Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

As the title indicates, this will be a more than usually confused post.The stimulus was the now famous grief over elementary fairness which errupted when “[Judge] Scott Fairgrieve of Nassau County District Court, wrote that ‘swearing to false statements reflects poorly on the profession [of law] as a whole” and fined lawyer Steven J Baum […]

Math is Math: There Was No "Second Stimulus"

One of the best rules in mathematics is that, to determine the value of all the variables, you need only as many distinct equations as you have variables. (previous sentence edited for clarity.) So let’s combine a couple of recent articles (h/t Mark Thoma for the first, Digby for the second.) Richard Florida finds three […]

Which country prints more and runs bigger government deficits: Canada or the US?

Even though Europe is on the forefront of global bond news these days, I’d like to revisit the US Treasury market. Specifically, I’ll look at the Canadian-US bond spreads, which tell an interesting tale of Fed purchases and US deficit fears. First, the Canadian over US government bond spreads for two longer term issues, 10yr […]

There Hasn’t Been a Body Slam Like This Since to Glory Days of Hulk Hogan

David Neiwert (h/t Rebecca Lesses) doesn’t quite get it right: There will be a lot of hand-wringing in the coming days over the shooting of Rep. Giffords this morning at a constituent event — some of it, almost certainly, from the folks at Fox, who will wonder aloud how this kind of thing could happen. […]

The Tax Rate that Maximizes Economic Growth, Part 3

by Mike Kimel The Tax Rate that Maximizes Economic Growth, Part 3… With Gov’t Spending, Money Supply and DemographicsCross posted at the Presimetrics blog. Today I will build a model that explains over three quarters of the annual movement in real GDP between 1929 and the present. The model depends on marginal tax rates, government […]

A Diverging Eurozone

I am sick today and had to cancel plans with a friend tonight. I decided to look at Eurozone unemployment rates to pass the miserable time. According to the Friday Eurostat press release, The euro area1 (EA16) seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 10.1% in November 2010, unchanged compared with October4. It was 9.9% in November 2009. […]

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona Reportedly Shot in Tucson

I have found nothing more. Any other information? Breaking News AlertThe New York TimesSat, January 08, 2011 — 1:22 PM ET—– Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona Reportedly Shot in Tucson A Democratic congresswoman from Arizona was shot along withseveral others during a public event at a grocery store inTucson, according to news reports. The condition […]