Romney released a new middle class economic plan [today].  [The] plan is called: “Mitt Romney’s new plan for a stronger middle class.” It contains ideas we’ve heard before: more access to domestic energy resources; cutting taxes and capping spending; repealing Obamacare. Mark Hopkins at Moody’s Analytics tells me that it is mostly a set of […]

by Kenneth  Thomas It’s the Middle Class, Stupid! (Review) When I saw that James Carville and Stan Greenberg had just published It’s the Middle Class, Stupid! (Blue Rider Press), I knew that I would want to read it. I had always liked Carville’s We’re Right, They’re Wrong and wanted to know his take on approaching […]

Evidence of Hampered Monetary Policy Transmission Channel in the Euro Area by Rebecca Wilder Mario Draghi cautioned on the ‘hampered’ transmission channel of monetary policy in his now famous London speech last week: To the extent that the size of these sovereign premia hampers the functioning of the monetary policy transmission channel, they come within […]

Yesterday I compared real private GDP in cycles. Today I would like to look at  real business fixed investment. If you listened to CNBC — otherwise known as the Republican Propaganda Channel — or the campaign claims you would think that all the uncertainty created by Obama was destroying business confidence and that real business […]

Mitt Romney proposes reducing tax brackets by 20% and cutting the estate tax (to zero IIRC). He will keep or expand favored treatment of capital gains and dividends. He claims that he doesn’t plan to cut taxes for the rich. He claims that he will avoid such cuts by eliminating deductions, credits and exclusions. One […]

by Linda Beale Does the Tea Party support Tax Dodgers? Andrew Leonard’s July 27 article in Salon, Tea Party Shields Tax Dodgers, looks at the way Jim DeMint and Rand Paul are carrying water for the big banks–suggesting that Treasury shouldn’t be implementing the “FATCA” legislation passed as part of the HIRE act because it […]

Romney’s plan calls for linking the Pentagon’s base budget to Gross Domestic Product, and allowing the military to spend at least $4 dollars out of every $100 the American economy produces.” — Defense spending to spike $2.1 trillion under Romney, CNN Money, May 10, 2012.) In a post here two weeks ago I noted that […]

I met Cathy for coffee in Cambridge when she was presenting at MIT awhile ago.  I liked her style and knowledge.  Re-posted with permission from the author. by Cathy O’Neila data scientist who lives in New York City and writes at mathbabe.org Statisticians aren’t the problem for data science. The real problem is too many […]

Update: Paul Krugman at Conscience of a Liberal points to Spencer England’s post in his column 8/1…Dan I thought it would be interesting to post this chart of real private GDP in recoveries. It clearly shows that since the great moderation we have experienced three recoveries that compared to previous recoveries were very weak.  Whether […]

Romney said a Polish leader told him during his visit that his country’s economic philosophy is, “You don’t borrow what you can’t pay back.” The presumptive Republican presidential nominee used the line to draw an implicit contrast with President Obama, saying the world — and, by definition, the United States — should emulate Poland’s economic […]