Greenspan gave a speech earlier today in which he talked about the US current account deficit. Shorter Greenspan: The ability of the US to keep running a huge and growing CA deficit is the result of a decrease in home bias. In other words, investors around the world are more willing to stash their savings […]
In The Economist, Buttonwood asks: “The air is coming out of America’s property-price bubble. Will it pop or go quietly?”. “Mortgage applications were down by about 5% in October compared with September, and were lower than the same month a year earlier. The stock of unsold new houses is rising. The only bullish sign is […]
When I endorsed taxing some of the economic rent earned by owners of oil fields, David Altig took notice and our debate continued: It was certainly not my intention to associate pgl with either price controls or “the tax gouging spinmeisters,” which I probably did by combining commentary on the tax issue with commentary related […]
Thanks to everyone for the great comments on my (albeit reluctantly offered) “Notes on Trade” post. I thought I should take the time to try to answer some questions and address some concerns that came up. My response ran too long to be practically included in the comments, so I thought I’d put them up […]
The Washington Post is not a perfect newspaper. Along with most major newspapers in this country, it has been guilty of uncritically reporting the administration’s garbage many times over the past 5 years, particularly when it comes to the administration’s fiscal train wreck. But increasingly, the Post is willing to examine the administration’s statements for […]
David Altig cites the Tax Foundation for “evidence” that a windfall profits tax will gather little additional revenue. David writes: The shortfall from projected revenues in that picture had a lot to do with missed projections on energy prices. But did the tax on U.S. providers of oil cause Russian and OPEC to start supplying […]
You may have noticed (or you may not) that I have remained conspicuously silent on the excellent debate currently going on in the liberal blog world these days regarding the costs and benefits of international trade. It all started at the TPMCafe with a debate amongst Gene Sperling, Alan Blinder, and David Sirota, among others, […]
The accounting problems at Fannie Mae just keep growing. From Marketwatch: NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Fannie Mae said Thursday it’s uncovered new accounting problems in the course of an ongoing review, with the mortgage giant identifying more than $10 billion in issues related to derivatives, insurance accounting and other matters. In a filing with the […]
I always like this query from AB: Speaking of trade, wandering through the grocery store today, I noticed that they were selling tax software. This naturally lead me to wonder why it’s viewed as a great thing when people can do their taxes quickly and cheaply using a computer and software, but a bad thing […]
Lawrence Kudlow finally said something I agree with: While the GOP is attacking oil companies and perhaps reneging on tax-cut extenders, without offering any strong budget-cutting plan, the Dems are thinking about putting together their own Contract with America. While Democrats still have to craft a coherent message, and while their glee may yet be […]