Who is sharing
I found this little reminder of who is sharing to fix the deficits: Tax policy center
Q4 2010 Flow of Funds: Household leverage down, wealth effect dead, and equities surge
The Federal Reserve released the Q4 2010 Flow of Funds Accounts for the US. On the household balance sheet, net worth (total assets minus total liabilities) was estimated at $56.8 trillion, which is up $2.1 trillion over the quarter. Notably, household net worth has increased $6.4 trillion since the recession’s end (Q2 2009). Moreover, personal […]
Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance and the Trade Deficit Both Increase
Mark Thoma at Maximum Utility has conclusions on the figures for creation of jobs and trend in trade deficits: (reposted with permission of the author) Figures on the trade balance and new claims for unemployment insurance are out this morning, and the news isn’t as good as hoped. First, initial claims increased: In the week […]
Wisconsin Senate Passes Bill Ending Public Bargaining Rights
Wisconsin Senate Passes Bill Ending Public Bargaining Rights by Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism writes on this evening’s news on Wisconsin political conflicts. Reposted. After claiming repeatedly in the media that the fight to end public worker bargaining rights was all about the budget, Governor Walker stripped the collective bargaining provisions out of the budget […]
Still fixing the fixed, fixed healthcare system
by Daniel Becker I posted in 7/2009 on the issue of fixing our healthcare system based on the Massachusetts model. The first was Massachusetts is fixing the fixed healthcare system. The second was a followup to the first: Fixing the fixing. Healthcare Deja vu. The issue was that we are dancing around. All the proposals […]
Topical thread March 9, 2011
Atlas Shrugs: The musical or other scary variations
by Mike KimelCross posted at the Presimetrics blog. The inimitable TBogg has a clip from the upcoming movie Atlas Shrugs, Part 1. The book is so long and so interminable that the movie has to be done in three pieces. The clip has to be seen – words don’t do it justice. And while at […]
Open thread March 9, 2011
Means testing for social Security
In order to make this timely I am cut and pasting a note from CEPR pointing to the efficacy of cutting spending in the Social Security through means testing. The MSM and politicians have proposed this and raising the retirement age as answers to ‘the deficit’ crisis, some commenters indicating a ‘tipping point’ of disaster […]
It’s pretty obvious how China can achieve its top economic priority of price stability
Premier Wen Jiabao made stabilizing prices China’s top economic priority for 2011. Amid the surge in world energy costs, this story didn’t make the front page. However, Chinese policymakers did take their time spent out of the limelight to allow the Chinese yuan to appreciate roughly 0.3% against the US dollar. Chinese inflation is elevated […]