I owe our Angrybear readers an answer related to this post, which in part critiqued Michael Darda. One line which puzzled our readers was: Labor compensation is growing above a 7 percent annual rate while aggregate hours worked are rising at a rate consistent with 4 percent real GDP growth. Forgive me for thinking that […]
As Greenspan discussed at length earlier this week in his semi-annual report to Congress, economists still have no clear-cut explanation for the “conundrum” (or Interest Rate Mystery, as I like to call it) of stubbornly low long-term interest rates in the US. But perhaps that’s because there really is no conundrum. Perhaps the US’s surprisingly […]
Last week when the Chinese central bank first announced that they were going to change the value of their currency against the dollar, I suggested that one of the interesting things to keep an eye on would be long-term interest rates in the US. It turns out that long-term US interest rates did indeed bump […]
Your company’s cash flow was surprisingly strong last quarter. What do you do? I can tell you from experience that most managers start spending more. A new computer system here, a few new hires there, maybe a larger bonus for the executives; more spending is the impulse reaction. But some executives are more cautious. They […]
Mark Thoma has argued that DeMint’s GROW proposal would not improve Social Security’s long-run solvency. As its free lunch proponents often try to sell DeMint’s ideas, Mark is absolutely correct. But now the Heritage Foundation tries to explain how a GROW proposal would reduce the alleged long-run insolvency problem: The proposal would reduce traditional Social […]
Talkleft provides links to the testimony of: Larry Johnson and James Marcinkowski. It seems these hearings were attended by only Democratic members of Congress. I hope Republican members read the transcripts. Helen Thomas notes how President Bush has lowered the bar for what is acceptable (hat tip to Mark Thoma). Speaking of lowering the bar, […]
Dean Baker does a nice job of explaining why a significant yuan revaluation will increase our net exports to China – at least a little. Dean’s implicit assumption is that the nominal revaluation will lead to an increase in the relative price of Chinese goods, which seems valid given the very modest inflation rates in […]
Before I launch into the possible role of Condi Rice, let’s review what we have learned just since in the last couple of days: Scooter Libby is blaming Tim Russert. The memo taken onto Air Force One on July 7, 2003 had an “S” to denote that it was secret – as in classified. George […]
The latest in free lunch supply-side spin from William Kucewicz actually provides some useful information. For example, his chart of Germany’s unemployment rate distinguishing between the high unemployment rate for East Germany versus the more modest unemployment rate for West Germany. As I gazed at his chart, my first thought was whether German policy would […]
Steve Clemons and others on the left are having fun at Frank Gaffney’s expense for this: Of particular concern is the prospect that the upcoming high-level plenary meeting of the UN General Assembly from September 14-16 will be used to implement various ideas for international taxes. Mr. Gaffney is arguing that we need to approve […]