Big Mistakes … even bigger Consequences

I just can’t help being smug when it comes to watching recent poll numbers or reading headlines. Economics is at the heart of every problem.  If folks aren’t getting their basic needs met, nothing else matters.  The Ragin’ Cajun and Big Dawg got it right when taking the White House back from a Bush.  You [...]

Aren’t there supposed to be briefings on these kinds of things?

The level of mishap and perhaps malfeasance on economic policy these days has me polishing off my French, Spanish, and reconnecting with my mother-in-law to see how much Japanese I remember. I’m  even considering putting my CV into Farsi. Perhaps, I should be learning Mandarin.  Anyway, Professor Mark Thoma, University of Oregon points to how [...]

Month 22 of Job Losses and No Relief in Sight

The Unemployment rate hit a dizzying 10.2% today.  It’s basically the highest rate we’ve had since 1983.  The unemployment rate that includes discouraged workers and workers at part time jobs that want full time instead hit 17.5%   Needless to say, this is NOT encouraging at any level.  The one thing I saw that is possibly [...]

On the other hand … or is it Hoof?

In what is undoubtedly good news, the US Bureau of Economic Analysis (Dept. of Commerce) has announced that  REAL GDP grew by approximately 3.5% in the third quarter of 2009.  That is up from the second quarter growth of .7%.  It appears that the economy may be rebounding from the so-called “Great Recession”.  However, as [...]

Did he come to bury or praise Suppy-Side Economics?

Bruce Bartlett has just released  a new book–and a mea culpa of sorts– for supply side economics (SSE). As an ex-aide to the late Jack Kemp and author of a book on Reaganomics, Bartlett’s got an interesting perspective from having a seat near the table.   He also takes a few undeserved potshots at some Keynesians [...]

Death by Bubble

Economist Andy Xie says Lehman Brothers died in vain and that it’s just a matter of time before we get hit by another deadly bubble.  His guest post at  Caijing Magazine is just so dead on that you must go read it.
There has been plenty to learn from last year’s miserable economy and near [...]

Some times being Right doesn’t always make you Feel Good

You may remember back in January that I was not happy and very outspoken about the size of the Obama Stimulus plan.  I was not impressed by the content or with the mix between tax cuts and direct government spending. You may recall that the Blue Dogs interminable resistance to do anything that might wake [...]

It’s still about the Jobs!

I keep repeating this like a mantra, but an economy that relies on households buying 70% of its production, and households that rely on wages for 67% of their income, is not going to get healthy until it creates more jobs.  That’s why Robert Reich, Paul Krugman, and this Cajun Country Economist are still stuck [...]

A Dismal Labor Market

I started the big lecture in macroeconomics on unemployment with a very out of date textbook.  It isn’t even that old in terms of textbook cycles.  It’s just the world economy has changed; really changed.  The last unemployment data I was looking at came from 2007 and a world of hurt and CHANGE (TM)  stands [...]

If you think you’re worse off now, you’re right and not alone

I put this article from yesterday’s NYTimes in the comments section of my thread yesterday.  I’m not sure every one read it so I thought I’d front page it.  It’s on the increasing poverty and median income declines in the U.S. as reported by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) and the Census [...]