Economics Is ... Easy"The truth is that economics is so hard for Kartik Athreya because he is trying to do the impossible."
I stumbled across an interesting article a few days ago. Written by Kartik Athreya, of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, the article is titled "Economics is Hard. Don't Let Bloggers Tell You Otherwise."
The abstract of the paper declares,
In this essay, I argue that neither ... (more)
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College: Big Investment, Paltry ReturnIf there's one truism that goes virtually unchallenged these days, it's that a college degree has great value. Beyond the great books, beyond the critical reasoning skills, and beyond the experience itself, there's another way that a college degree has value: Over the course of a working life, college graduates earn more than high school graduates. Over the past decade, research estimates have pegged that figure at $900,00, $... (more)
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BP Rumormill Update: Sunday Times Reports Exxon And Chevron Receive Green Light From Obama To Plot TakeoverYou know someone is losing (a lot of) money when the heavy artillery of the rumormill department goes into overdrive. According to the Sunday Times, the Obama administration has given its blessing to Exxon and Chevron to consider takeover bids of the troubled major unimpeded. Because obviously any deal in the current environment must first and foremost get the Obama stamp of approval or else the Steve Rattners of the world will be sic-ed on your sorry derriere, and before you know it your equity... (more)
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Secret gold swap has spooked the marketIT takes a lot to spook the solid old gold market. But when it emerged last week that one or more banks had lent 380 tonnes of gold to the Bank of International Settlements in return for foreign currencies, there was widespread surprise and confusion
The news that a mystery bank has just pawned the family jewels gave traders a jolt nervous about the sudden transfer of almost 20pc of the world's annual gold production and the possibility of a sell-off.
In a tiny f... (more)
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Some Perspective on Energy UseThe AIER offers the follows (via email):
The following breakout shows U.S. energy use by source:
TRANSPORTATION: 27.8 percent of total U.S. energy use.
- 95 percent from petroleum;
- 2 percent from natural gas;
- 3 percent from renewable energy.
INDUSTRIAL: 20.6 percent of total U.S. energy use.
- 42 percent from petroleum;
- 40 percent from natural gas;
- 9 percent from coal;
- 10 percent from
... (more)
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Inhofe slams EPA push to revive Superfund taxesThe top Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Tuesday accused the Obama administration of exploiting the Gulf of Mexico oil spill to seek political traction for taxes on petroleum companies.
The comments by Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) come a day after the U.S. EPA called for reinstatement of lapsed taxes on oil companies and chemical makers used to fund hazardous waste site cleanups through the federal Superfund program.
Inhofe, speaking... (more) Basically they're going to tax everyone to pay for some slush fund which will be used (supposedly) to bailout whatever incompetent corporation is actually liable. So basically they're creating even more incentives for companies to take even more excessive risks because someone else will pay for their damages. Brilliant. - Chris |
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New eco fees catching consumers by surpriseChecking her receipt as she left a downtown Canadian Tire, Chris Colorado noticed a new charge.
Her $1.99 bottle of dish soap was accompanied by a 13-cent “eco fee.”
The levy for thousands of new products, from pharmaceuticals to fire extinguishers, quietly came into effect July 1, the same day as the harmonized sales tax.
But unlike that tax, provincial agencies have done little to publicize the new fees, catching consumers like Colorado by surprise.... (more)
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Most Americans Not Willing To Pay Higher Taxes For Public Employees, Entitlement ProgramsMost Americans would not pay higher taxes for specific public services in their states, but they are more supportive of paying for education and staffing law enforcement than supporting state employees and entitlement programs.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Adults shows that only 19% would be willing to pay higher taxes to avoid layoffs of state employees. Sixty-nine percent (69%) say they would not be willing to pay more in taxes for this reason. Anoth... (more)
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U.S. marks 3rd-largest, single-day debt increaseThe nation's debt leapt $166 billion in a single day last week, the third-largest increase in U.S. history, and it comes at a time when Congress is balking over higher spending and debt has become a key policy battleground.
