By divorced one like Bush I’m reading Kevin Phillips “Bad Money”. I want to understand where this idea that money is made from money comes from. On page 61 he writes: In 1996 a much discussed article in Foreign Policy titled “Securities: The New World Wealth Machine” had set out the ultimate paper entrepreneurial opportunity: […]

rdan Smackdown at Instaputz with Ken Houghton.

President Obama offered a proposal to restructure the student loan industry. Higher Ed. Watch reports: President Obama sent shockwaves through the student loan industry last week when he called on Congress to dismantle the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program next year and use the savings to turn the Pell Grant program into a true […]

rdan After writing a series on Traumatic Brain Injury and Post Trauma Syndrome Disorder for active duty troops and National Guard, I am sad to post this item, in that it appears that the popular perception of the most common injuries among troops is still misunderstood. I also find that if I say TBI as […]

By Spencer With the unemployment rate jumping to 8.1% and downward revisions of the previous monthsemployment numbers it is hard to find anything encouraging in the February employment report. But there is one tentative good sign. I watch both the payroll and households surveys because the household survey tends to lead the payroll report at […]

by cactus Going Galt – Present and Past There seems to be some chatter among right wing blogs about “going Galt” – i.e., ceasing to do paying work, shuttering one’s business, etc. – given Obama’s plan to let Bush tax cuts on those with the highest levels of income expire. (This new movement is covered […]

Robert Waldmann I don’t have a very positive view of innovative financial products, or rather, of financial products invented in the past 20 years or so. However, I love mortgage bonds (MBSs). I think they are an excellent way of diversifying and eliminating risk. However, I have to admit that they create a problem. Since […]

Robert Waldmann Below I ask why the argument that the stimulus must crowd out private spending because output can’t be higher than aggregate supply hasn’t been made (or made more often if I missed it). So now I will try to make that argument. One rule is that I must concede that there are unemployed […]

Robert Waldmann is still wondering why eminent economists have been making such implausible arguments. Eugene Fama’s mad predictions based on an accounting identity (and forgetting that the value of goods which firms produce but can’t sell is counted as inventory investment). Then Eugene Fama asserted that the velocity of available funds or something is constant. […]