Estonia’s market economy resulted from eurozone membership, human capital and infrastructure development and fiscal discipline.…
Have We Halved the Deficit?
In the State-of-the-Union, President Obama said, “Our deficits–cut by more than half.” Looking at the federal deficit as a percent of GDP, we can say that the deficit is much lower t…
Would Adam Smith Have Supported a Higher Minimum Wage?
Because it would be wonderful if we all knew Adam Smith, I was delighted that President Obama quoted him in a recent speech. However, Smith’s relevance to a minimum wage boost is a bit of a leap…
Creative Destruction: Chain Store Wars
Visiting an Amazon distribution center in Chattanooga, Tennessee on Tuesday, President Obama was told by independent booksellers, “We are disheartened to see Amazon touted as a ‘jobs creat…
Tax Code Untouchables
Just eliminate deductions and exclusions to cure our budget problems. Yes? Not so easy. Here is a list of the 20 largest “Tax Expenditures” for 2012 from Credit Suisse. As you can see, eac…
Making Presidential History
President Obama has been having dinner with historians. Described by the NY Times as a “largely left tilting group,” the names I consistently discovered that attended the dinners were: Dor…
Election Economics: Looking at the Millennials, Xers, Boomers, and Silents
Before tomorrow’s election, let’s take a look at the voting age gap. Absent since 1972, the young and the old again are voting differently. The Silent Generation: The oldest slice o…
Big Macs and Currency Manipulators
In China, a Big Mac costs close to the equivalent of $2.44. That same burger in the US is $4.20. The basic idea is PPP, purchasing power parity. The dollar can buy more when the yuan is undervalued. A…
Election Economics: Too Much or Not Enough Stimulus Spending?
For the first quarter of 2009, GDP declined at a 5.5% rate and, at 7.6% during January, unemployment was rising. With the economy in a tailspin, policy makers wanted to act quickly. Primarily split al…
Big Bird's Issues
All the talk about Big Bird and federal funding is really about 2 much bigger issues. 1. Discretionary Spending With proposed spending in the Obama 2013 budget at 3.7 trillion dollars, a tiny proporti…