Clik here to view.
Taxation Nation
Is it true that Americans are paying too little tax? The short answer is no. Current levels of overall taxation are close to the historical norm. So what’s changed? Well, far less of the money is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Forget Broccoli
Americans are either celebrating or damning the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling that the individual mandate is constitutional. I find it hard to believe that anyone believed that the Supreme Court would...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Are Treasuries the Worst Investment in the World?
I admit the headline is a little sensationalistic, but after Wednesday’s WTF bond auction, I feel like slapping the market around the face with a rotten fish. Now certainly there are plenty of penny...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Great Pacification
Since the end of the Second World War, the major powers of the world have lived in relative peace. While there have been wars and conflicts — Vietnam, Afghanistan (twice), Iraq (twice), the Congo,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Debt & Obesity
The waistline bubble began to expand at just about the same time as the debt bubble: First, it’s important emphasise that correlation is not causation — more than 99% of murderers have consumed water...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Negative Nominal Interest Rates?
A number of economists and economics writers have considered the possibility of allowing the Federal Reserve to drop interest rates below zero in order to make holding onto money costlier and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Japan’s Adult Diaper Boom
Japan’s population has gotten so old that diaper manufacturers are selling more adult diapers for incontinent seniors than they are baby diapers. According to Bloomberg: Unicharm Corp’s sales of adult...
View ArticleClik here to view.
There’s a Problem With Kicking the Can Down the Road
There’s a problem with kicking the can down the road Ben Bernanke, (December 12 2012) I’ve taken this quote out of context — Bernanke was actually talking about the fiscal cliff, and not monetary...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Real 2013 Cliff
There’s a much bigger cliff than the so-called fiscal cliff. The absolute worst result of the fiscal cliff would be a moderate uniform tax increase at a bad time, resulting in a moderate contraction....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why Modern Monetary Theory is Wrong About Government Debt
I’ve taken some criticism — particularly from advocates of modern monetary theory and sectoral balances and all that — for using total debt rather than just private debt in my work. The modern monetary...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Could America Get Sucked Into a China-Japan Conflict?
So China and Japan are both threatening conflict in their fairly brutal ongoing argument over a few tiny disputed islands (and their mineral rights): With global growth slowing, both countries’ leaders...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Soaring Debt Precedes Financial Crises…
Things don’t look so good for China: Will we see a Chinese financial meltdown in 2013? Or 2014? Or 2015? With global GDP growth on a definite trend downward, with such a tepid Western recovery, and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why China is Holding All That Debt
What does it mean that China are making a lot of noise about the Federal Reserve’s loose monetary policy? Via Reuters: A senior Chinese official said on Friday that the United States should cut back...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Is War Coming Between China And Japan?
Last month, I looked at the legal implications of a conflict between China and Japan, concluding that the likelihood remains low, and that America would not be legally bound to defend Japan: First of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Currency Wars Are Trade Wars
Paul Krugman is all for currency wars, but not trade wars: First of all, what people think they know about past currency wars isn’t actually true. Everyone uses some combination phrase like...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Do Creditors Exploit Debtors, or Vice Versa?
I’m asking this question because I think a proper understanding of the answer is a giant leap toward grasping the geopolitical realities of the relationship between America and China. This discussion...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Do Wages Benefit From A Shrinking Labour Force?
Dean Baker says yes: The retirement of the baby boom cohorts means that the country’s labor force is likely to be growing far more slowly in the decades ahead than it did in prior decades. The United...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Abenomics & Rooseveltian Resolve
The new Bank of Japan chief Haruhiko Kuroda today unveiled an aggressive new round of monetary easing, the latest step in the policy of recently-elected Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. As part of a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Japan’s Deflation Persistence
Is it all about the age of the population? One in four people in Japan will be older than 65 in 2014, compared with 9.6 percent in China and 14.2 percent in the U.S., according to data compiled by the...
View Article
