The people over at the Calculated Risk blog had a helpful post today that links to the BLS’s primer on the differences between the “Establishment” employment data and the “Household” employment data.
The changes in the data whose reiterated emergence prevents the economic system from turning into an evenly rotating economy and produces again and again entrepreneurial profit and loss are favorable to some members of society and unfavorable to others. Hence, people concluded, the gain of one man is the damage of another; no man profits but by the loss of others.
This dogma was already advanced by certain ancient authors. Among modern writers, Montaigne was the first ... (more)
Mass killing and mass counterfeiting: go together like a horse and carriage. Lew and Scott discuss the two signature activities of the state, and why we should not lose heart in the midst of massive state growth and crime sprees.
You create one of the world's most popular websites, help millions and millions of people get jobs, sell their things, buy goods from each other, talk politics, make relationships, and this is what you get, the government harassing the hell out of you and accusing you of assisting in child prostitution.
As a culture, we like our reality on television, but seem to oppose it in economics.
For more than two years now, and even longer depending on your dating scheme, the federal government has waged war on the reality of the incredible Fed-fueled bubble that developed in housing with spillover effects on the rest of economic life.
That bubble had to explode to restore some sanity to the economic environment. There is no getting around that. The pol... (more)
Whole Foods is big now, one of the nation's fastest growing mass retailers, with sales last year exceeding $5 billion and a gross profit of more than $1.6 billion — not a bad return in the grocery business.
It didn't start that way. Coming out of ... (more)
Not everyone has been doing badly during the economic turmoil of the last few years. In fact, there are some Americans that are doing really, really well. While the vast majority of us struggle, there is one small segment of society that is seemingly doing better than ever. This was reflected in a recent article on CNBC in which it was noted that companies that cate... (more)
As part of the Fed's latest QE iteration, it has already been made clear that despite initial disclosures that the Fed would stay in the 2-10 Year bound of Treasurys, Ben Bernanke is now also gobbling up the very long end of the curve. For all those who are, therefore, still confused why bonds continue to surge to record levels, don't be: when there is a guaranteed bidder just below you in the face of the Fed, and who you can turn around and sell to at will, there is no pricing risk. The problem... (more)
Watching economists and media analysts react to breaking economic news is a bit like looking at a flock of pigeons flying over the New York skyline. A true wonder of the urban landscape, the flocks can include hundreds of individuals who show an uncanny ability to stay in tight formation as the group quickly zig-zags between buildings. What may be even more remarkable than their ability to randomly fly while maintaining cohesion is the flock’s refusal to stick to any particular direction... (more)
I’ve made a living out of exposing economic fallacies, but there’s one whale that I can’t seem to harpoon. Even top-flight Wall Street analysts seem to believe that the Fed’s doubling of the monetary base after the credit crunch has not had an inflationary impact on our economy. Their logic can be summed up like so: “The money the Fed created and dropped from helicopters has all been caught in the trees.” In other words, the Fed is creating money, but it is just being held as excess reserves by ... (more)
The WSJ today runs a story on cigarette rolling machines that illustrates how the regulatory state can count on private enterprise to lobby for ratcheting up regulations.
It seems that there is a tax loophole that permits role-your-own smoke... (more)
In a CNBC debate last week, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich presented a set of contradictory beliefs that unfortunately reflect the conventional wisdom of modern economists. In a discussion with Wall Street Journal columnist Stephen Moore, Reich correctly and comprehensively listed the reasons why American consumers could spend so lavishly before the crash of 2008 and why they can no longer keep up the pace. But instead of making the logical conclusion that former levels of s... (more)
A small set of ideas does most of the heavy lifting in economics. "Ten Principles of Economics" or "Ten Big Ideas" or "Ten Key Elements of Economics" are pretty standard in most introductory economics books. Here's my version, based on Chapter 1 of The Economic Way of Thinking.
1. People Act. People choose goals (ends), and they choose ways to achieve those goals (means). O... (more)
Writes Fastcodesign.com: “It took George Washington 72 years to get on the front of the dollar bill. SF-UK design firm Dowling Duncan wants to put Barack Obama on it now. In blue. The Obama bill anchors their sweeping concept for redesigning U.S. banknotes, which also includes plastering a tepee on the five, the Bill of Rights on the 10, and FDR on the 100 — each in its own technicol... (more)
Nordea’s CEO Christian Clausen says the idea that politicians automatically buoy up irresponsible and rash banks is not a good one.
“The bad banks should go bankrupt and customers suffer. That is just not something that has been politicaly acceptable as it would hit the customers,” says Clausen in an interview with the management magazine Lederne.
He adds that bankrupt airline or building company customers are not saved by the state. ... (more)
