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

Interview with Mark Thoma

Angry Bear readers are familiar with Mark’s writings: Mark Thoma is a macroeconomist and time-series econometrician at the University of Oregon. His research focuses on how monetary policy affects the economy, and he has also worked on political business cycle models. Mark is currently a fellow at The Century Foundation, a columnist at The Fiscal […]

Mark Thoma puts Holtz-Eakin on (figurative) hot seat

by Linda Beale Mark Thoma puts Holtz-Eakin on (figurative) hot seat As most of the Angry Bear and ataxingmatter readers know, I do not frequently applaud the economic punditry of those freshwater economists who think the way to deal with the problem of failed market fundamentalism policies is to double-down on those failed policies. I’ve […]

Thoughts from economics writers on politics

Mark Thoma has put together some thoughts of his own as well as those of Bruce Bartlett, Brad DeLong, and Paul Krugman. I think it is worth a scan. Bruce Bartlett on President Obama as ‘an old time Republican’ seems to fit the description, without the hyperbole of contentious issue debate: In a little-noticed comment […]

Biden…"I flat guarantee you"

Mark Thoma takes a poke at Joe Biden’s guarantees on SS  in  No Changes in Social Security: I wish I could believe this. Biden guarantees: ‘There will be no changes in Social Security’, by Michael O’Brien, NBC News: …”Hey, by the way, let’s talk about Social Security,” Biden said…”Number one, I guarantee you, flat guarantee […]

Brad DeLong and THINGS WRONG WITH HASSETT, HUBBARD, MANKIW, AND TAYLOR, "THE ROMNEY PROGRAM FOR ECONOMIC RECOVERY, GROWTH, AND JOBS"

Brad DeLong offers a long post on economists on the Romney team. THINGS WRONG WITH HASSETT, HUBBARD, MANKIW, AND TAYLOR, “THE ROMNEY PROGRAM FOR ECONOMIC RECOVERY, GROWTH, AND JOBS” Notes on HHMT: Kevin Hassett, Glenn Hubbard, Gregory Mankiw, and John Taylor, “The Romney Program for Economic Recovery, Growth, and Jobs” HHMT: We are presently in […]

‘The One-Sided Deficit Debate’

Via Economist View comes James Kwak at Baseline Scenario on the early deal made on the the ‘fiscal cliff’: ‘The One-Sided Deficit Debate’ James Kwak is pessimistic about the deficit debate: What’s more, the “consensus” of the self-styled “centrists” is what now makes the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 seem positively reasonable. With […]

Not All Economists are to Blame, But Some Are

Mark Thoma notes the discrepancy between pretty much standard economics and what the popular discussion considers ‘economics’ : Not All Economists are to Blame, But Some Are  A defense of some, but not all economists: Why Some Economists Failed  I assert that some economists got things mostly right about the recession and what was needed to […]

Republicans Want to Repeal Resolution Authority

Mark Thoma points us to Republicans Want to Repeal Resolution Authority the House Republicans on the Financial Services Committee just voted to repeal “resolution authority.” Let’s review the history. When the crisis hit, the government bailed out many financial firms — shadow banks as they are known. That’s not what it does when an ordinary […]