The funds for retirement for many workers will come from a variety of sources including Social Security (a publicly run defined benefits plan), private defined benefits plans, defined contribution plans, and even bank accounts. Just as FDIC and FSLIC were designed to provide insurance for bank accounts, PBGC was designed to provide insurance for private […]
I oppose Proposition 75, which is mislabeled paycheck protection. My local newspaper endorsed it: IN 1998, THIS PAGE OPPOSED Proposition 226, the so-called paycheck-protection measure that sought to bar labor unions from spending a member’s dues for political activities in the absence of that member’s consent. We considered that initiative a disingenuous “good government” move […]
Michael Mandel replies to James Hamilton: Moreover, he also doesn’t point that the real consumption per person is actually reduced by the amount of additional savings … The pro-savings people are asking us to accept a sure decline in living standards today, in exchange for the possibility of a moderate increase in income somewhere off […]
Kevin Drum provides us California voters who may be confused by the lies we hear on TV a couple of favors. The point of his post is to alert us to the very good analysis from Brad Plumer as to why Proposition 77 is not reforming how we do redistricting as much as it is […]
Fall is in the air. For us Southern Californians that means the first rains of the season. For the seasons of the housing market, it means falling real prices. Although we will not know for sure until the Q3 OFHEO House Price Index is released on December 1st, it is very likely that real housing […]
ThinkProgress watches Faux News so we don’t have to: Bill Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, commenting on Fox News Sunday about the leak scandal: KRISTOL: But talking to people pretty close to both Libby and Rove outside of government, who therefore can talk about it, I think they expect the worse now. I think […]
We provided a short answer to the Tyler Cowen test involving the Michael Mandel question on the importance of savings. James Hamilton takes our answer to the next level. Update: Michael Mandel accuses James Hamilton of being a “capital fundamentalist” who fails to understand the importance of investing in R&D and human capital. I’m afraid […]
John Tamny must not have liked this post emailing me to say: Believe me, I understand per capita and real. And don’t think for a second that I don’t see the obvious flaw in the household wealth argument: the dollar has fallen pretty substantially in the past year (though you don’t believe in measuring commodities […]
Brad Setser provides a link to “the IMF’s most recent paper on global imbalances” or chapter 2 of its World Economic Outlook: Global saving and investment rates have fallen and current account imbalances have widened to unprecedented levels, yet real long-term interest rates remain low in most countries. How did the global economy arrive at […]
James Hamilton begins and ends a good discussion of the latest news on consumer prices with: Does today’s CPI release indicate that inflation has returned? … Pick your poison, inflation or recession. Personally I’m more scared of the second. I want to return to a debate between Dick Cheney and John Kerry last summer as […]