Economics Roundtable
Job Losses - I
This graph all too clearly illusttrates the current situation.
Job Losses - II
U.S. payroll employment is now almost 300,000 jobs below the worst month in the previous recession.
After a massive downward revision in the past year's payroll employment figures, the total for January 2010 is 129,527,000. The minimum payroll employment in the previous recession was 129,822,00 for August 2003.
Click on the chart for a larger version.
A Positive Number
The revised November change in U.S. payroll employment is +4,000. This is the first positive number since December 2007. Positive is good.
The other side of the coin is that December 2009 payroll employment was 130,910,000. December 1999 payroll employment was 130.532,000. The increase of 378,000 jobs in 10 years is not so good. The labor force increased by 12,882,000 over the same period.
A Troubling Chart
The chart below shows percentage changes in U.S. payroll employment over the previous ten years.
Click on the chart for a larger version.
If payroll employment does not increase for January and February, payroll employment for February 2010 will be less than payroll employment for February 2000.
The chart below shows percentage changes in U.S. payroll employment (blue) and civilian labor force (red) over the previous ten years.
Click on the chart for a larger version.
Good Economics
Bruce Yandle lists the reasons why Cash for Clunkers is a Loser. Among other things, it is the latest example of The Broken Window Fallacy, which was clearly explained by Frederick Bastiat, 1801-1850.
James Hamilton gives a clear explanation of why comparing the level of government debt in 1945 to the projected level of government debt in ten years is not comforting, but is downright scary.
Gregory Mankiw neatly explains the "third factor" consideration in the difference between correlation and causation. Paul Krugman adds a comment, and Mankiw responds.
100%
The Economics Roundtable includes 100% of the Wall Street Journal's Top 25 Economics Blogs plus 120 more.
No Ads!
David Warsh explains why Mark Thoma does not take ads at Economist's View and adds insightful commentary on economics bloggers.
Thinking About Jobs
Jeff Frankel lays out a balanced view of the current employment statistics.
Last Month: Jeff Frankel says that the labor market has NOT yet signalled a turning point. Check the graph of weekly hours at the bottom of the page.
Clive Granger, 1934-2009
We have lost an original thinker of the first magnitude. Clive W. J. Granger.
Auctions and Politicians
Catch up on the background for one of the newest areas of Economics Engineering.
The Clark Medal: A Hindcast
David Warsh identifies the likely winners of the John Bates Clark Medal for even-numbered years. The award has, of course, been announced only in odd-numbered years. Who did we miss?
Why Card Issuers Engage In Rate-Jacking
Adam Levitin of Credit Slips explains another "benefit" of securitization. The economics of this market structure are stunningly bad.
The Geithner Plan
Will it work? Paul Krugman says no.
The New York Times'
Room for Debate
includes Simon Johnson, Brad DeLong, and Mark Toma.
Equilibrium and Meltdown
George Waters addresses the economic crisis and the state of macroeconomics.
Gzing! Gzing! Gzing!
David Warsh offers a fascinating account of the invention of earmarks. Catch his review of So Damn Much Money: The Triumph of Lobbying and the Corrosion of American Government, by Robert G. Kaiser.
VoxEU -- Free Online Book
Rescuing our jobs and savings: What G7/8 leaders can do to solve the global credit crisis -- Contents Page
Richard Baldwin, Barry Eichengreen
"Without rapid and coordinated action by G7/8 leaders, this financial crisis could turn into a jobs crisis, a pension crisis and much more. This column introduces a collection of essays by leading economists on what the G7/8 leaders should do this weekend. The dozen essays present a remarkable consensus on a few points: we need immediate, coordinated global action that includes recapitalisation of the banks."
Economic Principals
Congratulations to David Warsh on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of EP.
The First Global Financial Crisis
of the 21st Century
A VoxEU.org Publication
Edited by Andrew Felton and Carmen Reinhart
Read the announcement
and/or download selected chapters.
Review: the topic itself is important, but this book also marks a new direction for online discussion.
Great Articles by Famous Economists
The Library of Economics and Liberty includes The Concise Encyclopeida of Economics. To see how many well-known economists have contributed browse by category .
EconModel
The Economics Roundtable is sponsored by EconModel.
The Classic Economic Models cover micro, macro, and financial markets.
- Recent Entries
Do higher cigarette prices deter smoking? This column finds that policymakers in developing countries could reduce cigarette consumption by youths by raising taxes. A 10% increase in the price will reduce youth cigarette demand by 18.3%.
