GDP Post Mortem: Less Than Meets the Eye
Friday’s release of GDP prompted me to get back to the keyboard. I confess that between my day job and musing about economic issues for TBP and @TBPinvictus, I have been time challenged. I’ve been leaning toward the one that pays the bills. Back to Friday’s GDP data: 2.8% was weaker than expectations, and the...
Better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool…
…than to open it and remove all doubt. Invictus here. I usually know exactly where I’m going when I sit down to write a post — some numbers tell me a story that I think would be interesting to be share. Not so this time. I’ve wondered often and aloud what it takes these days...
The Smaller Lies
Barry did a masterful, comprehensive job of exposing The Big Lie for what it is. And although these zombie lies, regrettably, never really die, it is imperative that the facts be made known. There are many other lies of varying sizes still out there, both large and small. That unsubstantiated talking points become conventional wisdom...
Case-Shiller Bubbliciousness
“It’s a little known fact,” as Cliff Clavin would tell us, “that the first city to have its housing bubble burst was Boston.” How appropriate, eh? Since no one lives in either Composite10 or Composite20, below is a portion of a spreadsheet I maintain chronicling the popping of the bubble (this is on a NSA...
Time Machine: FDR, 1933
Regular readers of TBP know that I spend some time rooting around in the excellent American Presidency Project, a remarkable resource. Sometimes I’m looking for something specific, other times I’m just getting a feel, a flavor, for the message coming from our leadership, specifically the president. The latter was the case when I undertook a...
Do We Face “A Japan-style Era of High Unemployment and Slow Growth”?
Invictus here. Interested parties were treated to a fascinating debate on the evening of November 14, as the Munk Debates assembled four estimable economic minds to debate the following resolution: Be it resolved North America faces a Japan-style era of high unemployment and slow growth Arguing the pro side of the resolution were David Rosenberg...
Where Does the Money Go?
We’ve all read articles that refer to how much Americans spend on X, whatever “X” might be — $4 billion annually on bicycles, $9 billion on watches, $88 billion on gambling, etc. Ever wonder where those numbers come from? Well, whether they come to the journalist through an industry media flack or by the journalist’s...
Meritocracy vs. Plutocracy
Invictus here, folks: Occupy Wall Street has been the subject of debate with friends and colleagues. Some confusion and misconceptions are out there regarding the protesters’ message: I’ve heard that the OWS movement is anti-capitalist, anti-Semitic, Pro-Socialist, Pro-Marxist, or a combination thereof. Or that they’re just — as Atrios re-popularized the phrase long ago —...
Demand Question for Charlie Rose/GOP Candidates
If I could get one question posed to the candidates at the next debate (Tuesday night), which is to focus solely on the economy, it would be this: “We repeatedly hear about taxes, regulations, and uncertainty standing in the way of job creation. However, the National Federation of Independent Business (“The Voice of Small Business”)...
Weekend Smorgasbord from Invictus
Herewith a potpourri of unrelated items I’ve found on my never-ending voyage through the internet. Grab a cup of coffee and pull up a chair. Seen This Movie Before First up, an excerpt from a speech given by Teddy Roosevelt in December 1906. I was taken by the opening line and the third paragraph. Indeed,...
Attention Americans: You Won’t All Be Rich Tomorrow
(Source: Census.gov)> If we were all to become suddenly rich tomorrow, the government’s revenue problems are solved at the current tax rates, so no worries in that case. But I place long odds on that, so let’s move on to what’s actually happening. It’s as if the entire country has turned into Lake Wobegon, as...
First Look: Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2010
The Census Bureau released its annual report on Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage: 2010 (full PDF) this morning. Barry has posted the slide presentation that staff went through during the conference call over in the Think Tank (please have a look). The (very ugly) bullet points from the release can be found here, and the...
