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Monday, August 30, 2010
Senator Simpson's Quick Budget Quiz President Obama is apparently content to have an abrasive and abusive senator's son sit as co-chairman of his deficit commission. We can assume that these traits were a direct result of Sen. Alan Simpson's privileged upbringing and he is not going to change now that he is in his late 70s.
Monday, August 30, 2010Senator Simpson's Quick Budget Quiz President Obama is apparently content to have an abrasive and abusive senator's son sit as co-chairman of his deficit commission. We can assume that these traits were a direct result of Sen. Alan Simpson's privileged upbringing and he is not going to change now that he is in his late 70s.
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Friday, August 20, 2010
When Wall Street Rules, We Get Wall Street Rules The middle class is getting whacked by the Great Recession. Fifteen million people are out of work, another 9 million workers can only find part-time jobs, and millions more have given up looking for work altogether. Those lucky enough to be employed are unlikely to see any substantial wage gains for years to come.
Friday, August 20, 2010When Wall Street Rules, We Get Wall Street Rules The middle class is getting whacked by the Great Recession. Fifteen million people are out of work, another 9 million workers can only find part-time jobs, and millions more have given up looking for work altogether. Those lucky enough to be employed are unlikely to see any substantial wage gains for years to come.
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Friday, August 6, 2010
Crazy Economists Are Still Defending The Wall Street Bailout As The Recession Gets Worse It is amazing that angry mobs have not risen up and chased all the economists out of the country. While the greed of the Wall Street gang provided the fuel for the bubble, the economists played an essential role as enablers. The Fed absolutely had all the tools needed to stop this disaster. They just lacked either the competence or the integrity, or both.
Friday, August 6, 2010Crazy Economists Are Still Defending The Wall Street Bailout As The Recession Gets Worse It is amazing that angry mobs have not risen up and chased all the economists out of the country. While the greed of the Wall Street gang provided the fuel for the bubble, the economists played an essential role as enablers. The Fed absolutely had all the tools needed to stop this disaster. They just lacked either the competence or the integrity, or both.
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Monday, July 12, 2010
The Attack of the Real Black Helicopter Gang: The IMF Is Coming for Your Social Security Last week, the IMF told the United States that it needs to start getting its budget deficit down. It put cutting Social Security at the top of the steps that the country should take to achieve deficit reduction.
Monday, July 12, 2010The Attack of the Real Black Helicopter Gang: The IMF Is Coming for Your Social Security Last week, the IMF told the United States that it needs to start getting its budget deficit down. It put cutting Social Security at the top of the steps that the country should take to achieve deficit reduction.
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Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Republicans Want as Many Unemployed People as Possible, Because They Think It Will Get Them Elected that voters will hold the Democrats responsible for the state of the economy. Therefore anything that the Republicans can do to make the economy worse between now and then will help their election prospects.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010Republicans Want as Many Unemployed People as Possible, Because They Think It Will Get Them Elected that voters will hold the Democrats responsible for the state of the economy. Therefore anything that the Republicans can do to make the economy worse between now and then will help their election prospects.
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Monday, May 17, 2010
Family Friendly Cuts to Social Security: The Myth of Affluence Testing Social Security enjoys enormous bipartisan support because all workers pay into it and expect to benefit from it in retirement. Taking away the benefits that better-off workers earned would undoubtedly undermine their support for the program. This could set up a situation in which the program could be more easily attacked in the future.
Monday, May 17, 2010Family Friendly Cuts to Social Security: The Myth of Affluence Testing Social Security enjoys enormous bipartisan support because all workers pay into it and expect to benefit from it in retirement. Taking away the benefits that better-off workers earned would undoubtedly undermine their support for the program. This could set up a situation in which the program could be more easily attacked in the future.
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Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Taxing Health Insurance Premiums and Subsidizing Health Care Providers But this is not an abstract issue. It is a concrete question of who will pay more. For some reason, when it comes to sacrifice, union workers always seem to be at the top of the economists' agenda.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009Taxing Health Insurance Premiums and Subsidizing Health Care Providers But this is not an abstract issue. It is a concrete question of who will pay more. For some reason, when it comes to sacrifice, union workers always seem to be at the top of the economists' agenda.
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Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Seance on Wall Street Interest rates appear to be directly contradicting the seers' assertions about financial markets. The interest rate on 10-year Treasury bonds is currently near 3.5%. The interest rate is not determined by people rattling off their visions about future debt defaults. It is determined by investors putting their money on the line.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009Seance on Wall Street Interest rates appear to be directly contradicting the seers' assertions about financial markets. The interest rate on 10-year Treasury bonds is currently near 3.5%. The interest rate is not determined by people rattling off their visions about future debt defaults. It is determined by investors putting their money on the line.