Full Article: Do higher cigarette prices deter smoking?
"Airlines are pushing back against new rules that give fliers more rights. They are threatening to cancel scores of flights in response to a new rule that would prohibit airlines ...
Kevin Drum has a couple of good questions about credit default swaps, and the final link in his post literally made me laugh out loud, so I’ll do my best to answer him.
If the bond issuer does default, and there are a hundred speculators who own CDS protection on ...
Treasury 30-year bonds gained as one of the biggest yield premiums over 2-year government securities on record bolstered demand at today’s U.S. auction of $13 billion in bonds.
“Insurers, pension funds and ...
L. Randall Wray has been a long-time critic of orthodox monetary economics and US economic policy. Recently he continued his crusade in a paper titled Alternative Approaches to Money [pdf], Theoretical Inquires into Law (11:1), January 2010. Wray is among many Chartalists (Wikipedia) who are active both in ...
Okay, here is tonight’s rule: Governments that scam the asset markets (and their citizens) take all manner of half measures to defend failed policies before undertaking structural reform. (This includes defending the currency, some asset sales, anything that avoids true shrinkage of the role of government.) The five stages of ...
Der Spiegel on the official lies that underpin European Monetary Union:
Since joining the euro zone, the 16 euro countries have violated the deficit rule, under which net new debt cannot exceed 3 percent of GDP, 43 times. Most of the infractions have occurred in the last two ...
The Fed MBS purchases are scheduled to end on March 31st.
It will take a couple of months for some of these purchases to settle on the Fed's balance sheet (see: the discussion from SIFMA: "To-Be-Announced" Trading of Agency Passthrough Securities)
...
The Federal Reserves latest flow of funds report offers a clue for those trying to understand why banks often dont want to lend to businesses: By some measures, businesses finances are still deteriorating.
In the fourth quarter of 2009, nonfinancial corporate businesses net worth — what they ...
President Obama’s proposal to boost the Medicare tax is a key element of the compromise health bill that looks increasingly as if it is going to become law. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates it would generate over $180 billion over the next decade. And exactly as intended, the ...
Many thanks to Tim Fernholz, of The American Prospect, and Taylor Griffin, of Hamilton Place Strategies, for helping me out via IM this afternoon to explain to me what on earth is going on with Chris Dodd and the financial regulatory reform bill. The Reuters headline says that talks ...
~ Frederic Sautet ~
The main problem with legal tender fiat currencies is that one can hardly escape them. As Hayek came to realize in the 1970s, a major issue with currency and central banking ...
I haven't gone after Krugman for awhile, so why not today, especially when he's repeating myths about Herbert Hoover? But that's not the real problem. The real problem is how he spins the graph below, which shows the rate of change in consumption expenditures and gross ...
[This was simply too good to leave in the comments, so I've reposted it here - SH]
Richard Ebeling
Since Peter began with some quotes, including one by Ludwig von Mises, may I offer a little "doctrinal" interpretation about how Mises actually acted as a economic theorist and policy ...
It's not clear to whether Senate Banking chairman Chris Dodd simply lost his patience or was told by his Democratic brethren to end the fruitless attempt to negotiate with Republicans over financial regulatory reform.
It doesn't matter. The important thing is that Dodd finally called it quits and announced ...
Rajiv Sethi draws a connection between reflexivity theory, risk/reward asymmetry, and the question of whether naked credit default swaps should be restricted:
On Asymmetry, Reflexivity and Sovereign Default, by Rajiv Sethi: One of the most rewarding aspects of blogging is that it gives me the opportunity learn from those ...
Political pressure seems to be mounting for yuan appreciation. [0] Figure 1 depicts the stability in the USD/CNY nominal exchange rate over the past year.
From a Dallas Fed Letter by Jian Wang:
Durable goods represent a moderate share of the economy in most industrial countries -- in the U.S., for example, they accounted for 23.6 percent of real GDP in 2008. However, durable goods make up a large share of international trade. In ...
As health care goes, so goes job growth?
Amid the worst labor market in more than a generation, it is surprising that discussions — pro and con — about overhauling health insurance tend to ignore one key issue: The current insurance system that relies on employer-provided policies and little portability threatens ...
Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) on Thursday talked openly of the bipartisan compromise he nearly reached with Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.) over new financial regulations.
