Barry Ritholtz points us to how essential US government intervention was for the banking system and in particular existing banks and the management at The Big Picture. It has links worth pursuing as well. I continue to be of the mind that the Wall Street Bailouts were misguided, and that a massive Swedish style reorg […]
[Expletive Deleted]. It will be interesting to see whether the Libya of Brad DeLong and Juan Cole’s beliefs produces a respectable opposition leader—one of the surer signs of rule by the people—before Canada does.* UPDATE: Via Amy Wilkins Twitter feed, Layton’s final words. Can anyone imagine the 2011 Obama** being able to say this: You […]
With the (roughly) 11% decline in US equities year-to-date, talk of a US recession has resurfaced. Through mid August, the high frequency economic indicators point to further weakness, rather than a double dip. In my view, whether or not the US is IN a recession – defined as the coincident variables followed by the NBER […]
by Mike Kimel Hi folks! Long time readers probably know I’ve been haranguing on the deficit and the national debt for a long time. Last week I got an e-mail telling me about a new book called “Deficit: Why Should I Care?” by Marie Bussing-Burks. I had never heard of either the book or Ms. […]
by Linda Beale Jobs as the Measure of Economic Success, and Rick Perry’s Texas We have had a warped sense of how to measure economic success in this country at least since George W. Bush started talking about the “ownership” society. Of course, we should have guessed that moniker was problematic from the start, since […]
by Mike Kimel The Effect of Individual Income Tax Rates on the Economy, Part 2: The Great Depression and the New Deal, 1929 – 1940 This post is the second in a series that looks at the relationship between real economic growth and the top individual marginal tax rate. Last week I had a post […]
by Rebecca Wilder Disclaimer: I’m in Germany, and the keyboard takes some getting used to. Therefore, some of my posts in the coming week will be short and sweet (so that I don’t include characters lik ö, which is sure to turn some heads). Furthermore, blogger spellcheck doesn’t work in English here. The Q2 real […]
Angry Bear PGL wrote this post in 2007 reflecting the shape of politics and media soundbites of this current and constant election campaigning over the current two years to 2012 elections: In case Mr. Romney hasn’t seen my question. let me restate it. How will you address the long-run fiscal problem, that is, will you […]
by Mike Kimel Some thoughts on the next presidential election. 1. It seems to be a political truism that only Nixon could go to China. 2. Once a precedent is set, even taboo activities become OK. Clinton could go to China because Nixon had already gone. 3. Obama seems willing to, er, “fix” a number […]
I think this business insider article by Henry Blodget is a genuine must read A former senior analyst at Moody’s has gone public with his story of how one of the country’s most important rating agencies is corrupted to the core. The analyst, William J. Harrington, Sad to say (pathetic really) something was news to […]