Asymptosis: Always Approaching

Category: Politics

  • Regulatory uncertainty is killing business investment: ya right

    Compared to, for instance, the Bush years, that hotbed of slashed regulations and rising business investment? Oh, wait. But hey: don’t let facts interfere with your fondest fantasies. Here’s the fairy story: …employment growth is sluggish because firms are turning down … opportunities to make goods and services that are profitable today (current sales are very profitable) because they fear…

  • Koch Brother Lures Hayek to America With…Social Security!

    Yes, the depths of conservative hypocrisy are bottomless, but this really takes all. From The Nation (ht Brad Delong, emphasis mine): Koch invited Hayek to serve as the institute’s “distinguished senior scholar” … Hayek initially declined Koch’s offer … Hayek explains that he underwent gall bladder surgery in Austria earlier that year, which only heightened…

  • Why The Fed Hates Inflation More Than It Hates Unemployment

    It’s really not complicated; the Fed is run by creditors: David Levey, a former managing director at Moody’s and another critic of Fed inaction, points out that banks often have more to lose from inflation than from unemployment. Inflation reduces the future value of the money that their debtors – homeowners, car buyers, small businesses and…

  • “The Reagan Revolution in One Graph”

    Steve Randy Waldman’s tweet, pointing to this:     Incredible Shrinking Workers’ Income | FrumForum. Here’s another look at it, from a couple of years back. Related posts: White Married Christians: The Decline and Fall of the GOP Does the Minimum Wage Increase Productivity? Did the Baby Boom Labor Force Surge Cause The Great Inflation?…

  • Index the Payroll Tax to Unemployment?

    I’ve been spouting for a long time that the Earned Income Tax Credit (our largest means-tested cash transfer program) should be indexed to unemployment, creating an automatic stabilizer in the economy. But Traders Crucible has what I’ve decided is a far better idea: index payroll taxes to unemployment — decreasing them during downturns and bringing…

  • Red States Sucking the Federal Teat

    Just a reminder for all those red-state debt-ceiling hawks out there. Here’s where the debt came from: How do you think state budgets would look if all those in-the-red red states had to pay back all the federal money they’ve gotten from the prosperous blue states? Start this at the three-minute point: Related posts: “Its…

  • The Deal and the Dive: Using Occam’s Razor to Parse the Results

    I don’t get why people make this so complicated. We got a deal. Stock market investors didn’t like the deal. Not surprising: It was a profoundly sh***y deal that ensures somewhere between sh***y growth and a second recession. (I guess stockholders believe in the stimulative effects of stimulative government spending…) End of explanation, no?* Except…

  • How’s That Confidence Fairy Thingy Workin’ Out for Youse Guys?

      Dow down more than 400 points as market plunge continues – latimes.com. Related posts: Damn this guy sounds like me Screw the Rich to Protect Super-Rich Campaign Contributors? Study Sez: Rich States Are Full of Swingers Jim Manzi Disappoints on the Devastation of Lead and Crime Why is the militia clause there at all?

  • Yeah Right: Supply of Credit to Businesses Is a Big Problem

    Click for source. Demand for credit continues to decline, while corporate (especially financial) cash balances are at an all-time high. What are supply-siders smoking? See here and the links therein for much more evidence of the same. Related posts: Don’t Like “Money Printing”? Then Stop Borrowing. Whip Inflation Now! Did I Mention Mentioning that It’s…

  • Where’s the Demand?

    Very interesting thinking from The Economist‘s Democracy in America (whoever that is) on the (apparent) lack of demand in our current economy: …people … may not be interested in buying a new car this year, but … they’re very interested in riding the subway … There is demand out there. It just isn’t for individual consumer goods. This…

  • This Isn’t Really Complicated, Is It?

    Obama went after the elephant in the room, at huge political cost. Say what you will about his political savvy, the way he went about it, or the reform’s likely (as opposed to hoped-for) effects, but it makes pretty clear who’s the adult in the room. Related posts: It’s The Health Care Costs, Stupid David…

  • More American Exceptionalism: Government Revenues

    Let’s adopt the unpresuming assumptions that: 1. A prosperous, modern economy needs a certain amount of government (taxing, spending) to become and remain prosperous. And that government has to be paid for via taxes and other government revenues. Simple enough. 2. Either too much or too little government in a country results in a poor…

  • Death and Money: American Exceptionalism

    Lane Kenworthy once again gives us one of those graphs that encapsulates a whole global scenario, over four decades: Yeah: we’re #1. Edit: just to note that while we were on the high end of the spending pack until about 1980, we were within the normal range. It’s only since then that things really went…

  • Debt > 90% of GDP “associated with 1 percent lower median growth”

    Reinhard and Rogoff again repeat this claim. 1. As I pointed out, out of 3,700 samples (country/years) they find five (I found six) years of U.S. debt at that level: 1944-1949. Which was followed, of course, by the best two decades of U. S. growth in living memory. 2. Krugman went deeper:   as best…

  • Neoclassical economists don’t understand neoclassical economics

    I don’t usually just give the link and leave it at that. But I can’t hope to encapsulate the video here — essential viewing for everyone with any interest in economics, even if you have read Chapter Two of Keen’s book. (If you haven’t, watch the video now and wait till September to buy the…

  • “The most productive members of our society.”

    “How do you know they’re the most productive members of our society?” “Because they make the most money.” “Ah. That explains why they make so much money.” Related posts: Nature: Good? 1098: If Millionaires Vote With Their Feet, They Apparently Don’t Care About Income Taxes Tea Partiers and OWSers: Who Needs to Get a Job?…

  • What Would Ronald Reagan Do?

    The budget deals of Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Obama, in one chart – Ezra Klein – The Washington Post. Related posts: 11 Percent of the Population Can Veto Anything Mea Culpa: Rivlin-Domenici Needs Work This Time Mankiw’s Just Plain Lying. And He Knows It. Gaming McCain’s Game Why Did Edwards Quit?

  • How Could You Possibly Call Them Hypocrites?

    June 2002: Congress approves a $450 billion increase, raising the debt limit to $6.4 trillion. McConnell, Boehner, and Cantor vote “yea”, Kyl votes “nay.” May 2003: Congress approves a $900 billion increase, raising the debt limit to $7.384 trillion. All four approve. November 2004: Congress approves an $800 billion increase, raising the debt limit to…

  • IS-LM: “A classroom gadget” (Wonkish)

    I’ve long felt inadequate when reading Very Serious People discussing economics, especially monetary economics (really: what other kind is there?), when they drop into discussions of the IS-LM model — standard fare that is proposed as gospel in economics textbooks and is widely used by Very Serious Economists making Very Serious Points. I feel inadequate…

  • Should the Government Just Keep Spending?

    Greg Mankiw, Dean Baker, and Tyler Cowen all light upon the surprising suggestion by Ron Paul: simply evaporate all the government bonds ($1.6 trillion worth) that the Fed has bought up of late. They’re just debts of one part of government to another part of government, so why not simply vanish them, reducing the treasury’s outstanding…

  • Yeah: Cutting Rich People’s Taxes Spurs Growth

      I know, I know, this falsehood has been skewered every which way from Sunday. But I couldn’t resist sharing one more. Rich People’s Taxes Have Little to Do with Job Creation. Related posts: Most Regressive Taxes? My Home State 🙁 Galbraith Translates “Trickle Down”: Eat Shit Obama and Small Business Cap Gains: Where’s the…