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

Links Worth Noting at CBPP: more on causes of deficit and increases in income inequality

by Linda Bealecrossposted with Ataxingmatter Some Links Worth Noting at CBPP–causes of deficit, increases in income inequality Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Where Today’s Large Deficits Come From Amidst all the renewed talk about budget deficits, it’s important to remind ourselves what caused the signficiant expansion of the deficit. As I’ve noted, it can […]

Yield curves in Japan and the US: similar but not the same

Andy Harless presents the case for a double dip (second recession) – I would re-order #1 and #2 on that list – and that for a sustained recovery. #6 of Andy’s case for a sustained recovery (he calls it Case Against a Second Dip) caught my attention, pointing me to an earlier Paul Krugman article […]

The Supreme Court’s Decision in In re Bilski:: does it allow tax patents or not?

by Linda Bealecrossposted with Ataxingmatter The Supreme Court’s Decision in In re Bilski:: does it allow tax patents or not? The Supreme Court handed down its decision in Bilski Monday, holding, as almost everyone had predicted, that the hedging process that was the subject of the Bilski claim was unpatentable. Download Bilski at SCOTUS 08-964. […]

Taxes and Private Sector Investment – Evidence from the Real World

by Mike KimelCross-posted on the Presimetrics blog. Taxes and Private Sector Investment – Evidence from the Real WorldLast week I had a post (which appeared both here and at Angry Bear). The post included the following graph: Figure 1 The graph looks at every eight year period since 1929 (the first year for which National […]

A Caveat, Walter Dellinger

by Beverly Mannoriginally posted at The Annarborist A Caveat, Walter Dellinger “In Skilling (ably explained by Paul’s posting), my law firm colleagues pressed the argument that the statutory crime of denying anyone of the “intangible right of honest services” was unconstitutionally vague unless it was sharply limited to bribery and kickbacks. Given that the honest-services […]

If higher unemployment is the tradeoff to fear of inflation, what does that mean for you and I?

Hat tip Rebecca for this link to the Curious Capitalist Invariably, when we start debating jobs programs and stimulus spending, people start talking about the long-term problem of government spending. It raises our national debt, and could cause inflation down the road. But what is often overlooked when inflation is brought up, is that not […]

Why austerity now?

Michael Hudson at New Economic Perspectives points us to the difference between the overall economy and the financial sector: When politicians let the financial sector run the show, their natural preference is to turn the economy into a grab bag. And they usually come out ahead. That’s what the words “foreclosure,” “forfeiture” and “liquidate” mean […]