Putin says U.S. is parasite on global economy

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accused the United States Monday of living beyond its means “like a parasite” on the global economy and said dollar dominance was a threat to the financial markets. From Putin says U.S. is parasite on global economy | Reuters Putin is an awful proto-despot that is holding back both political… Continue reading Putin says U.S. is parasite on global economy

Lawyers, Coins, and Money

there’s no similar limit on the amount of coinage. A little-known statute gives the secretary of the Treasury the authority to issue platinum coins in any denomination. So some commentators have suggested that the Treasury create two $1 trillion coins, deposit them in its account in the Federal Reserve and write checks on the proceeds.… Continue reading Lawyers, Coins, and Money

Conservative Origins of Obamacare

Romneycare, is a three-legged stool of regulation and subsidies: community rating requiring insurers to make the same policies available to everyone regardless of health status; an individual mandate, requiring everyone to purchase insurance, so that healthy people don’t opt out; and subsidies to keep insurance affordable for those with lower incomes. The original Heritage plan… Continue reading Conservative Origins of Obamacare

The dangers of being wrong on Keynes

Keynes — and others who later elaborated on his work, like Hyman Minsky — taught us that although markets are usually self-correcting, they occasionally enter destructive feedback loops in which a shock to, say, the financial system scares business and consumers so badly that they hoard money, which worsens the damage to the system, which… Continue reading The dangers of being wrong on Keynes

we have turned good workers into criminals and turned criminals into bad workers

Jose Ranye, 37, bragged he’s the best picker in Americus, the largest community near the farm. His whirling hands filled one bucket in 25 seconds. He said he dumped about 200 buckets of cucumbers before lunch, meaning he earned roughly $20 an hour. He expected to double his tickets before the end of the day.… Continue reading we have turned good workers into criminals and turned criminals into bad workers