Re-posted with the permission of the author Mark Thoma at Maximum Utility. The Budget Deficit Debate: Avoiding the Real Problem I’ve been asked several times how I feel about the president’s proposed budget, and I find it hard to answer. For me, it all comes down to the following diagram: [Source: CBO] The main problem, […]
From the Capitol Times op-ed (hat tip juan): In fact, like just about every other state in the country, Wisconsin is managing in a weak economy. The difference is that Wisconsin is managing better — or at least it had been managing better until Walker took over. Despite shortfalls in revenue following the economic downturn […]
Mark Thoma begins with a hilarious typo, but eventually gets to the Quote of the Decade (if not century) from Alan Blinder: If we economists stubbornly insist on chanting ‘free trade is good for you’ to people who know that it is not, we will quickly become irrelevant to the public debate. As Rusty can […]
By: Daniel BeckerHT: Digby More people need to hear this perspective regarding the economy and the budget debate if only to remind them that there is another perspective…if only to hear what it sounds like when a congress person is actually fighting and working for you. You, the one without enough money to influence congress. […]
Brendan Fischer via PR Watch writes on the budget process in Wisconsin, with links here: Where is the Budget Crisis?. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker alleges that dismantling public sector collective bargaining rights is made necessary by a $3.6 billion deficit in the next budget, and a $137 million shortfall this year. Setting aside the fact […]
The Best of State Tax Expenditure Disclosure is worth some comment: While the federal government offers no insight into where an estimated $1 trillion in tax breaks go every year, some states are beginning to provide information about which corporations benefit from local tax spending programs. None of the state websites are perfect, but their […]
Ex-food and energy, inflation is at 0.9% for the past twelvemonth. Even if you include those in the longer measure, annual inflation has been 1.7%. (Recall that we paid an average of more than $3.00/gallon for most of the Spring of 2010, for instance.) There is a simple reason “everyone” expected higher numbers: they were […]
Eurointelligence cites a Die Zeit interview (the original interview here) with ECB central bank President Jean-Claude Trichet. Their take on it is quite interesting, which suggests that most are ‘wrong’ about the path of ECB policy. According to Eurointelligence: Central bankers are trained not to say anything of any relevance in long speeches or interviews, […]
The quality of the posts at Disruptive Women in Health Care(r) varies widely, but their special issues bring out the best and leave most of the chaff behind. Their latest eBook is Innovation Nation: Recognizing the Benefits of Innovation in Health Care. The PDF (direct link here) collects a series of posts from December, and […]