The one-day increase for June 30 totaled $165,931,038,264.30 - bigger than the entire annual deficit for fiscal year 2007 and larger than the $140 billion in savings the new health care bill will produce over its first 10 years. The figure works out to nearly $... (more)
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White Castle Has Offered Health Insurance To Its Workers Since 1924, But Obamacare May End ThatWhite Castle has been offering health insurance to its workers in 1924, but Obamacare "will make it hard for the company to maintain its 421 restaurants, let alone create new jobs," says company spokesman Jamie Richardson in this Cleveland Plain Dealer article.
"The Columbus-based family owned restaurant chain - known for serving small square hamburgers called "sliders" -- says a sing... (more)
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Goldman Sees "Disturbing Signs" If Government Does Not Bow Down To Krugman, Reflate Monetary And Fiscal BubblesLast week, Goldman, in a piece unambiguously titled The Second Half Slowdown has Begun, made it all too clear that unless the US government were to succumb to yet another, and another, and another round of drunken sailor spending, the gratuitous ability of its sellside analyst to place crap companies on Conviction Buy lists may suddenly become mysteriously impaired as reality seeps through the gaps, there... (more)
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How a Marxist Sees the CrisisFascinating video here that provides a Marxian point of view. 1) The economic understanding is fundamentally Keynesian, 2) the assumption is that a fixed pie always exists, 3) he can’t see the world as anything but a contest between capital and labor, 4) he assumes that wealth accumulation means criminality, and 5) he had no answers at all beyond calling for socialism, whatever that is.
... (more)
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Democrats push for new Internet sales taxesThe halcyon days of tax-free Internet shopping will, if Rep. Bill Delahunt gets his way, soon be coming to an abrupt end.
Delahunt, a Massachusetts Democrat, introduced a bill on Thursday that would rewrite the ground rules for Internet and mail order sales by eliminating the option for many Americans to shop over the Internet without paying state sales taxes.
At the moment, Americans who shop over the Internet from out-of-s... (more) "But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security." |
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Six Months to Go Until The Largest Tax Hikes in HistoryIn just six months, the largest tax hikes in the history of America will take effect. They will hit families and small businesses in three great waves on January 1, 2011:
First Wave: Expiration of 2001 and 2003 Tax Relief
In 2001 and 2003, the GOP Congress enacted several tax cuts for investors, small business owners, and families. These will all expire on January 1, 2011:
... (more)
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On jobs, Obama giveth, and Obama taketh away"So those who talk about 'this is Big Government,' " Vice President Biden told a crowd at a General Electric factory in Kentucky, "this is Big Government giving a little bit of help to jump-start America to lead the world in the 21st century."
Biden was at GE's Appliance Park in Louisville, where a raft of government subsidies (and probably some gentle urging from the White House) has spurred the multinational conglomerate to begin manufacturing hybrid electric water heaters -- pa... (more)
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ATM SalvationWould you buy a gold bar from a vending machine? If the ATM were located in a secure area, and the bars carried an acceptable premium over the current spot price and could be purchased in units as small as one gram or as large as an ounce, would you consider swapping your unbacked paper money for an authenticated 24-karat gold bar? There are entrepreneurs who are betting you would. Thomas Geissler, managing director of the German company GOLD to go, installed a gold vending ma... (more) I think this is one of the greatest ideas ever, I would love to invest in this company! - Chris |
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The Recovering Economy: Euphemism for DepressionLooking at the New York Times headlines this morning, Recovery Slows With Weak Job Creation in June and Recovery is Losing Steam, I’m finally beginning to understand the strange change of language that has occurred in the last 18 months or so. The word recovery is a euphemism of some sort. It actually ... (more)
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Americans Not Sure on Financial Reform Bill, But Don’t Think Some Banks are Too Big to FailAmericans don't have strong feelings one way or the other about a financial reform bill working its way through Congress. But most reject the notion that some banks are too big to fail and prefer more competition over more regulation.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that a plurality (44%) of Adults nationwide don't have an opinion one way or the other on the financial reform effort. The rest are fairly evenly divided between those who favor (25%) and oppo... (more) Nothing could be better for the economy than letting the big corporate welfare pimp banks fail. People give their money to companies whose products they want more of, that helps both them get the products they want and the company produce more products they want for cheaper.
