Category Archives: United States

Ms. Yellen stakes out her position in about as clear a language as you’ll see from a central banker: She believes that it would most likely be a bad idea to raise interest rates to fight financial excesses. Her focus, … Continue reading →

A spokesman for Anthem, asked to define “religious affiliation” and what constitutes a “variety” of contraceptive methods – or to provide a legal basis for offering amended plans without regard to the narrow exception under Catholic Charities for covering contraceptives … Continue reading →

On the NPR puzzle show with Will Shortz this morning, the last question (usually the hardest) had as answer “wowie zowie” upon which the NPR host (forget her name) asked, rhetorically, when was the last time anyone heard the expression … Continue reading →

But I was reassured, because for all the pretension, one of the artists drops his guard… personal chef creates meal, guests come by… but it all only lasts 30 minutes, then the capitalist tractor engine is revved up again for … Continue reading →

We hosted a “town meeting” for San Jose mayoral candidate Sam Liccardo last night.  Had a good turnout, lots of old friends and neighbors and made some new acquaintances.   The city of San Jose has come through a bad seven … Continue reading →

Let the housing price rise continue apace… Ms. Yellen reiterated the Fed’s optimistic assessment that economic growth will strengthen this year, giving no sign the Fed is concerned about a recent spate of weak economic reports, including slow job growth … Continue reading →

Reading a chapter form the book When Mandates Work: Raising Labor Standards at the Local Level edited by Michael Reich, Ken Jacobs, Miranda Dietz.  As I imagined, the effects were very small. The counterfactual that many people have in mind … Continue reading →

On the car into work this morning, NPR has a longish news segment on the release of a report about the decline in abortion rate.  The NPR reporter gave no numbers for either the rate, the base number of abortions, … Continue reading →

Wow, you mean they give $1000 to poor people in Kenya and it really, really helps them!  Amazing!  All that time I was donating to dumb NGOs who didn’t do anything; I mean, they didn’t even evaluate rigorously what they … Continue reading →

Nice article on inflation and monetary policy.  Sometimes incoherent, in that occasionally mistakes private benefit for public gains… (but rarely mistakes private losses for public losses)… The Fed, in a break from its historic focus on suppressing inflation, has tried … Continue reading →

If 3 million people signed up to Kaiser, who otherwise didn’t have insurance, we’d be a better country with happier people (having insurance and a doctor available is very reassuring… and not having your neighborhood host fundraisers for insurance-less musicians … Continue reading →

But those challenges aren’t insurmountable. The ranks of women in the presidency — as well as top administrators, including many in business positions — continue to grow. Women now lead half of the Ivy League, including universities that didn’t admit … Continue reading →

Well, don’t believe their baloney. I just went to Cover California, and in about 30 seconds I could see health insurance plans available for me.*  The premium plans for family of four costs about $1800 per month.  Expensive, but actually … Continue reading →

I’m teaching using Mankiw’s Macroeconomics 8th edition and on page 138, Chapter 6, he uses an example to illustrate and develop intuition of what is always a problem for students, that capital flows have to equal current account (NX = … Continue reading →

At present, according to news reports, the only sticking point is what to do about the medical devices tax (2.3%) which is estimated to raise about $3 b a year, how long the deal should be for (Jan? Feb?), and … Continue reading →

From Reorg Research. As a heavily levered U.S. Territory, Puerto Rico has nearly $70 billion worth of debt to which numerous U.S. and foreign financial institutions have heavy exposure. Tangentially connected banks and companies too have suffered from the current … Continue reading →

NPR’s book reviewer Roscrans Baldwin (huh?  is that a great name or what for a book critic?) talked about this book early September, so when it arrived in libraries I requested it.  I’m more than halfway through and it lives … Continue reading →

I enjoyed (well, if that is the word) reading Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun, and would heartily recommend them.  But it seems that Adichie has decided to pursue some fast money, with an obvious novel and lecture … Continue reading →

Interest rates skyrocket and there are numerous collateral calls from clearinghouses and thus a squeeze on Treasuries. Everyone is scrambling after Treasuries and suddenly T-Bill liquidity is quite scarce. (Here is one FT post on collateral crunch.) The next morning … Continue reading →

The Republicans could have argued that government workers don’t do anything anyway so the shutdown is not even really costly, but they’ve apparently decided not to go that route.  Of course this eliminates a major constituency for a deal; now … Continue reading →