On consumer protection:
I think the consumer title that Chairman Dodd puts forth will be very much shaped ...
In earlier posts, I considered two trends: first, the eroding boundary between chronically defaulting sovereign and risk-free government debt; and second, the comfy symbiosis among feckless rules, fudged government accounts and basic financial engineering. I also considered the politics of erosion and symbiosis. In this post and the ...
Initial reaction to my Climate Desk bleg has been pretty interesting. I’m looking for companies which are taking a serious strategic look at managing the risks of climate change, and so far I haven’t really found any. The on-topic responses I have received have generally fallen into two categories: ...
Political pressure seems to be mounting for yuan appreciation. [0] Figure 1 depicts the stability in the USD/CNY nominal exchange rate over the past year.
There is this notion abroad that an extra billion in government spending can be converted from "irresponsible" to "responsible" as ...
Lower tax rates increase the incentive to work, save, and invest, and they ...
In the world of economics and finance, revolutions occur rarely and are often detected only in hindsight. But what happened on February 19 can safely be called the end of an era in global finance.
On that day, the International Monetary Fund published a policy note ...
A headline in today’s Wall Street Journal reads “Obama Details Effort to Double Exports Over Five Years.”
Translation: “Obama Details Effort to Increase Corporate Welfare Over Five Years.”
A stranger in an airplane sparked a conversation with me the other day. Rather than the usual awkward seatmate dialogue, we ended up having a good conversation.
He told me about his time in Iraq and playing craps in Vegas. ...
When unions ...
On CNBC's "Closing Bell" yesterday, Ann Holley of KPMG discusses how so-called "Amazon tax" laws -- which force online retailers such as Amazon.com to collect sales taxes -- could affect state budget deficits. She cites the Tax Foundation's recent report on Amazon taxes, which notes that rather than increasing ...
How many pages does it take to record the U.S. federal tax code?
It's often been remarked that the growth ...
Why are they calling this a jobs bill? There are hardly any job creation measures in it:
Jobless claims bill OK'd by Senate, by Tami Luhby, CNNMoney.com: The Senate on Wednesday approved ... by a 62-36 vote ... the latest job creation effort to go before lawmakers, though it contains ...
According to the Fed, household net worth is now off $12.5 Trillion from the peak in 2007, but up $5.0 trillion from the trough last year. A majority of the decline in net ...
The United States hotel industry posted only its third revenue-per-available-room increase in 18 months for the week ending 6 March 2010, rising 0.9 percent to US$52.75, according to data from Smith Travel Research. It was the first time the increase ...
A roundup of economic news from around the Web.
Consumer Lending: Ellyn Terry on the Atlanta Fed’s macroblog looks at consumer lending. “Is the decline in consumer credit the result of supply- or demand-side forces? Perhaps the answer is both. According to the Federal Reserve’s Senior Loan Officer Survey, ...Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) said he was very disappointed talks have broken off with Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.) and blamed health care and White House politics for the problem.
“I think Republicans want to see a good financial reform bill. I think Democrats want to see ...
Two trading firms, one of them an established Wall Street player and the other a Midwest upstart, are each about to premiere a sophisticated new financial tool: a box-office futures exchange that would ...
While the S&P 500 returned an average of 9.5 % annually over the last 50 years, the comparable figure after accounting for trading and management costs, dividend and capital-gains taxes, and inflation was a mere 1.3 %, according to ...
Turan Bali, Stephen Brown, and Mustafa Caglayan have a new paper out with an interesting result:
The two most important findings from this study are summarized as follows: (i) hedge funds with higher exposure to default risk premium in the past month generate higher returns in the following month; ...
I’m a big admirer of David Lazarus, of the LA Times, but I think he was a bit credulous on Monday when he complained about the downside of closing credit cards.
He’s right to slam Citigroup, of course, for slapping a $60 annual fee on a lot of credit cards ...
This post is even more of a brain dump than usual. I would really appreciate any feedback that you have.
One of the big lessons of economics is that a market economy functions as an equilibrium system. As such pushing out on it, for good or ill doesn’t cause the effects ...
Here’s a letter that I sent to the Washington Post:
George Will wisely warns against reason unreasonably applied (“As a progressive, Obama hews to the Wilsonian tradition,” March 11). Pres. Obama and his ilk are guided by an irrational faith that human reason is so potent and encompassing that it ...
