This morning Joe Biden suggested scrapping hearings on Supreme Court nominees: WASHINGTON – Supreme Court nominees are so mum about the major legal issues at their Senate confirmation hearings that the hearings serve little purpose and should probably be abandoned, Democratic Sen. Joe Biden said Thursday. “The system’s kind of broken,” said Biden, a member […]
Justin Fox thinks “corporate pensions are an unstable, unfair and economically perverse means of paying for retirement”: This phenomenon, along with the more dramatic cases of companies going bankrupt and defaulting on existing pension commitments (think United Airlines), has gotten tons of press, most of it of the “ain’t it a shame” variety. But the […]
There were two news releases this morning related to international trade. First, the BEA reported on the November trade deficit: The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, through the Department of Commerce, announced today that total November exports of $109.3 billion and imports of $173.5 billion resulted in a goods and […]
For those interested, here is the Bilmes and Stiglitz paper I referenced in my previous post: The Economic Costs of the Iraq War:An Appraisal Three Years After the Beginning of the Conflict Linda Bilmes, Kennedy School, Harvard University AndJoseph E. Stiglitz, University Professor, Columbia University
Aaargh! Snow: Spending cuts to reduce deficit WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House aims to shrink the U.S. budget deficit through spending restraint and strong government revenues but will oppose letting tax breaks expire, Treasury Secretary John Snow said Tuesday. “You’ll see the administration press awfully hard to contain spending,” Snow told reporters at a […]
Barkley is not buying the Dark Matter argument: I do not buy this. We are the biggest net debtor in world history, however you count cap gains and all that. What is going on is the exercise of our global power. Our corporations are getting higher returns through outsourcing and transfer pricing. We take advantage […]
The best thing I can say about the latest from Sebastian Mallaby is that he does not give all of the credit for the return to full employment and rising compensation to the tax cuts: Well, how about the fact that no less a critic than Greg Mankiw, the administration’s very own chief economist until […]
Colors are now more boring neutral. I suppose I’m the only one around here with Longhorn Fever, with the possible exceptions of Movie Guy, th, and perhaps dchogs. Here’s one last shot for the fans, courtesy of the Burnt Orange Report: We now return to our regularly scheduled bad economic news. AB
Via Mark Thoma comes a very nice discussion of the current account and capital flows from Martin Feldstein. This jumped out at me: This unprecedented level is equal to 6.4 per cent of US gross domestic product. Experts estimate that the real trade-weighted value of the dollar must fall by at least 30 per cent […]
If you are reading this: So what explains the advantage gained from locating production overseas? The most powerful factor appears to be taxes. You might feel the need to rebut, but save your efforts as Menzie Chinn already has.