that this means no. I review the issue after the jump. Long ago Paul Krugman proposed that the Bank of Japan target […]

I Blame This on the NHL

With all the talk of “Detroit,” you would think that Michigan would have lost the most employees, as a percentage of same, on the year. After all, the scariest graph of the U.S. MSAs isn’t scary for nothing. But the Regional and State Employment data is out for October (h/t CR), and there’s a different […]