Auto and light trucks sales rose from 11.76 million to 12.26 million in October, a 4.25% gain. Since the bottom auto sales have been rising at a 10% to 12% annual rate — depending on if you calculate the trend as a linear or an exponential trend and October sales were right on this trend […]
by Linda Beale Why taxes are important crossposted with Ataxingmatter The so-called tea party adherents and many libertarians, treat taxes as robbery, thinking that “it’s mine and the government has no right to it.” That crazytalk, which most would realize if they ever had the opportunity to live in the brute-force world of no taxation. […]
by Rebecca Wildercrossposted with Newsneconomics G4 GDP, reaction ECB It’s complicated. The ECB is currently juggling two objectives: perpetually assuaging bond investors in the face of a shaky financial system, and managing policy for an economy with a single currency and sovereign government issuers. But is it really so complicated? The chart above illustrates the […]
Robert Waldmann Matthew Yglesias is puzzled by something Paul Krugman wrote. I don’t totally understand this argument, however: It’s also crucial to understand that a half-hearted version of this policy won’t work. If you say, well, 5 percent sounds like a lot, maybe let’s just shoot for 2.5, you wouldn’t reduce real rates enough to […]
Robert Waldmann Nate Silver gives five reasons that Republicans might do better than his model predicts and five reasons that Democrats might do better. I add two more possible reasons that Democrats might do better after the jump. They are numbered 3.1 and 3.2, because they are variants on his third reason More on likely […]
Floyd Norris discovers a mathematical impossibility: Asked to rank, on a scale of one (excellent) to five (poor), the ability of their board’s compensation committee to “effectively manage C.E.O. compensation, 83 percent of the directors chose one or two, and only 4 percent picked four or five. But asked, “In general, do you believe U.S. […]
The coming week is G4 central bank week. The Federal Reserve Bank (Fed) announces its policy decision on November 3; the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of England (BoE) will make policy announcements on November 4; and the Bank of Japan pushed forward its November 15-16 meeting to be held now on November […]
by Linda Beale Economic stimulus–the right and the wrong of itcrossposted with Ataxingmatter Clearly, for ordinary Americans, the US economy is still in a funk from the financial crisis caused by the housing boom funded by the easy credit of turnover securitization of mortgage loans, coupled with the casino banking mentality spurred by proprietary trading […]
by Mike Kimel What Exactly is the Comparative Advantage of Banks?Cross posted at the Presimetrics blog. What exactly is the comparative advantage of banks? When the bank bail-outs began, I noted that bailing out banks makes no sense whatsoever. The focus should be on a well-functioning financial system, and not on the survival of existing […]