I'm seeing a lot of online chatter about inflation lately, and naturally the commentary has the stink of politics on it. Republicans are trying to pin the price increases on Biden and the Democrats. The Democrats, in turn, are trying to minimize the problem by denying that the inflation is as bad as it seems -- currently 6.8% ((CPI-U, all items, per the December 10 BLS … [Read more...] about Inflation or Productivity Loss?
Economics
We Don’t Need a Stimulus
I admit I haven't been closely following the progress of Biden's pandemic stimulus bill in Congress, because the back-and-forth arguments exceeded my tolerance for tedium. Nevertheless, I don't think a stimulus is what we need.Let me start by saying that what we need most from a pandemic relief bill is things that make the pandemic stop. More vaccine, more PPE, more … [Read more...] about We Don’t Need a Stimulus
Doing Something About Tuition Debt
Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has a plan to deal with tuition loan debt: My plan for broad student debt cancellation will:Cancel debt for more than 95% of the nearly 45 million Americans with student loan debt; Wipe out student loan debt entirely for more than 75% of the Americans with that debt; Substantially increase wealth for Black and … [Read more...] about Doing Something About Tuition Debt
Carbon Dividend/Carbon Tax
I've fallen behind on my blog reading, so I missed Greg Laden's post a few days ago in which he tries to argue that carbon taxes aren't really taxes. Actually, he seems to prefer to call them a "carbon dividend," which is apparently the trendy new name for this idea. I googled and found this page at the Citizens Climate Lobby which explains it. It's basically a carbon tax -- … [Read more...] about Carbon Dividend/Carbon Tax
Trump and the Art of the Vandal
On Monday of last week, Harley-Davidson announced that it will be moving production of motorcycles destined for the European Union to somewhere outside the United States. The reason isn't hard to understand: In response to U.S. duties on European steel and aluminum, the EU enacted tariffs Friday on more than $3 billion worth of U.S. goods including bourbon, yachts and … [Read more...] about Trump and the Art of the Vandal