Tag Archives | growth

Covering debt with the money supply.

By on March 10, 2012 in Economics, General Discussion

This is an extension of the post I just wrote on Greek debt, but seemed to deserve a space of it’s own. I would like to put forward a couple thoughts on expanding the money supply to repair balance sheets hurt by absorbing bad debts and debt forgiveness. It seems that I often argue for the [...]

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A funny thing about the Greek debt crisis.

By on March 10, 2012 in Economics, General Discussion

One thing I find odd about the continued angst over the Greek debt crisis is that so much worry is expended over what is a relatively small amount of money. First off what we are mainly concerned about is privately held debt, since central banks have the power to issue currency, now for Greece that [...]

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The Challenge of the Productivity Revolution

By on March 2, 2012 in Economics, General Discussion

Here’s a great piece by Robert Reich:   http://www.salon.com/2012/03/02/the_forgotten_american_worker/   It focuses on a fundamental, big-picture economic issue that you almost never hear economists talking about these days.  As technology advances, fewer people can produce more value, and the question is how we, as a society are going to distribute that value.   In terms [...]

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Roubini On The Uptick’s Downside

By on February 17, 2012 in Economics, International affairs, Politics

Over on the Project Syndicate side-bar, Nouriel Roubini has a very nice and well-reasoned (as usual) analysis of the potential roadblocks and booby-traps for the world economy in 2012. The continuing Euro-crisis, rising tensions in the Middle East, and China’s dramatically slowing economy, are the main topics. Recommended reading.  http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/roubini47/English Obama would seem to be [...]

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JOBS!!!

By on February 3, 2012 in Economics, General Discussion

I was pleased to see the economy added 243,000 jobs last month.  I know it’s just one month, but I’m encouraged for three reasons:   1)  This is part of a long run of job creation (which has been in positive territory since October of 2010, and in six figures since September of 2011);   [...]

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Keynesians Vs. Austerians, Again!

By on February 2, 2012 in Economics, Politics

On the sidebar under the Economist category is an article I would like to recommend, titled “Debating Economic Policy: Keynesians, Austerity, and the Weltgeist”. I repeat the last two paragraphs here:   If you think the German-led European solution to the euro-zone crisis is deeply confused, and a lot of Americans do, then you have [...]

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Mike Whitney on Bernanke: when all you have is a hammer…

By on January 31, 2012 in Economics, General Discussion

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/01/30/bernankes-low-rate-crapshoot/   Nassim Taleb likened Bernanke’s ZIRP and QE antics to trying to get ketchup out of a bottle when it is stopped up. Ben is shaking the ketchup bottle violently with the same down motion, expecting the sauce to smoothly emerge.   Now Whitney calls out Bernanke for administering the same QE snake-oil again [...]

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A Tale of 14 Presidents

By on January 27, 2012 in Economics, General Discussion, Politics

These two websites give you a good idea of whether Democrats or Republicans are better for the economy and how the current economic situation stacks up against previous post-War recessions. www.economyinperspective.com/gdp http://alineofsight.com/_blog/Blogs/post/Percent_Job_Loss_in_Eleven_Recessions_since_World_War_II In the second, you might as well ignore the blatherings of the former right-wing Republican Congressperson and just consider the chart (from Chart of [...]

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The problem with productivity gains.

By on January 26, 2012 in Economics, General Discussion

Issues surrounding productivity have come up on occasion in discussions with this group and so I have given it some thought and would like to offer what I think the problem with productivity gains may be. This stuff is purely stream of consciousness type stuff. In economics productivity gains are the goose that lays the [...]

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The Fable Of The Bees: Does Austerity Promote Economic Growth?

By on January 19, 2012 in Economics, International affairs, Politics

To all here: I recommend the article “Does Austerity Promote Economic Growth” by the noted economist Robert Shiller which appears to your left here as a Project Syndicate link. It is related to my earlier post on Feldstein and Krugman. Very interesting reading!

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