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Thursday, July 16, 2009
Our Economy Needs at Least $2 Trillion in Stimulus Spending Right Now -- Tens of Millions of Jobs Are at Stake Different types of stimulus have different multiplier effects. One dollar of addition spending is generally estimated to have a multiplier effect in the neighborhood of 1.5, meaning that for every dollar we spend on a government project, we increase GDP by $1.50 as the people we hire go out and spend their paychecks, creating new demand.
Thursday, July 16, 2009Our Economy Needs at Least $2 Trillion in Stimulus Spending Right Now -- Tens of Millions of Jobs Are at Stake Different types of stimulus have different multiplier effects. One dollar of addition spending is generally estimated to have a multiplier effect in the neighborhood of 1.5, meaning that for every dollar we spend on a government project, we increase GDP by $1.50 as the people we hire go out and spend their paychecks, creating new demand.
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Monday, July 13, 2009
The Washington Post (a.k.a. Fox on 15th Street) Wants 15 Million People to Be Unemployed In short, given its near perfect track record of being 180 degrees wrong on the economy, the Post's opposition to more stimulus makes a compelling case for its merits. But, let's look at the argument. Remember back in January of 2008 when the Post told readers that: "There is not yet any proof of a recession, .... Nor is there any consensus that a recession, if one comes, will be severe."
Monday, July 13, 2009The Washington Post (a.k.a. Fox on 15th Street) Wants 15 Million People to Be Unemployed In short, given its near perfect track record of being 180 degrees wrong on the economy, the Post's opposition to more stimulus makes a compelling case for its merits. But, let's look at the argument. Remember back in January of 2008 when the Post told readers that: "There is not yet any proof of a recession, .... Nor is there any consensus that a recession, if one comes, will be severe."
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Wednesday, July 8, 2009
What's So Scary About Offering People the Option of a Public Health Plan? I am trying to do research and run a think tank. Senator Baucus might think that it is a good idea that I have to waste my time dealing with insurance brokers, but I don't, and I suspect that millions of other small employers feel the same way.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009What's So Scary About Offering People the Option of a Public Health Plan? I am trying to do research and run a think tank. Senator Baucus might think that it is a good idea that I have to waste my time dealing with insurance brokers, but I don't, and I suspect that millions of other small employers feel the same way.
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Thursday, July 2, 2009
Pecora Commission II: Super-Sleuths or Keystone Cops? Not only did the committee confuse the public...it also undermined efforts to bring the Iran-Contra criminals to justice. Going against the wishes of Lawrence Walsh, the special prosecutor appointed to deal with the case, the committee gave most of the key figures immunity for their public testimony. This time, the basic story of the current crisis is very simple. We had an $8 trillion housing bubble as prices hugely diverged
Thursday, July 2, 2009Pecora Commission II: Super-Sleuths or Keystone Cops? Not only did the committee confuse the public...it also undermined efforts to bring the Iran-Contra criminals to justice. Going against the wishes of Lawrence Walsh, the special prosecutor appointed to deal with the case, the committee gave most of the key figures immunity for their public testimony. This time, the basic story of the current crisis is very simple. We had an $8 trillion housing bubble as prices hugely diverged
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Monday, June 29, 2009
Why Won't the Democrats Back a GAO Audit? Waterboard the Fed Congress has lent more than $700 billion to bankers at below market interest rates through the TARP. This was to keep the banks from going belly up. At the same time, the Fed has lent more than $2 trillion to banks and non-financial institutions to maintain liquidity.While more than 130 Republican members of the House have signed on as co-sponsors of the bill, just over 30 Democrats are co-sponsors.
Monday, June 29, 2009Why Won't the Democrats Back a GAO Audit? Waterboard the Fed Congress has lent more than $700 billion to bankers at below market interest rates through the TARP. This was to keep the banks from going belly up. At the same time, the Fed has lent more than $2 trillion to banks and non-financial institutions to maintain liquidity.While more than 130 Republican members of the House have signed on as co-sponsors of the bill, just over 30 Democrats are co-sponsors.
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Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Spreading the Wealth Around to the Insurance Industry and Friends Since there are trillions of dollars at stake, the effort is understandable. The basic story is simple. The insurance, pharmaceutical and medical supply industries, along with the hospitals and the American Medical Association, have rigged the deck so that they get rich at the public's expense.Their latest compromise is a system of small cooperative insurers that will have no bargaining power. That's a cute joke....
