After my previous posts on Georgia, it seems only fair to note the bank closings in Illinois today. There have been 13 bank closings posted (as of right now, about 6:50pm) in the state of Illinois since last March. That alone is significant—but, even more interesting, six of them occurred today. This exceeds the previous […]

John Quiggin makes the broad case (link fixed). If you are then stuck with trying to present a Grand Unified Field Theory, you will inevitably lose (or, at best, reduce) the importance of all the agglomerations that follow from the presumption that the Rational Actor is the mean performer—ignoring that no one, including the economists […]

by Divorced one like Bush So, American’s put an intellectual in the president’s seat. It’s been called pragmatism. We cheer the return of science and thus critical thinking to our politics. Yet, here we are at the cusp of the next great societal character development issue since we figured out after the depression there was […]

By Spencer The June employment report sent a clear message to expect more of the same. It showed essentially no signs of improvement as payroll employment fell -467,000 and the unemployment rate rose to 9.5% The average work week — considered a leading indicator of employment growth — dropped to 33.0 hours and the index […]

rdan Finfacts From 1995 to 2008, the annual US trade deficit with China grew from $34 to $266 billion, accounting for virtually all of the increase in the US non-oil deficit from $44 to $282 billon. Imported oil petroleum contributes significantly to the US trade deficits. From 1995 to 2008, the petroleum deficit increased from […]

Peter Morici gets to the point in this paper in Finfacts on the first half of what we need to face. I hear little from naysayers of ‘protectionism’ on this point of manipulating trade advantages. Fixing credit markets and energy policy are largely domestic challenges, whereas recalibrating trade with China requires cooperation from Beijing. However, […]

should read Sensible Centrist J. Bradford DeLong on the difference in forecasting between the current Administration and the CEA under N. Gregory Mankiw. Romer/Bernstein/Kreuger et al., 2008-9 edition: As I understand matters, last December the median private-sector forecast had the unemployment rate topping out at 9% in the second half of 2009. The incoming Obama […]

Candian Bacon (certainly Michael Moore’s best work of fiction), starring John Candy So I Married an Axe Murderer / Mike Meyers Airplane! / Leslie Nielsen Chain Reaction / Keanu Bright Lights, Big City / Michael J. Fox (who has no Elvis in him, but does good work) I think they’re trying to convince everyone to […]

by Bruce Webb Sanders makes the case I have been thinking of making (bolding mine):Bernie Sanders Demands Democrats Commit To Stopping Health Care Filibuster One of the Senate’s most vocal progressives is demanding that the Democratic Party commit to voting against filibustering health care legislation now that, with the impending arrival of Al Franken, the […]

Instapundit offered a chart on the growth of actual and projected Federal government budget deficits a couple months ago: Treasury lists the numbers of the on-going rise in debt as well. The new ceiling for spending is 12.1 trillion USD, but we are close to that now at an estimated 11.3 trillion USD. 09/30/2008 10,024,724,896,912.49 […]