Tag: Economics

A while back I suggested that as part of the financial response to the pandemic recession, that credit card issuers reduce the interest rates that they charge on carried balances. (When Will Congress Address Credit Card Debt?) After all, other interest rates (including home mortgages now) are at historically low…

I don’t normally cite polls from the grossly biased Rasmussen, but this one was too absurd not to post. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 51% of Likely Voters believe the federal government will go bankrupt and be unable to pay its debt before the federal budget is balanced….

Unlike The Phantom Menace version of Socialism paraded around at Tea Party rallies where Obama is compared to Stalin, there are actual socialists in the world who hold actual socialist views of what’s happening in the economy.  Sometimes it’s useful to listen to these voices, not because they are right…

Never has the phrase “ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US” been so appropriate…  Paul Krugman points out in his latest OpEd over at The New York Times that the Republican Party has been completely captured by the 0.01%-ers and along with that comes a “base” of voters to keep…

Public-sector job losses don’t count. Except when they do. One way to dramatize just how severe our de facto austerity has been is to compare government employment and spending during the Obama-era economic expansion, which began in June 2009, with their tracks during the Reagan-era expansion, which began in November…

My favorite economist, Dean Baker, is out with a critique of Paul Ryan's (R- Wall St.) budget. I recommend the whole read, but here are some highlights! House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan did a great public service when he released his budget last week. By throwing a piece of…

Good news for the state, the two state-level indicies of economic activity in Wisconsin are finally, after a year, pointing in the right direction.  While many will attempt to credit Walker for this movement, one should remember that for many months, Wisconsin lagged far behind the rest of the nation…