Bank of America recently experienced a home seizure FAIL. The bank ransacked a woman’s home, padlocked her doors shut, and seized her parrot–by accident. The bank accidentally foreclosed on her home, even though her mortgage payments were up ...
The 2010 Forbes billionaire list awarded Carlos Slim Helu its richest man in the world honor. The Mexican tycoon is worth $53.5 billion, beating out Bill Gates ($53 billion) and Warren Buffett ($47 billion). Here are ...
From today’s NYT:
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Six Pakistani employees of the American Christian charity World Vision were killed Wednesday and seven others were wounded in an attack on the aid group’s offices in a remote village in northern Pakistan.
The ...
|Peter Boettke|
Adam Smith finished that thought about government officials assuming an authority over the economic affairs as follows: "which can safely be trusted, not only to no single person, but to no council or senate whatever, and which would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands ...
Please consider the Unemployment Weekly Claims Report for March 11, 2010.
In the week ending March 6, the ...
Some students wanted to attend the protest but may have faced possible retribution from their instructors.
“I support the rally but still need to go to my classes,” environmental economics major Alisa Rudnick said. “I will join in after my schedule allows, but I can’t compromise my education for it.”
Rudnick said ...
The $1 cigarette tax hike being proposed by some Georgia lawmakers would push cigarette sales out of state or into the black market, according to a new Tax Foundation report.
Read Tax Foundation Fiscal Fact, No. 215, "Georgia Should Refrain from Relying on Smokers to Fill Budget Hole."
Idaho may have scored lower in business friendly tax structure than its western neighbors Oregon and Washington in our State Business Tax Climate Index, but trends may change. While Oregon has no sales tax and Washington has no income tax (and not having a major tax is a big ...
[T]otal January exports of $142.7 billion and imports of $180.0 billion resulted in a goods and services deficit of $37.3 billion, down from $39.9 billion in December, revised.
Today Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D., Conn.) issued the following statement on financial reform:
On Monday, I will present to my colleagues a substitute to the original financial reform package, unveiled last November.
Over the last few months, Banking Committee members have worked together to try and produce a consensus ...
CBO has just released an estimate of the budgetary effects of the health bill, H.R. 3590, that passed the Senate on December 24. Today’s estimate differs from the estimate for a slightly earlier version of the legislation that we released on December 19 in that it encompasses all ...
John Stossel takes on the licensing police on his FOX Business show tonight, watch a preview above. We license doctors, lawyers, drivers, dogs. The state of Louisiana licenses at least 87 professions, including acupuncturist assistants, athletic trainers, manicurists, ...
The jury’s still out on the path of least resistance in the trend for initial jobless claims. Today’s weekly update is certainly a step in the right direction, although last week’s meager drop in new filings for jobless benefits falls far short of stellar, or convincing. The sluggish behavior of ...
They claimed that ...
The WSJ has an article about fears that suppliers in the US dairy industry have about cheap imports from New Zealand. In response, they are lobbying Congress for protection. Remember, it's often easier to persuade Congress to impose protectionist policies than it is to persuade consumers that your product ...
With universal mandates, insurance companies no longer compete for multiple clients, but for just one — this is called a monopsony. The amount of eligible insurance companies quickly dwindles.
What a fearful thought — if this situation is general: a nation of people, the vast majority of whom do no thinking for themselves in the area of political economy!
Binya Appelbaum has the latest news on the shape of the consumer financial protection legislation which is likely to come out of the Senate:
Payday lenders, pawnbrokers, car dealers and other companies that make loans but do not hold bank charters would be shielded from the scrutiny of a proposed ...
Is Twitter becoming less social and more of a news feed, where people just follow celebrities rather than interacting with their friends? Julianne Pepitone of CNN Money would have you think so:
A whopping 73% of Twitter accounts have tweeted fewer than 10 times according to a new report from ...
Here is David Ignatius:
My favorite analyst of bubble economies is David M. Smick, who predicted the U.S. financial mess in his book "The World Is Curved." He notes some worrying statistics: Until the global financial crisis, Chinese exports represented 43 percent of its gross domestic product. To make ...
The latest in the various ongoing attempts by the Jacksonville Jaguars to court interest, any interest, in their team from the local citizenry: guilt. Speaking to a gathering of business and community leaders at the Rotary Club of Jacksonville, former Jaguar standout lineman Tony Boselli exhorted people to get behind ...
