I’m quite tongue-in-cheek in asking that question, but nevertheless: I present for your delectation what at first blush seems like a revealing bit of chart porn (hat tip: Zero Hedge): You could flip this upside down and replace “Earning Yield” with “PE ratio.” The data displays a remarkably regular relationship. Equity investors seem to be most optimistic […]

The cost of hand-to-mouth living – Financial Times: A few weeks ago, when I was chatting with the head of one of America’s largest food and drink companies, he made a revealing comment about data flows. Like most consumer groups, this particular company is currently spending a lot of money to monitor its customers with […]

I’m joking of course. He’s still grinding the supply-side axe (though judiciously here, IMO). But you gotta admire a fellow when he follows the logic of the data where his own logic requires him to go. He’s just done three posts about Germany’s growth and unemployment rates through the great recession: Annualized change, Q1 2006 […]

There are quite a few blogs in the blogosphere who tend to get the PPACA wrong and conflate the issues of it well beyond what is reasonable and truthful. Maybe they just do not know what the facts are and miss the benefits of the PPACA to dwell on the negatives exclusively.  Many  tend to […]

[T]he myth of the welfare state fostering a lazy citizenry just doesn’t hold water. A group of small nations (combined population: about 25 million) that came up with Linux, Skype, Ikea, H&M, and Lego — to say nothing of well-written television shows and mystery novels, innovative designers and brilliant architects from Alvar Aalto to Bjarke […]

Shorter Niall Ferguson. Keynes was so  totally gay that he would never write about Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren. update: Ferguson has apologized very fully,  firmly denouncing his comment on Keynes, sexuality, and time horizons. I’m sure that Ferguson will retract, in the long run, all he’s said.

This is unusual. I find myself disagreeing with both Noah Smith and Mark Thoma. Further they argue something which I have thought myself. To be frank, I think the cause of my disagreement is Noah Smith’s provocatively strong language. It’s best to click the link and read the whole post The reason macroeconomics doesn’t work […]

Transcript: Yves Smith Interview – Harry Shearer – Listen to the podcast here. A link to Yves’ IFR e-book is here. (on the fraudclosure fiasco…)

Common Dreams points us to an aspect of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court most of us have probably not followed: A secret federal court last year did not deny a single request to search or electronically spy on people within the United States “for foreign intelligence purposes,” according to a Justice Department report this week. […]

Via Naked Capitalism comes more comment on two major global trade agreements also discussed here at Angry Bear. I keep wondering when our national conversation will get around to acknowledging ‘pro-business’ as having a second question to answer: which businesses mostly benefit and which lose out? And a third: what are the rules of free […]