While several good people—including several of my wife’s relatives and one of our bloggers—graduated from Pravda-on-the-Chuck, I am saddened to note that their faculty’s efforts in creating the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) has been muted. Such, at least, can be fairly concluded by the nominees and final ballot for The Dynamite Prize in Economics, being […]
The Rude Pundit does what Obama Administration doesn’t have the will to: “United Health Care in Colorado turned down 2-year old Aislin Bates of Denver, Colorado for coverage because they said she was too thin.” … “8-month old Jaxon Thornburgh of Dallas, Texas was denied health insurance because he needed simple therapy to help with […]
I feel like I am living in a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book. What global shock comes next? The air of uncertainty remains. This morning an imminent (but questionably so) bailout is across the news wires. From the WSJ: Germany is considering a plan with its European Union partners to offer Greece and other troubled […]
Discussion point: Is it time for the Fed to start contracting its’ balance sheet and otherwise withdrawing the special financing it provided while it was faced with the zero interest rate boundand preparing to soon raise fed funds. My fed policy index says the zero bound should no longer apply and that it is time […]
The New Yorker gives us a small look into policy in china other than the currency peg: The Problem Statement U.S. manufacturing’s competitive status is increasingly challenged by other economies. Established industrialized nations such as Japan, Germany, Korea and Taiwan are developing state-of-the-art technologies, which range across all areas of manufacturing from electronics to discrete […]
by cactus Congress thinks by analogy I don’t remember what link I followed to get to this, but never in my life did I expect to agree 100% on any issue with David Stockman. Yes, that David Stockman. Holy wow: DAVID STOCKMAN: Credit default swaps, OK? And we weren’t bailing out AIG. We were bailing […]
by Bruce Webb This figure shows graphically the outcomes for the OAS (black line) and DI (gray line) under the three alternative scenarios Low Cost (I), Intermediate Cost (II), and High Cost (III) in the 2008 Report. Almost universally reporting on Social Security revolves around Intermediate Cost and if we examine its lines we see […]
Mark Thoma at Moneywatch writes a made up interview “with William Dudley, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, on the Fed’s failures as a regulator prior to the crisis, and its plans to improve regulation going forward.” (via Economist View)
by Linda Beale Limit Banks’ Proprietary Trading? Links Worth Noting on Possible Reprise of Glass Steagall Maybe Obama takes on America’s banks with new Glass-Steagall act, Guardian.co.uk, Jan. 21, 2010 President Obama came out in support of the “Volcker rule” intended to stop depositary banks from running hedge funds and using their money to bet […]
by Dale Coberly AN IMMODEST PROPOSAL Bruce Webb offered a modest proposal in a recent post to “fix” the Social Security “problem” by (essentially) cutting the payroll tax a few tenths of a percent to reduce the surplus and thereby reduce the debt by that much money borrowed from and owed TO Social Security. What […]