rdan As the Obama administration issues executive orders and eventually implements policies, we have an obligation to watch how policies mature and how they are actually implemented. As cactus has noted with an old Russian proverb, “Trust, but verify.” Probably a good way to start this year 2009 overall. And the executive branch is only […]

There is a reason I never believe people who judge the health of a company by its credit rating: the evidence isn’t there, and everyone in the market knows it isn’t there. Here is a prime example: General Electric (GE; the company that Jack eviscerated) has a AAA credit rating. It is also paying a […]

There has been a great deal of recent discussion insisting that the various New Deal programs did not get this country out of the Depression, only World War II did that. And no one that I know of argues that the level of unemployment right through the 30’s was not unacceptably high. But I want […]

Robert Waldmann Robert Barro wrote an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal. The substance of the op-ed is to report an estimate of the Fiscal multiplier 0.8 which is less than one. Thus, according to Barro, a stimulus will partially crowd out of investment, consumption or net exports and not just reduced leisure. Paul Krugman […]

rdan … Angry Bear (2,447 links) is the product of a half dozen Ph.D economists, an historian, and financial professionals. The writers provide individual perspectives on broad sectors of the economy based on their unique training. They look at topics as varied as worldwide trade and industrial production and US government programs and regulations like […]

By Spencer Historically quality spreads are leading and/or concurrent indicators of capacity utilization. So are these extreme quality spreads a forecast of capacity utilization and/or the economy?

rdan Motherjones has a note on the new Whitehouse website. I point out some additional information of a new contract with America. An off-line Obama isn’t just bad for Barack. It’s bad for all of us. The president’s ability to reach outside his inner circle gives him access to fresh ideas and constructive critics; it […]

Robert Waldmann DeLong criticizes the introduction to the second edition of “The Road to Serfdom” On Hayek you prove that Hayek claimed that the UK was on the road to serfdom, you don’t prove that he claimed that it had gone beyond the point of no return on that road, that a U-turn before arrival […]

by cactus The Most Unpleasant Post I’ll Ever Write… and It Is About World Peace I really don’t like this post. I don’t like what I wrote in it. Unfortunately, it seems accurate to me. So here goes… Saudi Arabia has no troubles with Zoroastrians, Christians, Jews, or Shia Muslims. The Zoroastrians, Christians, and Jews […]