Via Mark Thoma comes a debate between David Frum and Bruce Bartlett as to the prospects of achieving fiscal responsibility through cuts in government spending. The short answer is that we cannot. Let’s have Mr. Frum up first: In the 1990s, the newly elected Republican congressional majority enjoyed what we can now see was the […]
I’m a little surprised that the National Review has yet to comment on yesterdays’ release of the Social Security 2006 Trustee Report, but I guess they have outsourced spin manufacturing to Patrick Wetherille of Human Events Online: The Social Security trustees yesterday released their annual report on the state of the Social Security system. Surprise, […]
As a supplement to the GDP report, the Bureau of Economic Analysis provides an estimate of aggregate mortgage interest and the effective rate of interest on mortgage debt outstanding. It should come as no surprise that the effective interest rate is increasing. Click on graph for larger image. After twenty years of declining rates, the […]
It has finally been released and its highlights include: The 2006 Social Security Trustees Report shows little change in the projected financial status of the Social Security program over last year. The Trustees Report projects that the Social Security Trust Funds will be exhausted in 2040 – one year sooner than last year’s projection. And, […]
Arianna Huffington should consider John Derbyshire to do her Russert Watch: Watching Meet the Press roundtable on the gas price kerfuffle. Russert, challenging Energy Secretary Sam Bodman: “Oil demand is up. Supply is down. So why are prices rising?” Er……….. OK – Rachel Sklar did a nice job echoing something CalculatedRisk observed: Bodman says that […]
Do today’s marches in Los Angeles slightly inconvenience me? Perhaps – but I support today’s boycott even if I have to work at home for one day. If you are wondering where I live Mark Kleiman gives you a clue: Note to my Westside friends: Yes, Highland Park is on the wrong side of Interstate […]
Via Dean Baker comes Eric Dash of the New York Times writing about one aspect of the compensation package for Denny’s CEO: For leading the turnaround of the Denny’s restaurant chain, Nelson J. Marchioli was all but given an extra $500,000 last year, slightly more than his reported bonus for 2005. For leading the turnaround […]
The Advance Estimate for the first quarter of 2006 is out reporting 4.8% real GDP growth on an annualized basis, which basically makes up for the weak 1.7% figure for the last quarter of 2005. Investment growth remains strong and consumption grew relative to GDP. Andrew Samwick is worried that private savings remains low. Rubinomics […]
Kevin Drum watches the stock price of Exxon decline even though they reported $8 billion in quarterly profits. CNN’s American Morning was on the story explaining the decline in the stock price by noting that analysts had expected $9.2 billion (not trillion). At one point – Andy Serwer hinted that the difference between reported earnings […]
Jim VandeHei reports: White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove sought to convince a federal grand jury yesterday that he did not provide false statements in the CIA leak case, testifying for more than three hours before leaving a federal courthouse unsure whether he would be indicted, according to a source close to the […]