Category: Politics

Well if so (something I’m not asserting), it’s a Republican spending problem: Economist’s View: Per Capita Government Spending by President. Cross-posted at Angry Bear. Related posts: Saving and “Government Saving” You Gotta Give Reagan Credit Rules? In Knife Fight?! Now (Also) Blogging at Angry Bear Why Economists Don’t Understand Accounting, or Business

Anti-taxers love to haul out the legendary napkin-inscribed Laffer curve to demonstrate that lower taxes would yield more government revenue. But this ploy only works because they assume that we’re at or past the high point — that higher taxes would move us down the right slope. (Note the cross-marks-the-spot in the image here?) But where…

Middle Class Political Economist: Basics: Length of Unemployment is Worst Since World War II.. (HT Brad DeLong.) The key graph: Assuming the economy is “trying” to reach equilibrium, this suggests that it “wants” less workers. If that is a secular trend, as suggested by the steadily lengthening jobless recessions since the 80s, …we’re faced with…

I just came across a fellow internet econocrank’s tax proposal, and find it quite interesting — especially its proposed progressive tax on net worth, which echoes the flat tax on financial assets that I’ve bruited. It also reflects many of the notions I suggested I’d implement if I was the Dictator of America. The basic…

Bruce Wilder had an excellent comment recently in the Crooked Timber thread on markets, economic rents, and the constraints on economic actors, excerpted by Dan here, and more with comments by Jazzbumpah here. (If you like the thinking there, run don’t walk to read this windyanabasis post and comments.) The emphasis on constraints prompts me…

Any knowledgeable economist will tell you that GDP (or GDP/capita) is a profoundly imperfect and non-inclusive measure of national well-being. In particular, GDP doesn’t count any work isn’t paid for with money — painting your mom’s house, volunteering for the Rotary Club or your church (David Brooks, are you listening?), caring for your kids and…

David Frum was excommunicated from the Righties Club a few years back because he insisted on occasionally saying sane and accurate things. He continues that aberrational behavior today in his review of AEI uber-zealot Charles Murray’s new book, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010 (which I will not link to here — no Google love from…

Don’t tell me that the Dems favor fiscal stimulus because they like big government. The payroll tax cut will make it a bit more difficult to expand the size of government in future years.  (As Clinton found in 1993, when he was told the “bond markets” (i.e. the Reagan tax cuts) wouldn’t allow him to enact…

Nick Rowe replies to Richard Williamson re: full-reserve banking (emphasis mine): The key reading here (even though it appears to be about a different subject) is Milton Friedman’s “The optimum quantity of money”. Foregone nominal interest payments is a tax on holding currency…. 100% required reserves mean you impose the same tax on chequing accounts ……

I don’t usually link to Paul Krugman because everyone reads him anyway, right? He doesn’t need my google juice. But I have to make an exception here because he adds to my trove of graphs demonstrating how America today — after thirty years of Reaganomics policies that were supposed to be all about freedom, liberty, and economic…

John Scalzi: …in Ayn Rand’s world, a man who self-righteously instigates the collapse of society, thereby inevitably killing millions if not billions of people, is portrayed as a messiah figure rather than as a genocidal prick, which is what he’d be anywhere else. Yes, he’s a genocidal prick with excellent engineering skills. Good for him.…

Imagine that over the next week (in a closed American economy — the rest of the world has never existed) everyone sold all their financial assets, paid off all their debts, and deposited the remaining money (and any currency they have) in their checking accounts. No money-market funds, even. Just banks with reserve accounts at…

Continuing with one of my current hobbyhorses: Ryan Avent reports on the American Economic Association meeting, with special attention to a presentation by Robert Hall: Monetary policy: The zero lower bound in our minds | The Economist. Mr Hall argued that: A little more inflation would have a hugely beneficial impact on labour markets, And…

Whether it’s Market Monetarist NGDP targeting (a.k.a. Damn The Inflation Rate; We Need Growth!) or Menzie’s recommendation of Conditional Inflation Targeting with a notably higher target, everything tells us that somewhat higher inflation is the current path to greater and more widespread long-term prosperity. Raising the expected inflation rate will lower real interest rates and…

Casey Mulligan is curious: what could have caused the big uptick in the uptake on unemployment insurance in recent years? It’s a mystery. Or, maybe not: Sorry, the JOLTS data only goes back to 2001. Which directly addresses Mulligan’s basic assertion: People are lazy. They don’t like to work. Well yeah. (People especially don’t like…