Ross Douthat Rants Incoherently on Trump’s Bloodbath
It’s amazing how so many arguments in policy circles are transparently self-contradictory. Ross Douthat gave us a fantastic example in a NYT column defending Donald Trump’s bloodbath comment. Douthat...
View ArticleAI, Budget Deficits, and the Aging Crisis
I have long been amazed at how major debates over various economic policy issues can have completely contradictory assumptions, and no one seems to notice. This was driven home to me by a New York...
View ArticleRelitigating the Pandemic: School Closings and Vaccine Sharing
There is a steady drumbeat from people intent on making a major issue over the fact that many cities may have kept their schools closed for too long during the pandemic. The argument is that children...
View ArticleThere Ain’t No Libertarians, Just Politicians Who Want to Give All the Money...
David Wallace-Wells had a column discussing the trip by Javier Milei, Argentina’s new president, to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos Switzerland. The WEF forum is an annual gathering of many of...
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Profits Are Still Rising, Why Is the Fed Worried About Wage Growth?
I was more than a bit surprised to see the profit data this morning. I really did believe that the profit surge during the pandemic was a one-off, associated with supply-chain issues. We can argue...
View ArticleSocial Security Retirement Age Has Already Been Raised to 67
This is apparently news to BlackRock CEO, who is apparently believes it is still 65, according to a New York Times Dealbook piece. “No one should have to work longer than they want to. But I do think...
View ArticleDo We Need to Have a Cold War with China?
I usually see things pretty much the same way as Paul Krugman, but I seriously disagree with his column “Bidenomics is making China angry. That’s okay.” Krugman makes some reasonable points in the...
View ArticleThe People Who Own and Control CNN Will Pay Lower Taxes with Donald Trump...
What would you call it when the median wealth of people between the ages of 55 and 64 rises by 47.4 percent in three years? If you’re CNN you would call it a retirement crisis. I wish I could say that...
View ArticleNew York Times Lies to Readers About Student Loan Debt (and Yes, the Lie...
The New York Times is apparently finding it difficult to be honest with its readers about the burden of student loan debt. It ran a major column telling readers that the burden of student loan debt is...
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March CPI: Should We Be Worried?
The inflation hawks took March’s CPI as cause for celebration, inflation may not be dead yet. There is no doubt that it was a disappointing report for those hoping we could put the pandemic inflation...
View ArticleNews for NYT: The Fed is Able to Cut Interest Rates Tomorrow; Whether it Does...
It is a bit bizarre that that NYT decided to frame the March Consumer Price Index data as raising a question about the Fed’s ability to cut interest rates this year. The subhead is: “The surprisingly...
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The March CPI, the Inflation Picture, and the Fed
The higher than expected March CPI released on Wednesday freaked everyone out and got the markets convinced we will see fewer, if any, interest rate cuts this year. I have never been a Fed tea leaf...
View ArticleContrary to What You Read in the NYT, Mortgage Rates Are Unlikely to Stay...
The New York Times did a classic the economy is awful story by highlighting the fact that 1.3 million homeowners might not be moving because of the large gap between current mortgage rates and the rate...
View ArticleThe Market Is Rigged to Give All the Money to the Rich: The Case of Covid...
It is much more acceptable in policy circles to talk about ways to make tax and transfer policy more progressive than ways to structure the market to prevent the distribution of income from being so...
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In the Good Old Days, One Fourth of Income Went to Food
I am not ordinarily a celebrant for the state of the economy, but the media have been so over the top in pushing the economic doom story during the Biden presidency, that I feel the need to put some...
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Actually, the Labor Share Has Not Been Declining Over the Last Seventy-Five...
I was a bit surprised to see a piece on Marketplace radio telling listeners: “In 1947, U.S. workers got about two-thirds of the income from their labors. ‘Now, they’re getting something that is just a...
View ArticleNoncompete Clauses: Markets Are Made, not Given by Nature
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will be holding hearings next week on noncompete clauses. These are a part of tens of millions of employment contracts that limit the ability of workers to quit their...
View ArticleNPR Tells Us College Students Don’t Know Much About Biden’s Student Debt...
I have been complaining for years about the media’s coverage of the economy under Biden, but this NPR piece deserves a Pulitzer for awful reporting. It tells us that most students are unaware of the...
View ArticleBans on Noncompete Clauses Benefit Everyone: The Case of Veterinarians
This week the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voted to ban noncompete clauses in most employment contracts. These clauses, which are now widely used, prohibit workers from working for another employer,...
View ArticleDo We Need More People?
This is a line endlessly repeated in the media. Somehow, we face a terrible risk if people decide to have fewer kids. While this is the accepted wisdom in elite circles, there is remarkably little...
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