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I never realized that the routine behavior of central banks provides a simple, seemingly risk-free way for commercial banks to make money, at least in the eurozone (I wonder if this system is as easy to game here in the US). Basically, money just grows on trees for them. Simon Johnson, MIT econ professor and [...] I have always thought that if the federal government’s fiscal situation causes this country to go down the tubes, I could always immigrate, perhaps to India, where I imagine I would be welcome and where the standard of living will almost certainly increase. Of course, by many measures, the standard of living in the US [...] David Stockman, an OMB director under President Reagan, wrote a lengthy, but worthwhile, piece in Politico this week, blasting the Washington, D.C., establishment for creating a disastrous fiscal mess. He is pessimistic about our ability to get out of it, and I am increasingly coming to the view that some kind of fiscal and financial [...] As I like to say, in the context of political discussions, when people talk about the “rich”, they are generally referring to “people who make more than I do.” The term “the rich” means what people want it to mean, which perhaps means that it has lost much of its meaning. For those who think [...] Joseph Lavorgna, chief U.S. economist for Deutsche Bank, was on The Kudlow Report yesterday talking about how various US corporations (including, Berkshire Hathaway, Proctor & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Labs, and Lowe’s Home Improvement) are able to issue two-year debt at lower interest rates than the Federal government right now. This tends to get [...] Douglas Holtz-Eakin (former director of the CBO from 2003-5) recently published an excellent article in the New York Times documenting government deception regarding the budget numbers used to pass healthcare. To those who claim that the CBO considers the bill good for the federal budget, he has this to say (italics mine): How can the budget [...] China has one of the most entrepreneurial cultures on Earth, according to Business Week: The latest numbers from the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) show that China’s rate of self-employment far exceeds that in the U.S.—51.2% versus 7.2%—a gap that hasn’t changed much since 2001, when the data first became [...] I often don’t like these kinds of productions, but this rap video is awesome. |
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Copyright © 2010 Amol Kapila - All Rights Reserved |
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