Tuesday, June 23, 2009Spreading the Wealth Around to the Insurance Industry and Friends Since there are trillions of dollars at stake, the effort is understandable. The basic story is simple. The insurance, pharmaceutical and medical supply industries, along with the hospitals and the American Medical Association, have rigged the deck so that they get rich at the public's expense.Their latest compromise is a system of small cooperative insurers that will have no bargaining power. That's a cute joke....
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Tuesday, June 16, 2009
NPR, the IMF, and the Global Savings Glut (This article was written before the vote and posted after. An alert seemed to say the IMF gets its money.) The Obama administration is having a tough time getting its request for $108 billion for the IMF through Congress. Bank bailouts are rapidly losing popularity. And bailouts of foreign banks are probably even less popular than bailouts of U.S. banks. But, NPR is rushing to the rescue.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009NPR, the IMF, and the Global Savings Glut (This article was written before the vote and posted after. An alert seemed to say the IMF gets its money.) The Obama administration is having a tough time getting its request for $108 billion for the IMF through Congress. Bank bailouts are rapidly losing popularity. And bailouts of foreign banks are probably even less popular than bailouts of U.S. banks. But, NPR is rushing to the rescue.
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Wednesday, June 3, 2009
GM Bailout Makes Most of Bad Situation Somehow, this gift to Goldman aroused nowhere near as much anger as the bailout of General Motors. This is especially ironic, since the proximate cause of the crisis at GM and Chrysler is the crisis brought on by the irresponsible behavior of the Wall Street banks.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009GM Bailout Makes Most of Bad Situation Somehow, this gift to Goldman aroused nowhere near as much anger as the bailout of General Motors. This is especially ironic, since the proximate cause of the crisis at GM and Chrysler is the crisis brought on by the irresponsible behavior of the Wall Street banks.
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Monday, June 1, 2009
To Get a Systemic Risk Regulator Fire Bernanke The Fed has often stepped outside the narrowly defined realm of monetary policy when it perceived larger risks to the economy. Two obvious examples are its efforts to stem the stock market crash in 1987 and its intervention in the unraveling of the Long-Term Capital hedge fund in 1998. In both cases the Fed acted because it argued that there would be much greater damage to the economy if it just let the market run its course.
Monday, June 1, 2009To Get a Systemic Risk Regulator Fire Bernanke The Fed has often stepped outside the narrowly defined realm of monetary policy when it perceived larger risks to the economy. Two obvious examples are its efforts to stem the stock market crash in 1987 and its intervention in the unraveling of the Long-Term Capital hedge fund in 1998. In both cases the Fed acted because it argued that there would be much greater damage to the economy if it just let the market run its course.
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Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Blue Cross Millionaires Are Scared to Compete With a Public Plan Given the high salaries that Blue Cross of North Carolina pays its top executives and the other administrative expenses that it bears as a result of being a private sector plan with high overhead, it is not surprising that it would be afraid of a public plan. A public plan would likely charge much lower prices, thereby pulling away a large share of Blue Cross of North Carolina's business.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009Blue Cross Millionaires Are Scared to Compete With a Public Plan Given the high salaries that Blue Cross of North Carolina pays its top executives and the other administrative expenses that it bears as a result of being a private sector plan with high overhead, it is not surprising that it would be afraid of a public plan. A public plan would likely charge much lower prices, thereby pulling away a large share of Blue Cross of North Carolina's business.
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Monday, May 18, 2009
The Health Care Industry: Protectionism the Free Traders Love Suppose people in the US paid twice as much for our cars as people in Canada, Germany and every other wealthy country. Economists would no doubt be pointing out the enormous amount of waste in the US auto industry. They would insist we take advantage of the lower cost cars available elsewhere and take steps to make our own industry more efficient. For some reason, economists do not have the same attitude toward health care.
Monday, May 18, 2009The Health Care Industry: Protectionism the Free Traders Love Suppose people in the US paid twice as much for our cars as people in Canada, Germany and every other wealthy country. Economists would no doubt be pointing out the enormous amount of waste in the US auto industry. They would insist we take advantage of the lower cost cars available elsewhere and take steps to make our own industry more efficient. For some reason, economists do not have the same attitude toward health care.
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Thursday, May 14, 2009
Why We Can't Wait To Move On Bank Reform If we didn't live in the world we actually live in, putting Wall Street reform on hold until we fix the immediate problems with the banks might make sense. But in the world we do live in, it is precisely because the banks have an immediate problem that there is some hope of reining them in. Here's why putting that off would lead to failure.
Thursday, May 14, 2009Why We Can't Wait To Move On Bank Reform If we didn't live in the world we actually live in, putting Wall Street reform on hold until we fix the immediate problems with the banks might make sense. But in the world we do live in, it is precisely because the banks have an immediate problem that there is some hope of reining them in. Here's why putting that off would lead to failure.
