Poking a little bit of fun at his own traditions and perhaps a bit also at the ‘war on Christmas’ that is becoming a tradition in our politics, my minister offered this ‘sermonette’ to his congregation last Sunday.  I thought to put it up in a more prose form to remind us also to remember […]

Dan Crawford Mike Kimel Steve Roth Rebecca WilderLinda Beale Dan Becker Holly Nelson Bruce WebbKen Houghton Tom BozzoSpencer EnglandMaggie MaharRobert WaldmannBeverly Mann and the rest of The AB Community

by Mike Kimel A Random Observation About the 1970s… and the 1980s People often point to the stagnation of the 1970s, and the Reagan administration that followed, as evidence that cutting taxes leads to faster economic growth. But the same folks rarely look at the flip-side of things, and when they do, they don’t reach […]

by Rebecca Wilder Merry Christmas! Here’s a nice little model I discussed in 2007: The Economics of Christmas! Hope that you enjoy; I do. (This commentary was written in my more ‘academic days’ when I was inundated with models of theoretical macro.  As you have no doubt noticed, I’ve gone the applied financial route since […]

A couple of days ago, James Bianco, chez Ritholtz, noted a WSJ article entitled “Dividend Stocks Become the Heroes”: This year, the 100 stocks in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index with the highest dividend yields are up an average of 3.7% before dividend payouts, according to Birinyi Associates. The 100 lowest-yielding stocks are down […]

Randall Wray made a fascinating observation a while back: Since 1776 there have been six periods of substantial budget surpluses and significant reduction of the debt. … The United States has also experienced six periods of depression. The depressions began in 1819, 1837, 1857, 1873, 1893, and 1929. And I confirmed it (graphs): Every depression in U.S. history was […]

There’s such fun in disastering. When you’ve won the mastering.Of the u-ni-verse! Hat tip to RJ Sigmund: Lyrics by Marcy Shaffer (Dan here … lyrics under the fold) It’s beginning to look a lot more riskless.At least for guys like me.It’s neat being this elite.The government makes it sweet.Complete with robber baron guarantee! It’s beginning […]

This Credit Suisse graph posted by Cardiff Garcia on December 5 has been getting some serious attention in wonkier sections of the econoblogosphere: And Angry Bear‘s own Rebecca Wilder gave us this on December 21: 2007-2011 in charts: moving down in quality 2007… …Vs. 2011 Brad DeLong discussed this on December 21, riffing off David […]

The Corporations That Occupy Congress  by David Cay Johnston via taxprofblog and Reuters Some of the biggest companies in the United States have been firing workers and in some cases lobbying for rules that depress wages at the very time that jobs are needed, pay is low, and the federal budget suffers from a lack […]

by Linda Beale Essential Health Benefits and cost benefit analysis: can we maintain doctors’ incomes and provide decent care for all?  So we thought we had finally created a national system of health insurance that would permit near-universal coverage for essential health benefits to every American. But the Obama administration says it is not going […]