Commentary: Subprime Thinking from Wednesday morningre-posted with permission from the author When I started this blog in January 2005, one of my goals was to alert people to the housing bubble, and to discuss the possible consequences of the then approaching housing bust. Residential investment has historical been one of the best leading indicators for […]
The NYT reports on the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. “The Republican members of the commission appointed by Congress to investigate the causes of the financial crisis plan to release on Wednesday a document that assigns government housing policies substantial blame for the origins of the 2008 financial crisis. “ Update from MG: Here is the […]
Arnold Kling is taking up the case that less government is better than more government. Since I have been banned at his site I will respond here. From 1850 to 1950 US trend per capita real GDP growth was 1.4%. Since 1950 US trend per capita real GDP growth has been 2.1%. From 1850 to […]
One thing there is almost universal agreement on is that the US economy has very large excess capacity and that capacity constraints are unlikely to be a significant factor for the foreseeable future. But is it. In November capacity utilization in manufacturing rose to 75.2%. But this does not mean that the manufacturing sector has […]
In honor of his finally being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: And his co-inductee, who now does wait for no one:
Time to lighten-up, even if some of the most recent news is better. And I could not find one of my all time favorites that the economy is so bad that the mob in Rhode Island had to lay-off six judges.
JS-kit has been doing weird things to comments the last few days…multiples of one post, disappear/reappear, listing 5 comments but showing only three etc.. Just so people know.
by Noni Mausa The trace elements of a nation from her blog Tunnel Under Snow A long discussion over on Angry Bear dealt with how economic choices, rational in the short term or in the service of one economic actor, can cumulatively cripple the societies in which these choices are made. Well worth hopping over […]
by Linda Beale Friday Animations–Estate Taxcrossposted with Ataxingmatter[now updated to provide the animation feature–thanks to Steve Cook, at the Cook law firm, available here and Ataxingmatter] Well, not exactly an animation, but Estate tax attorney Douglas A. Cook has a chart on the Federal Estate Tax 2001-2011 (linked from the Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof […]
by Mike Kimel An Economic Theory That Uses Micro Forces to Explain Macro Outcomes: Why the Economy Stubbornly Insists on Growing More Slowly When Taxes are Lower Cross-posted at the Presimetrics blog. I’ve been writing for years about the fact that a basic piece of economic theory does not apply to real world US data: […]