economics Archives - Page 14 of 50 - Stable Genius Liberal

Aaron Greenspan’s interesting critique of bitcoin

No one has ever reasonably proposed that instead of using possession of water as a store of value that we should use consumption of water as proof of prior possession, which is then assigned value. The incentive to consume enormous, wasteful amounts of water would be too strong. Yet this is exactly how Bitcoin works: you are rewarded with new coins once your computer has consumed a certain amount of electricity (measured by the complexity of computing hashes of data, which takes time). Worse yet, the amount of electricity required to be wasted to earn a reward predictably increases, which means that the more Bitcoins one wants, the more one has to waste.

So bitcoins have value because they used to be electricity? I really don’t see that making sense but the idea is interesting.

Why did austerity fail? The Poor Behave Differently From the Rich

models failed to predict the consequences of the austerity programs that several European countries adopted in 2010. It turned out that actual people didn’t behave like the imaginary proxy. Economists are learning that the poor and the wealthy respond differently to austerity and stimulus. This could present challenges to politicians. If people behave differently, then policy might have to treat them differently.

Austerity was doomed from the start.

The Facts Are in: Austerity Politics Doesn’t Work

The problem is that those demanding Austerity look at the failures and claim they haven’t been working because they aren’t Austere enough.

444 million for a hockey arena, no money for pensions?

So when the politicians running Michigan’s state government claim there are no resources that could shore up the pension plan, that’s just not true. What is true is that there’s plenty of money for the state and city to meet the pension promises they made to public employees – but politicians in charge of spending want that money to go to corporations that disproportionately fund politicians’ election campaigns. To insist otherwise – to do what Orr is doing and pretend there’s no money around – is just shockingly dishonest.

Economist’s View: Breadlines Return

The Times’s Patrick McGeehan described a line snaking down Fulton Street in Brooklyn last week, with people waiting to enter a food pantry run by the Bed-Stuy Campaign Against Hunger. The line was not an anomaly. Demand at all of New York City’s food pantries and soup kitchens has spiked since federal food stamps were cut

I can’t help but wonder if the point of all the cuts, the drug tests and the rhetoric is just to further humiliate the poor. To grind them down. To have them spend all their time waiting in lines for handouts.

Good news, California: Surplus is $2.4 billion

Who could have guessed that raising taxes, cutting corporate welfare and eliminating waste would lead to a surplus. Voting Democrat turned out to be a good move for California.

For two decades, the U.S. military has been unable to submit to an audit

For two decades, the U.S. military has been unable to submit to an audit, flouting federal law and concealing waste and fraud totaling billions of dollars

So logically, we need to cut food stamps, head start and social security.

A 12-Step Program for Fuel Subsidy-aholics

Hello, my name is Uncle Sam and I am a Fuel Subsidyaholic. I’ve been abusing Fuel Subsidies for 65 years and it is damaging my economy, my environment and my political relationships.

Where is the Outrage over Employer-Sponsored Coverage in the “Rate Shock” Debate?

McIntyre by way of Thoma:

Some 90% of people with private insurance receive it through an employer, and those plans are generally priced using “pure” experience-rating. This means the company serves as one giant risk pool, and a firm’s youngest employees have the exact same insurance premium as their eldest colleagues.

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Yet, I’ve seen exactly zero Obamacare opponents railing to amend the employer-based practices that require most young healthies to pay more than their “fair share.” No one is plying Congress to amend HIPAA or the ADA so young invincibles can pay premiums appropriate to their health status. No one is calling out employers on their “redistributionist” policies, even though uniform insurance premiums force a substantial transfer from the young to the old.

If you’re expecting honest debate from the people who came up with death panels and takeover messaging, you are asking too much.

How Germany Builds Twice As Many Cars As The U.S. While Paying Its Workers Twice As Much

In 2010, Germany produced more than 5.5 million automobiles; the U.S produced 2.7 million. At the same time, the average auto worker in Germany made $67.14 per hour in salary in benefits; the average one in the U.S. made $33.77 per hour.

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“the salient difference is that, in Germany, the automakers operate within an environment that precludes a race to the bottom; in the U.S., they operate within an environment that encourages such a race.”

The right shift of the past 30 years has been far more focused with punishing the poor than actually promoting economic growth.