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by Rebecca Wilder The GDP recovery is underway. But below the GDP hood, the picture is not as bright. The labor market is weak, and income-generating prospects remain muted. The latter portends a back-up of consumer spending down the road without substantial policy support. Please see Spencer’s post for a very nice interpretation of today’s […]

The 2010 Social Security Report is due out any day now and I thought I could lay some groundwork for a number based discussion of its implications. Starting with changes to the 75 year projection over time. 1996-2.19%1997-2.23%1998-2.19%1999-2.07%2000-1.87%2001-1.86%2002-1.87%2003-1.92%2004-1.89%2005-1.92% 2006-2.02%2007-1.96%2008-1.70%2009-2.01%2010-??Each Report Year the Trustees give an estimate of how much payroll tax would have to go […]

Remember the old sailing ships movies with the tall ship stuck in the doldrums and the crew all out in the long boats pulling the ship behind them in the tropical heat. Well,sometimes these employment reports make me feel like one of those crewmen. Yes, the employment situation has quit deteriorating, and there are encouraging […]

by Rebecca Wilder Edward Harrison at Credit Writedowns is theorizing why the saving rate is falling when it should be rising, as households scram to deleverage their balance sheets. My reaction to this is twofold: first this is a meaningless exercise; but second, and worse yet, there’s likely something very “unhealthy” going on here. Meaningless: […]

by Stormy(lifted from e-mail to me and MG) Whether there is or is not a near peak in either of these two metals (copper and gold), weshould expect to see prices inexorably climb. The reason? The enormousappetite of China for raw materials. However we look at it, China’sponderous entry onto the world stage has been […]

Twenty best independent financial blogs 24/7 Wall St reports March 31, 2010: The Angry Bear www.angrybearblog.com. Half a dozen professionals, including a tax law expert, a historian, PhDs in economics, business consultants and financial professionals provide perspectives on the financial world. Despite their expansive coverage of economic issues, their articles are as deep as their […]

by Bruce Webb And I could add honest definitions and honest framing to that. In Dec 2005 three former staffers to Bill Clinton, John McCain and GW Bush respectively released the Liebman-MacGuineas-Samwick Non-Partisan Social Security Reform Plan (9 pg PDF) or LMS. The authors proposed a package of changes to Social Security comprised of a […]

by Linda Beale Maybe at this juncture, when Congress is beginning to talk about what to do about the sunsetting Bush tax provisions, it’s an appropriate time to remind ourselves about our historic commitment to progressivity in our tax system. A good source for thinking about this is an article by Tom Piketty and Emmanuel […]