The idea stealing money from productive and free people to give to some corrupt bank or some military industrial complex corporation helps "stimulate" the economy is a sick joke.
The biggest economic stimulation is to get rid of the middleman between you and the companies you like. Get the parasitic government to stop robbing them of half their income through taxes, you'd see prices across the board fall dramatically. - Chris |
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29% Say Stimulus Plan Helped the Economy, 43% Say It HurtJust 25% of voters nationwide believe the economic stimulus package created jobs and voters are counting on decisions made by business owners more than government officials to create the jobs needed by the nation.
Those results come from a Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey conducted the night before release of the government report on job creation in June. That report showed the unemployment rate falling to 9.5% but also showed that just 83,000 private sector jobs were c... (more) Wealth redistribution to corrupt and failing banks at gunpoint is not good for the economy. |
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Tan Tax Worries BusinessesTan lovers who get their golden glow from a tanning bed will now pay more for that luxury at a salon. There is now a 10-percent tax to use equipment containing at least one U.V. lamp. This is part of the Obama Administration’s health care reform law, which shifts the five-percent tax on Botox and elective cosmetic surgeries to the indoor tanning industry. Doctors who use the lights for medical purposed are exempt from the tax.
But, local salon owners worry about how this new ta... (more)
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Obama's fiscal fantasyland"Irresponsible" refers to Congress and the Obama administration - and here's why. For thousands of years, businesses, organizations, governments and even individuals have relied on a basic tool to make sure they do not spend or borrow more than they can service - it is called a budget. Yet, for the first time since 1974, when the current rules were put into effect, the U.S. House of Representatives does not intend to pass a budget resolution. The main purpose of the budget resolution is to set d... (more)
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Banks, Analysts Warn of Massive Money Printing AheadAs credit and economic activity continue to contract, analysts are warning of big problems and unprecedented fiat-money creation by the Federal Reserve System in the near future.
“Get ready for the cliff-edge,” warned Royal Bank of Scotland credit chief Andrew Roberts in a note to clients late last week. He said “monster” quantitative monetary easing (money printing) is coming and t... (more)
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Financial Reform Bill to use TARP MoneyForced to remove a lucrative bank tax from its sweeping financial reform bill, U.S. Congress is turning to the Troubled Asset Relief Plan to help fund the new financial regulations.
Reuters reported this week that U.S. lawmakers, who could not come to an agreement on whether to include a bank tax that would generate an estimated $17.9 billion, decided instead to pull money from a pool created as part of the TARP bailout fund. Pulling money from the TARP fund would give the governm... (more)
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Fed Made Taxpayers Unwitting Junk-Bond BuyersFederal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and then-New York Fed President Timothy Geithner told senators on April 3, 2008, that the tens of billions of dollars in “assets” the government agreed to purchase in the rescue of Bear Stearns Cos. were “investment-grade.” They didn’t share everything the Fed knew about the money.
The so-called assets included collateralized debt obligations and mortgage-backed bonds with names like HG-Coll Ltd. 2007-1A that were so distressed, more than $... (more)
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The United Nations Declares War On The U.S. Dollar And Publicly Calls For The Establishment Of A New World CurrencyAre you ready for a world currency? If the United Nations has anything to say about it, that is exactly what we are all going to have shoved down our throats. A new United Nations report released on Tuesday essentially declares war on the U.S. dollar and publicly calls on the nations of the world to abandon it as the global reserve currency. This new report entitled "The U.N. World Economic and Social Survey 2010" is one of th... (more)
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