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

What is to be done with the Senate ?

What are we going to do about Mitch McConnell and his enabler Jim Manchin ? McConnell is blocking the establishment of committees for the 117th Senate. This means that the committees with Republican Chairs and Republican majorities will exist and operate in the Senate with a Democratic majority. He demands that Democrats promise not to […]

Desirable incentive effects of income taxation V

Fifth and last. Not relevant to the USA. Back in the day when US unions weren’t totally feeble, MacDonald and Solow wrote a brilliant paper on collective bargaining and tax based incomes policy. Imagine a world in which firms must negotiation with unions (for example imagine Europe). The unions have two aims — they want […]

The Less Than Supreme Court

How Recent Supreme Court Decisions Have Damaged Both the Court and the Constitution There’s a pattern: In November of 2000, immediately following the very close, highly contested, presidential contest between George W. Bush and Al Gore, John Roberts, a lawyer in private practice who had clerked for Chief Justice Rehnquist, rushed to Florida to be […]

A detailed, updated look at the housing market

A detailed, updated look at the housing market Existing home sales for December were reported this morning at 6.76 million annualized, just below the October 10 Year+ high of 6.86 million. Although existing home sales are about 90% of the entire housing market, they are less important economically than new housing construction, which has multiplier […]

Why Has AMLO Delayed Congratulating Biden On His Inauguration?

Why Has AMLO Delayed Congratulating Biden On His Inauguration?  Maybe he has now done it, although I have been unable to find any reports of him doing so.  But almost alone among world leaders, I think joined only by Kim Jong Un of North Korea, Mexicos’s President known as “AMLO” did not basically immediately congratulate […]

Weekly Indicators for January 18 – 22 at Seeking Alpha

 by New Deal democrat Weekly Indicators for January 18 – 22 at Seeking Alpha My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. The pandemic, and the monetary and interest rate responses to it, are dictating which sectors are improving and which are stagnated or worse. But as vaccinations slowly progress, in springtime there may be […]

Unity

“Unity,” they cried. “First, we must have unity.” “Whose unity shall we have, yours or mine,” I asked? Knowing there was a Unitarian Church nearby, I stopped by and asked the minister. This ordinate tells me that theirs is all about a god of one; a unity god. Always wondered. Is there such a thing […]