Who Holds Wall Street Accountable?

If your answer included any of number regulators or congress with its oversight duties or the traditional media with its watchdog of the public duties sorta answer, that would be a wrong answer. There were so many articles today about past and present Wall Street tomfoolery that I almost forgot [...]

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 [...]

When Deficits Matter …

There’s a lot of misunderstanding in popular culture (most started during the Reagan years) about deficit spending and the public debt.  Deficits tend to increase naturally during bad economic times due to what we economists call automatic stabilizers.  These are spending programs (most of which were built into the economy during the New Deal) that [...]

Why I’m not smoking the Green Shoots Yet

Paul Krugman and other economic commentators, including the Wall Street Cheerleading Squad at CNBC, have been out and about saying we’re stepping away from the Depression Abyss. It’s true, and I’ve said it here, that we’re seeing a slowing down of that incredible momentum towards the edge.  Things do look less bleak than they [...]

Keyboard Cat Plays off Okun’s Law

I’ve been teaching Okun’s Law in my principles level Macroeconomics courses since 1980.  It’s been the policy rule of thumb since the Kennedy years on how much GDP needs to change to get a movement in the unemployment rate. Here’s the Wiki explanation which is as good as any.
In economics, Okun’s [...]

Blaming a Generation

One outrage after another. Obama’s recent defense of DOMA leaves a bad taste in the mouth. I won’t continue, I may start to blub again if I do, and I don’t feel like being smug anyway. Claiming that banning Gay Marriage is good for the federal budget, and then invoking incest and pedophilia does not [...]

Is this ANY way to run an Economy?

The US economy is in a fragile state right now which begs the question: Why do our policy makers seem oblivious to lessons from the great meltdowns of the past?  Adam Posner of the Daily Beast asks the question out right: Does Obama Have a Plan B? Posner asserts that the administration appears to be [...]

Zombie Banks must DIE!

Well, the Obama administration has decided to take the Zombie route which is something I’ve repeatedly argued against.  But why just take my word for it?  Let’s start with Nobel prize winning  economist Paul Krugman reporting  on his NY Times blog today in a thread aptly titled Despair over Financial Policy.
The Geithner plan has now [...]

“Don’t expect too much from me,” says the POTUS

I’m just lucky that I still have some Tums handy:
From Yahoo News/AP

Obama seeks patience, warns of expecting too much
LOS ANGELES – Facing largely adoring crowds far from Washington, President Barack Obama on Thursday asked Americans to back his far-reaching economic and health policies, but warned them not to expect too much from him or the [...]

Tuesday Ramblings plus a Caption This Photo!

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Write your caption in the comments section!
Hello my dearest Conflucians!  We’ve been doing a lot of money talk here at the blog.   Even though I don’t know jack about finance or economics like my more illustrious brethren here, I thought I’d add my two cents (about what we all have in our [...]