Tyler Cowen cuts through a quarter of a century of free lunch Republican spin in just two sentences: Taxes already were raised when the government spending occurred. In that sense the “tax cuts” never were permanent. This is what I love about conservative economists – they get right to the point. Twenty-five years ago, I’m […]
It seems that we can now move beyond talking about a flat yield curve to talking about a truly inverted yield curve: Yield curve inverts after strong auction NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The Treasury yield curve turned completely upside down early Friday, pushing the 2-year yield above the yields of both the 10-year and 30-year […]
The New Economist provides links to a piece by Michael Mandel noting his usual argument that the national income account definitions understate savings as well as a reply from Brad Setser and the Michael’s reply to Brad. As you will notice in a moment, I’m a bit biased to what Brad said so let me […]
This Knight-Ridder piece about Bush’s Health Savings Accounts raises an interesting question: do people have too many financial choices in their life already? WASHINGTON – President Bush’s proposed expansion of Health Savings Accounts depends on a premise that research shows is questionable: that Americans want more financial choices in their lives. Experts point to a […]
Kevin Drum writes: Like the creature that won’t die no matter how many bullets you put through its heart, Social Security privatization is back for an encore in President Bush’s 2007 budget proposal … The full faith and credit of the United States government is just an “empty promise.” It’s sort of like listening to […]
Mark Thoma and Andrew Samwick discuss problems with and potential solutions for the social safety net in this week’s WSJ Econoblog. They cover several important points, but following up on some posts from last week, let me highlight their discussion of the pros and cons of a single-payer health insurance system. Mark Thoma argues that […]
Credit goes to James Hamilton for what may be the best takedown of the gold bugs over at the National Review I’ve seen yet: What’s behind the ongoing run-up in gold prices? One popular interpretation is that investors fear a resurgence of U.S. inflation. But that story just doesn’t square with the facts … I […]
CNN reports: The hearing began with a sudden and sharp partisan dispute when Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter ruled that Gonzales did not have to be sworn in to testify. After Democrats strongly objected and demanded a roll-call vote, Republicans prevailed and the attorney general did not testify under oath. Before one asks why […]
Menzie Chinn gets the last word on the most recent news regarding employment growth – except for the fact that I’ll do a small summary of one aspect of his post that took a longer view of the revised payroll survey figure – with my own graph of this revised series from October 2000 to […]
In the spirit of Brad DeLong’s course on economics reporting, I noticed this morning that Joel Havemann of the LA Times does a reasonably good job providing some context against which to measure the Bush administration’s budget rhetoric: Bush Budget Plan Strikes Home, Not Deficit WASHINGTON — President Bush today will propose a $2.7-trillion budget […]