By Rebecca Wilder This Is What You Get When Policy Makers Become Complacent The prospects for domestic demand in the US are not bright. The labor market barely generates jobs and fiscal policy is a drag. Americans are consuming; but there’s unlikely sufficient nominal income growth to stabilize consumption expenditure growth at current levels. We’ve […]
by Michael Halasy Cato has truly shocked me….stupefied really. Those who have followed me at Angry Bear will recall my series on tort reform that I wrote this past year. In particular, I wrote a piece on the possible safety risks that patients would be exposed to, with a 0.02% increase in patient mortality with […]
Health Care Thoughts: Accountable Care Part II Accountable care organizations (ACOs) are the keystone of PPACA (Obamacare) as far as restraining costs and improving quality. Early this year there was great excitement about ACOs in the provider community, but the publication of the (first phase) Medicare ACO rules threw cold water on everything. The rules […]
Noted for the record: author Piaw Na reviews Mike Kimel‘s Presimetrics at Piaw’s Blog: This is a great book to read if you’ve got a statistical bent and are willing to follow the data rather than your pre-conceived notions….Many people like to say that they’re data-driven, but most people actually have prejudices that lead them […]
by Mike Kimel People always talk about the Laffer curve, but have you ever seen it estimated? Have you ever wondered why you don’t? If you’re a quant guy, you know the answer to that. Because if you’re a quant guy, at some point curiosity must have gotten the best of you. That means you […]
Matt (Dalton, Harvard) Yglesias, via Aaron Carroll’s note that he should move into another line of work), accidentally gives the Education game away: the Dread Evil Neoliberal School Reformer Barack Obama And His Lackeys At The Center For American Progress Yep, Matt has been doing great things for education. As, of course, has CAP, in […]
by Linda Beale Perry Proposes (no surprise) a flat tax…. Rick Perry, one night after what has been termed an ‘invigorated’ debate performance, has climbed on the flat-tax bandwagon (presumably meaning a flat-rate consumption tax a la the national retail sales tax idea). See Tumulty, Rick Perry to Announce Flat Tax as Part of Economic […]
by Rebecca Wilder German industry is plugging away. Ending in August, the 3-month average of the seasonally- and calendar-day adjusted volume of industrial production (excluding construction) maintained a quick 8.3% annualized pace. Even if this core measure of industrial activity falls another 1% in September, the Q3 quarterly annualized pace would be 10.5% – a […]
“Just when I thought I was out… they pull me back in” I tried to resist asking “what does “Nominal GDP targeting even mean.” I managed, but now Krugman is burying the hatchet and I am digging it up. So what is the proposal ? That the Fed have a target for 2012 nominal GDP […]