Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Keynes v. Smith – in Defense of Nixon

Mark Thoma points out to Thomas Bray that accepting a Keynesian view of macroeconomics does not mean one has to abandon Adam Smith’s view of microeconomics. Mark also points out that Bush’s adherence to fiscal stimulus in 2001 was in someway consistent with the message of the General Theory. I say “someway” because Bush’s ad […]

Money Illusion at the National Review

Mark Thoma reads a comment from John Tamny over at Mark’s blog and has decided Tamny will never understand basic economics. The topic Mark was trying to raise had to do with how Tamny fails to grasp either what Ben Bernanke or the long-run effects from monetary policy. Rather than concede his errors, Tamny compounds […]

Signs of the Times

Click on photo for larger image. Orange County, CA. Aug 21, 2005. Open House signs are common. Orange County, CA. Aug 20, 2005. Notice the Open House sign at the bottom and also the price of diesel. Diesel prices are a huge story in California. For the general economy it appears gas prices are starting […]

Labor Market Woes: Keynesian v. Real Business Cycles?

David Altig received some heat from Brad DeLong: Look at the what the figure tells us about the end of 1982. It tells us that at the end of 1982–in the middle of the deepest recession of the post-WWII period–after three years during which labor force participation had hardly grown at all after growing by […]

FuzzCharts on the Black Unemployment Rate

I once tried to compliment NRO’s Jerry Bowyer by saying that he provided nice time series charts before launching into his usual nonsense. His latest alas provides no such time series chart: Black unemployment is also lower than the average for the Clinton years. It is lower than the average of the past fifteen years. […]

The Labor Market: CKNAWWW and Time Series Analysis

James Hamilton is a proud member of CKNAWWW (Clueless Know-Nothing Analysts of the World Wide Web) and is a master of time series analysis: It seems very hard to quarrel with the statement that any given month’s value for the labor force participation represents the confluence of different factors, some resulting from trends that are […]

Republicans Who Were Against the War Before They Were For the War

Digby links to Kos who finds several quotes from Tom DeLay opposing the Commander in Chief as well as quotes from Trent Lott, Rick Santorum, Joe Scarborough, and Sean Hannity who collectively said there was not a defined mission for going to war, that we would lose many American lives, and that we’d be there […]

Tax Valuations: Why the IRS Should Hire James Glassman

The People’s Lawyer (TPL) is an interesting blog for some unique views on the practice of tax law. TPL has been on a tear as far as Gifts & Estate tax planning and has some fun with the valuation “experts” in a case involving the value of certain water rights owned by Garwood Irrigation Company […]

Does the Club for Growth Advise the New London Development Corporation?

Max Sawicky calls this bad government: Confiscate land and charge back rent for the years the owners fought confiscation. In some cases, their debt could amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Moreover, the homeowners are being offered buyouts based on the market rate as it was in 2000. I have to wonder how such […]

Bush Economy: Not the Ugliest Girl at the Party

Lawrence Kudlow must be having a hard time finding a date: Why President Bush seemingly gets no credit for the strong economy is one of the enduring political mysteries of our time. Some call it the “Goldilocks economy” – a term widely used to describe the low-inflation growth of the second half of the 1990s. […]