Bruce Bartlett’s December 15, 2009 piece, Inequality: A Problem?, states Bartlett’s agreement with Dalton Conley that “the left should stop worrying so much about inequality per se–its costs are overstated, as well as the benefits of greater equality. Instead …liberals should concentrate more on helping the poor and less on beating upthe rich.” Now, before […]

I’m certain that everyone is waiting with bated breath to see if my five-part “NOT totally clueless” series is completed in five parts or if it gets extended again, but a couple of personal events have intervened, so I’ll be away for a few days. Enjoy the other performers, and don’t forget to tip your […]

Atrios mentions one of the problems discussing trade and industrial policy by the federal governmentThe First Rule Of Industrial Policy at Eschaton. Herbert: “This is a society in deep, deep trouble and the fixes currently in the works are in no way adequate to the enormous challenges we’re facing. For example, an end to the […]

by Rebecca Wilder On Angry Bear, Tom Bozzo authored The Rich *Are* Different, focusing on the makeup of earnings across US tax payer brackets. And Cactus authors Poverty and the Real Median Income, where he comments on the poverty share and median income across U.S. Presidencies. So here is where I chime in on a […]

Via (what else?) Alea’s Twitter feed, John Taylor defends himself against Ben Bernanke: “The evidence is overwhelming that those low interest rates were not only unusually low but they logically were a factor in the housing boom and therefore ultimately the bust,” Taylor, a Stanford University economist, said in an interview today in Atlanta. It’s […]

by Linda Beale Yves Smith (Naked Capitalism) links to an interesting post on “Economists for Firing Larry Summers” (I’ll call this EFLS). The author of the blog is a PhD student in economics, in a “top 30” department who is obviously fed up with much of current economic thought. He writes on “The Case for […]

Note: I planned to finish this here, but the post became far too long, and splits quite well.  What follows is applications of economic theory and background material on financial decisions. To be clear, I hate the phrase “casino capitalism.” It’s rather unfair to casinos, which know how to do risk management: make an offer […]

by cactus Poverty and the Real Median Income I want to take a break from my usual taxes and economic growth beat, and I figured why not look at poverty and income. Normally I’d pull the data from the Census site, but for some reason it was down when I went looking (that’s right, folks, […]

Edmund L. Andrews (most recently of the NYT and being pilloried by Megan McArdle for having the gall to marry a woman whose previous marriage ended in bankruptcy) has joined Andrew Samwick, Stan Collender, Pete Davis et al. over at Capital Gains and Games. His first post, “Hopes of a Chastened Capitalist” is here.