I am all for eliminating earmarks to for-profit companies and for extending it to non-profits as well. All discretionary money should be awarded on an open,competitive basis, with oversight of the executive branch agencies by appropriate Congressional committees. Earmarks have no place in federal spending, as a matter of principle. ...
In the week ending March 6, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 462,000, a decrease of 6,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 468,000. The 4-week moving average was 475,500, an increase of 5,000 from the previous ...
In recent weeks, policy makers from President Barack Obama to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke have been taking extraordinary measures to remove what they see as a serious impediment to the recovery: A dearth of credit for the small businesses that many economists say must play a leading role in ...
One thing that I think we all agreed on in yesterday's panel on "too big to fail" was that many of the plans for a separate resolution authority are being driven toward a FDIC model by Treasury and the Fed, both are whom are more familiar with that ...
The attempts to create a double standard of gold and silver failed lamentably. It was this failure that generated the gold standard - a manifestation of a crushing defeat of the governments and their cherished doctrines.
The FBI’s “Most Wanted List” will turn 60 years old this sunday. It’s success rate had been impressive: 463 of the 494 fugitives on the list since 1950 have been caught, which adds up to a 94% success rate.
What does the future hold for the program? Social networking:
As technology ...
My favorite is number seven:
Pencils made from the carbon of human cremains. 240 pencils can be made from an average body of ash - a lifetime supply of pencils for those left behind.
Each pencil is foil stamped with the name of the person. Only one pencil can be ...
Google recently released some major improvements in its public data efforts. If you click on over to Public Data, you will find a much broader range of data sets including economic information from the OECD and World Bank, key economic statistics for the United States, and some education statistics ...
Readers Question: how will central bank may increase the supply of money in economy?
The money supply is the total amount of money available in the economy at a particular point in time. A narrow definition of money involves notes and coins. A broader definition includes cash plus bank and building ...
There’s always a fascination with the richest people in the world. Apparantely, according to Forbes, the richest person in the world is now a Mexican called Carlo Slim Helu. According to IMF statistics his wealth of $53.5bn is roughly equal to the GDP of both Sudan $57bn and Slovenia $54bn ...
The NYT reports that opponents of a measure that would save money by putting private lenders out of the government guaranteed student loan business warn that it could cost jobs. This is of course true.
Suppose there is an efficient computer company that sells computers for $500 each and an ...
In a discussion of the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac the Washington Post noted that the government had committed $125 billion to cover their losses. While the article reports that these losses have been a major political issue, it would have been useful to point out that ...
The Washington Post reports that Senator Gregg does not know why the government is spending money to create jobs. According to the Post, Mr. Gregg said of a jobs bill:
"Why do we keep doing this? .... Why do we keep passing debt on to our children? Why do ...
. . . demand curves are negativelysloped.
A new study that followed participants for 20 years shows both weight and risk for diabetes decreased for people in communities where fast food prices increased.
The study also showed when prices fell, consumption, weight, and diabetes risks rose.
(Link via Chris ...
The Chicago School--why does anybody still listen to it?
I have frequently written here about the problems of "freshwater" economics--the school personified by Milt Friedman and the extremist "free market" ideology that views government as the enemy, the "markets" as always right, and any public ...
(p. 32) "I was in search of a one-armed economist, so that the guy could never make a statement and then say: "on the other hand.""
Source:
Harry S. Truman as quoted in: Keyes, Ralph. The Wit & Wisdom of Harry S. Truman. New York: ...
Dan Gross:
What "Government Takeover"?, by Daniel Gross: There have been lots of absurdities in the debate—such as it is—about health care reform. There's the hypocrisy of people dependent on government-run health care complaining about government-run health care. And now comes the Republican canard that the current health care reform ...
[F]oreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — were reported on 308,524 U.S. properties during the month, a decrease of 2 percent from the previous month but still 6 percent above the level reported in February ...
The momentum for a ban on naked CDS is getting stronger. Germany and France on Wednesday called on the European Union to consider banning speculative trading in credit default swaps and set up a compulsory register of derivatives trading, the FT reports. Angela Merkel and Francois ...
We are all very lucky that David Broder is not in charge of fiscal policy, he thinks it's a good idea to balance the budget in a recession:
What the states could teach Washington about budgets, by David S. Broder, Commentary, Washington Post: ...The record of the Washington politicians is ...
The major hospital network Miami relies on for trauma care is close to insolvency and could be cut off by suppliers. Executives for Jackson Health System surprised its governing board Tuesday by saying the nonprofit is near or already ...
