Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Flamer

This blog seemed to provide a comprehensive list of technique. The following caught my eye of a couple hundred tacks. Live and learn. I am following CoRev’s lead that flamers are not trolls. Short Term Versus Long Term:this is a particular case of the Excluded Middle. For example, “We must deal with crime on the […]

7 years of the stock market

Earlier today Cactus posted on the real Dow over the past seven years. Another comparison is to look at the alternative strategy, investing in cash or 3 month T bill. If in January, 2001 you had placed your investments in 3 month T bills and reinvested the income in 3 month T bills, at the […]

Moody doesn’t like the US

From the latest Financial Times:Moody’s says spending threatens US rating The US is at risk of losing its top-notch triple-A credit rating within a decade unless it takes radical action to curb soaring healthcare and social security spending, Moody’s, the credit rating agency, said on Thursday. In its annual report on the US, Moody’s signalled […]

WTO Doha, agriculture, and values

As I re-do templates for eventual updates to the site, I found this graphic on AB from the early days. I did misplace the link, sorry. But it appeared to be a great graphic for several thoughts: 1. The foundering of the Doha agreements was centered around agriculture protection. 2. Our beliefs about values are […]

The Fed and Elections

We are already starting to hear discussion about the point that this is an election year will influence Fed policy –either to ease or tighten more then it should because of the election. The historic record is clearly that in election year the Fed does what economic fundamentals call for it to do and that […]

Austan Goolsbee, Obama’s Econ Man

T-bone got me thinking in his response to my comment about Obama. Well, as a good AB’er, that meant I had to go a hunting. In this case, specifically for Obama’s econ advisor: Austan Goolsbee. This lead me to an article by Austan Goolsbee, It’s Not About the Money. Wow, a man thinking like me. […]

STOCK MARKET VALUATION

In the previous OldVet comments I talked about the relationship between interest rates and the stock market. I just though I would but up one example of what I was talking about. Note how the fitted value has started rising in recent months but the market Pe has not moved up yet.

Water in the works in December 07

The Great Lakes Water Resources Compact was signed last December by the governors of the eight states that border the lakes — Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York — and the premiers of the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario. The agreement requires approval of state legislatures before it is sent […]

CORPORATE TAX RATES

We’re starting to see a new campaign by the Republicans about a cut in the corporate tax rates. There is a good case to be made for corporate tax cuts. This is especially true if the objective is to increase business fixed investment. After all corporations account for over 80% of business fixed investment as […]