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

Housing and Recession

My thoughts are with the residents of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast tonight. This week two prominent economists predicted a housing bust and possible recession in ’06; three if you count Chairman Greenspan. Actually Greenspan’s comments, made at the Federal Reserve’s Jackson Hole Conference, were not predictions, but general observations. Quoting from Greenspan’s closing […]

High Housing Prices are Here to Stay?

Could the most sensible NRO “economics” piece of the week be from Jerry Bowyer? Or have I lowered my standards to say that something that is only half right is worth reading? Bowyer gets the data right – new housing sales are strong, which reflects the strong housing construction over the past several years. He […]

Kudlow on Demand and Supply for Oil

Mark Thoma reads Lawrence Kudlow we don’t have to. Mark rightfully suggests that Kudlow does not understand monetary policy. Kudlow, however, was more focused on the demand and supply for oil – another topic where he displays confusion: On the oil-price shock, I say at least two cheers for higher prices. Why? Because I believe […]

The Silent Majority Turns Invisible

Thirty-five years ago, young patriots such as Lt. John Kerry vocally expressed the view that our brave soldiers should return home from Indochina immediately. President Nixon claimed that the majority of Americans disagreed but were “silent”. Today, the success of Camp Casey at attracting national attention to the Iraq War issue has driven certain right-wingers […]

Social Security: Cato’s “Quick Facts”

The Cato Institute has provided us with more propaganda entitled the “Quick Facts Archive”: 1. Social Security will begin running a deficit by 2017.2. A medium income worker born after 1965 can expect a rate-of-return of less than 2% on his or her Social Security taxes.3. The Social Security payroll tax rate has grown from […]

How Would Robert Novak Pay for Military Pork?

You’d think that a tax cut jihadist like Robert Novak would be all for the work of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission. Joshua Marshall catches Robert Hypocrit whining that a small reduction in government spending might hurt a Republican politician. So how do we pay for military pork if the massive tax cuts for […]

America’s Healthcare Mess

An AB reader sent along The Moral Hazard Myth by Malcolm Gladwell. The opening paragraph reminded me I’m overdue to see my dentist. As Kevin Drum so ably summarizes: Gladwell suggests that although politics has a lot to do with America’s weird and dysfunctional healthcare system, so does elite economic opinion. Read the whole thing […]

Bursting of a Housing Bubble and the Wealth Effect

A sensible conservative suggested that I read the latest from John Tamny. While this sensible conservative and I are both in utter disbelief at what Tamny has written, I’ll not say who this smart conservative is as I’m still upset that I had to read the likes of this: To begin, Makin said the “U.S. […]

Keynes v. Smith – in Defense of Nixon

Mark Thoma points out to Thomas Bray that accepting a Keynesian view of macroeconomics does not mean one has to abandon Adam Smith’s view of microeconomics. Mark also points out that Bush’s adherence to fiscal stimulus in 2001 was in someway consistent with the message of the General Theory. I say “someway” because Bush’s ad […]