My column from yesterday's The Fiscal Times shows what's ahead when the spending reductions begin.
Reducing Spending Cuts More Than Waste, Fraud and Abuse
Mar 10, 2010
Those who have demanded and supported cuts in federal spending over ...
[T]he Panel remains unconvinced that bankruptcy was not a viable option in 2008. In connection with the Chrysler and GM bankruptcies, Treasury might have been able to orchestrate a strategic bankruptcy for ...
The FPPC's report, entitled "Big Money Talks," delves ...
Washington report: Democrats seen likely to nominate wet candidate in 1932; strategy will be to hold the "solid South" and add large Eastern states, where wet stand would appeal; ...
Carlos Slim is #1 on the Forbes wealthiest list, with $53.5 billion, up $18.5 billion in 12 months — Forbes
Alex Ross with the definitive take on applause between movements — RPS (Alex and I have been blogging this since at least 2003)
Google Maps Finally Adds Bike Routes ...
Rather than reaching the needy, up to half of Somalia’s food aid ends up in the pockets of radical militants, corrupt bureaucrats and local businessmen, and local UN staff, according to an article in this morning’s New York Times on the findings of a new UN report.
The report, which ...
A popular research topic at the Bank of Canada over the past few years has been price-level targeting: committing to a path for the level of core CPI, not just to its rate of inflation. The idea here is that standard inflation targeting forgets and forgives past deviations ...
From the inbox:
As a WEAI member, we wanted you to be the first to know that a new paper by Paul Krugman has just become available in Economic Inquiry through Wiley Interscience Early View. This hilarious paper, “The Theory of Interstellar Trade,” will appear in the Miscellany section of the ...
Yawn.
But Reuters went with "Tax soda, pizza to cut obesity, researchers say."
Where does it stop?
From the FSA:
We have now embedded our new approach to stress testing into our normal supervisory ...
Richard J. Ablin is the University of Arizona research professor who discovered the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test in 1970. Today, in a New York Times op-ed, he decried the misuse of that test by health care monopolies to drive up profits with promises of catching prostate cancer early. ...
The other day I commented on a blogger's suggestion that it might be better to default on the debt than raise taxes. In the course of doing some research on debt default I came across the following article in which a friend of mine, Chris Whalen, actually made a serious ...
Today, the Senate turned to the Federal Aviation Administration authorization, H.R.1586. The last four-year authorization expired September 30, 2007. What caused this 2½ year delay? Congress couldn't agree on how to apportion the excise and ticket taxes to pay for a desperately needed modernization of the ...
From Michael Kleist in Shanghai:
News of soaring housing prices in China, which are now hovering around late 2007 peaks, ...
Why would countries share a single currenty? This column introduces a new CEPR Policy Insight and argues that some aspects are missing in the current debate on the merits of the EMU. Benefiting from monetary union is a matter of time, perseverance, and seizing ...
The high levels of government debt have raised concern among policymakers and commentators. But this column argues that markets have financed much larger levels of debt than are currently predicted for the UK and US. Given the enormous financial shock these economies have experienced, they might ...
Yesterday, Gawker Media truncated its RSS feeds, and former Gawker editorial honcho Lockhart Steele immediately tweeted that “the only thing that excited me about Gawker’s RSS truncation was picturing @felixsalmon’s head explode when he heard the news”. I’m well known as a vocal defender of full RSS feeds, ...
Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution provided a link the other day of "state tax oddities." My favorites include:
Exemption for income of a person 100 years or older (New Mexico) Deduction of fund used to maintain an "exceptional tree"—tree designated by ...
Total credit-card debt outstanding dropped by $93 billion, or almost 10%, over the course of 2009. Is that cause for celebration, and evidence that U.S. households are finally getting their act together when it comes to deleveraging their personal finances? No. A fascinating spreadsheet from CardHub breaks that ...
Pennsylvania State Police have recently taken to armed raids of bars offering an unregulated level of consumer choice:
As in armed raids conducted last week against three Philadelphia taprooms, the State Police alleged that the targeted beers were not properly registered with the state Liquor Control Board for sale in ...
|Peter Boettke|
I was thinking of something catchy to say, but my sheer joy with the facts of the situation required instead just a straightforward statement --- Chris Coyne has accepted our offer to join the economics faculty here at GMU starting next fall. He will be the "Baldy" ...
|Peter Boettke|
I did an interview today with Scott Nystrom at Self Directed Investor. It is on their website for roughly the next 24 hours, and then after that will be in their interview archives.
