spencer National debt now exceeds 10 trillion dollars The national debt is now too big for the national debt clock. Way to go Team Bush. Actually, this just demonstrates that the major problem with Sarah Palin is that she governs like a republican. As mayor of Wallisa she: 1. Cut taxes. 2. Spent like a […]

rdan Hat tip K Harris for this link to National Public Radio and this thought as well regarding Tom’s post below: The issue at hand is that Treasury resisted the notion of equity in return for aid all the way along, and now is putting out the word that equity in return for aid is […]

by reader Denis Drew To over-price lower skilled labor or to under-price higher skilled labor — is that the question? Santa Fe’s minimum wage raise to $8.50/hr (now $9.50/hr, soon indexed) lost lower skilled workers a significant number of jobs (8.3%, adjusted for something – nominal employment rose) many to higher skilled replacements, according to […]

by cactus The Flat Tax Revolution – A Brief Second Visit It wasn’t that long ago that folks on the right were crowing about how flat tax fever was sweeping much of Europe and producing monster economic growth. (Examples abound – enter the words “flat tax revolution Europe” and you find about 200,000 hits, most […]

It appears that the word of the month is Melamine, and that a lot of those large bags of semibiodegradeable candy may have been imported from China.

Via Mankiw, who notes that “among economists listed” at PinnacleSports, Martin Feldstein is the favorite. I was going to snark that that must be because they have a lousy field for bettors, but Mankiw links to Ladbrokes, too, where people rationally expect that declaring Economics once and for all irrelevant (i.e., giving the award to […]

In this case, it was probably because—unlike the Vice Presidential candidate whose account he allegedly accessed—David Kernell tries to figure out how the world works.

rdan William Polley has a note on paying interest with links to Altig, DeLong, and others: David Altig takes up the question with links back to Marginal Revolution, DeLong, as well as my post from yesterday. (Thanks, David!) Rather than looking at it as what DeLong calls “Operation Twist”, Altig opts for the simpler explanation […]

rdan Dean Baker at Beat the Press notes Brokaw’s definitive pronouncement about Social Security: If Social Security Was a Private Corporation Then it Would Sue Tom Brokaw for Every Penny He Has If a news reporter deliberately makes a false statement claiming that a private company like Boeing or Microsoft is going broke, the company […]

Because Hilzoy asked, and I agree with Brad DeLong that it’s not an unreasonable question. No guarantee the 11 are on this list, of course. This is a simple cross-reference of “The McCain ‘100’” and “NBER Family Members.” There are 14 Faculty Research Fellows, 13 Research Associates, and 2 OLs on this list.* *I can’t […]