by Daniel Becker (This is a long post. The time for sound bite debate to the demise of learned discussion is over for we are flirting with danger.) Via a post at Financial Armageddon I learnt of a paper looking at the relationship of austerity implementation and social unrest. It is recent, dated August 2011. […]

Tyler Cowen doesn’t much. I tend to agree with Cowen. Nominal rigidities were quite the thing just before I arrived, so I think they are over rated. However, there are two points one of which is totally twitty and the other of which is a dead horse still being beaten by Paul Krugman. OK twitty: […]

by Rebecca Wilder Global slowdown underway – it’s more than the Japanese supply chain disruptions The global economic rebound is slowing markedly. With a tightening bias in emerging markets and a US recovery that continues to disappoint, external demand for any country that ‘needs it’ – those countries mired in fiscal austerity without monetary autonomy, […]

The real story of Michelle Bachmann’s “win” in the Iowa straw poll (not to be confused with the Iowa primary) isn’t that she got just over 4,800 votes—it’s that she paid for 6,000, proving at least 1,200 Iowa straw pollers are smarter than most of the reporters covering her “win.” Late to the party mention: […]

As I’m sure all Angry Bear readers know, there is a debate within the Obama administration on whether to try to maybe do something about unemployment. To recap Obama has been talking about reducing the deficit which might ideally have no effect (if the reductions were far enough in the future) or which would make […]

by Mike Kimel The Effect of Individual Income Tax Rates on the Economy, Part 1: 1901 – 1928 In 1913, the 16th Amendment to the Constitution led to the income tax system we know and don’t love today. Since that time, in fact, since way before that time, people have been arguing about the effect […]

Try to think of times when someone has convinced you of something. It is oddly hard. I think a key reason is that we change our minds when we are not thinking about an issue. I read decades ago the report by I don’t know who that he regularly noticed that his opinions on eg […]

With a hat tip to Tim Harford, The General Manchester Police are reporting their already-public-record convictions via Twitter (@gmpolice). On a quick check, four of the eleven so far convicted (including the one woman), are over 35. So far: It appears that legendary “moral decay” began under Margaret Thatcher. Whodathunkit? Well, maybe David Cameron in […]