Thanks Scott for the great opportunity.
Total consumer credit outstanding expanded by $5 billion in January after contracting 15 of the previous 17 months. Consumer credit outstanding includes revolving and nonrevolving credit. Revolving credit is mostly credit card debt, and nonrevolving credit includes loans for items such as vacations, autos, and boats. Even with the ...
Calling himself a realist, Gov. Pat Quinn on Wednesday scaled back his proposal to raise income taxes, shifting to a call for an increase of just one percentage point to be used solely for preventing deep cuts to education.
The rest of Illinois' ...
Greenspan is scheduled to testify before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in early April. This might be the one real opportunity to understand why regulators missed the lending problems.
Hopefully the Commission will ask about regulatory ...
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan will be the star witness at a hearing of the congressional panel looking into causes of the financial crisis, according to people familiar with the situation.
The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commissions three-day session in early April gives commission members a rare opportunity to quiz the ...
Occasionally, I have links to Amazon products on this blog. If you click on the link and then buy that product or another product during your click-thru visit, I get a cut of the sale. In other words, I am an Amazon affiliate. It's not very lucrative to me since ...
Via the Freakonomics blog comes this picture of water usage in Edmonton during the Gold Medal game in the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Or, as the newser website quipped "Canada Peed in Unison ...
What to make of BofA’s decision to abolish overdraft fees on debit-card purchases? Josh Duboff says it’s “kind of undeniably great”, James Kwak says it’s a good thing, and the Center for Responsible Lending says that it’s a GOOD thing. Only Kevin Drum spies a ...
by Marshall Auerback
A new book by Kenneth Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart, "This Time It's Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Follies", ...
Perhaps the title is arhetorical question, but I felt obliged to ask it after seeing the latest parody of a World Bank initiative. If you've been ignoring CNN, you may have missed thenews that the World Bank Institute recently launched a massively multiplayer game called Evokedesigned ...
Township officials expressed frustration that several unions representing Moorestown government workers have not agreed to reopen contract negotiations.
Last month, township council asked the ...
Former Enron adviser Paul Krugman takes note in his New York Times column of what he calls "the incredible gap that has opened up between the parties":
Today, Democrats and Republicans live in different universes, both intellectually and morally.
"What Democrats believe," he says "is what textbook economics ...
Solidus Company announced today the formation of a microfund to support local entrepreneurs and to help accelerate the growth of start-ups in the Middle Tennessee area. JumpStart Foundry will ...
I always knew there was some. Who knew there was so much? Guess I'll have to watch more often.
That sound you heard at the end of each period in the US-Canada gold medal game was the giant sucking sound of a multitude of potties being ...
And yet the latest YouGov poll, reflecting the direction of many others, now shows a ...
When it comes to the government's budget plans, we know that Gordon Brown does not always tell it entirely straight. Remember last summer, when he was still refusing to utter the word "cut"? But listening to him today, you have to say he's consistent.
Fake businesses are to be used to lessen the impact of the recession on high streets in North Tyneside.
With 140 empty shops in the borough, council bosses think they have come up with a unique way of ensuring shopping areas remain as vibrant as possible.
The rest ...
Bank of America has become the first financial institution to stop overdrafts, not just overdraft fees, from debit cards. That means that the bank won’t let you withdraw more money than you have in your debit-linked bank account. ...
The unemployment rate decreased in nine U.S. states in January and climbed in 30, signaling the thawing of the labor market is not broad-based.
The jobless rate in Michigan ...
Florida's special python hunting season has begun.
From Monday until April 17, anyone with a hunting license who pays for the $26 permit can take them on state-managed lands around the Everglades in South Florida.
Florida officials have taken a more aggressive stance against the invasive species in the past year, creating ...
The Board of Directors of the North American Association of Fisheries Economists is pleased to announce that the site of the next NAAFE Forum will be Honolulu, Hawaii. Forum organizers will be Dr. Pingsun Leung of the University of Hawaii, ...
Okay, here is tonight’s rule:
The assumption of normality for asset price changes is wrong in virtually every financial market setting. The proper distributions are fatter tailed and more negatively skewed.
Normality allows researchers to publish, regardless of the truth.
Normality allows risk managers and regulators to pretend that adequate reserves are ...