The US trade deficit continues to grow. From this morning’s BEA news release: The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, through the Department of Commerce, announced today that total October exports of $107.5 billion and imports of $176.4 billion resulted in a goods and services deficit of $68.9 billion, $2.9 billion […]
Perhaps it’s just that I’ve been noticing it more lately, but it seems to me that proponents of making the dividend and capital gains tax cuts permanent are increasingly using the examples of other countries as evidence for their claim that the tax cuts on capital income cause faster growth. (See, for example, James “Dow […]
Governor Schwarzenegger said no to clemency and KLo gleefully provides a link to the governor’s explanation. Talkleft is not happy with the governor’s decision and neither am I. Read for yourself and see who makes the better case. I’m generally against the death penalty for reasons well explained here.
The Federal Reserve released the “Household Debt Service and Financial Obligations Ratios” for Q3 2005 today. The household DSR (Debt Service ratio) set another record at 13.75%, up from 13.53% in Q2 ’05. The owner FOR (Financial Obligation Ratio) set a new record of 16.61%, up from 16.34% in Q2 ’05. (edit: fixed typo) The […]
The cheerleading about the state of the US economy continues unabated from some, particularly those who advocate extending the Bush tax cuts. See, for example, this typical piece by Victor Canto), and some of the sentiments bandied about during the Pajamas Media Blogjam (James Hamilton excluded) that PGL has already commented on. Frankly, I’m tired […]
I tip my hat to James Hamilton being the only real economist during this Blogjam at the PJ Corral. The recurring theme from Lawrence Kudlow, Andrew Roth, Paul Hoffmeister, and Russ Roberts was that the economy is roaring – all due to Bush’s tax cuts. Dr. Hamilton, however, properly noted: I don’t agree that the […]
Barry at The Big Picture has a nice pair of posts up on the state of the economy as revealed by economic data (mixed) vs. the state of the economy as seen in Business and Economy headlines (roaring). Worth a read: Part 1 and Part 2. AB
I have two pet peeves starting with a free lunch claim from Bruce Bartlett: The wealthy pay more in taxes when tax rates fall … the share of total income taxes paid by the wealthy has risen even as statutory tax rates have fallen sharply. Bruce’s op-ed notes that the share of Federal taxes that […]
AP reports: WASHINGTON – Valerie Plame, the CIA officer whose exposure led to a criminal investigation of the Bush White House, spent her last day at the spy agency Friday. Neither the agency nor Plame’s husband would confirm her departure, but two people who have known Plame for a number of years confirmed she was […]
Does Jonah Goldberg get it? For some strange reason, he wants to accuse Hollywood types (whatever than means) of having a double standard on torture. His evidence? After all, tactics which qualify as torture for the anti-crowd shows up in film and television every day. On NYPD Blue, Andy Sipowicz, played by Dennis Franz, smacked […]