Randall Wray highlights two great insights that arose at the annual Minsky conference last week in NYC. First Joseph Stiglitz (Wray’s words, emphasis mine): Recall that part of the reason for the creation and explosion of derivatives was to spread risk. For example, mortgage-backed securities were supposed to make the global financial system safer by […]
until 3:00pm EDT. Link is here.
The Atlantic and Center on Budget and Policy Priorities via Taxprofblog have cool graphs people ought to cut and paste to carry with them for discussions on taxes, income, income distribution, and political commentary.
Today’s FT (front page, below the fold*) declares that Mark Carney “has been informally approached as a candidate” to head the Bank of England “in June next year.” He is currently governor of the Bank of Canada. It would be a good choice. As the speeches at the link above note, Carney is no fool, […]
by Linda Beale Buffett Rule rejected by Senate The Senate rejected the effort to make tax policy commensurate with the slogans about American values that we parrot freely–opportunity, paying fair shares, etc. Given the now rigid “phantom” filibuster rule requiring a supermajority to pass anything in the Senate, the Republicans –especially if joined by a […]
Mark Thoma quotesForecasting the Great Recession: DSGE vs. Blue Chip, by Marco Del Negro, Daniel Herbst, and Frank Schorfheide, Liberty Street: Coincidentally commenter Luis Enrique asked me what I thought of that paper on Gmail. this is commentator Luis Enrique [skip] I am enjoying your to and fro with Simon WL anyway, I just wanted to send […]
by Kenneth Thomas(reposted from Middle Class Economist) Mike Kimel at Angry Bear has several nice posts on the “Laffer Curve” that underlies much of conservative economic orthodoxy in this country. As you may know, Art Laffer famously claimed that at tax rates of 0 and 100%, you would get zero tax revenue, and that in […]
Bruce Webb on Angry Bear was among the first of bloggers to point out that this aspect of the Medical Loss Ratio begins in 2009 and here and points again to the MLR as it comes into play. A non-profit group estimates if the Affordable Care Act provisions had been effect in 2010, U.S consumers would […]
Garrett Haake reports Via TPM PALM BEACH, FL — Mitt Romney went well beyond his standard stump speech at a closed-door fundraiser on Sunday evening, and offered some of the most specific details to date about the policies he would pursue if elected. In a speech to donors in the backyard of a private home […]