The Angry Bear

Plan B on Iran Earlier today (Monday) ne US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, presented this administration’s “Plan B” at the Heritage Foundation on how to deal with Iran following the US’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal, the  JCPOA.  Pompeo presented 12 demands and threatened to impose “the strongest economic sanctions in history.”  The Trump administration may wish to do the latter, but the  refusal of all the other parties to the JCPOA to go along...

by Jeff Soplop H-2B, or Not to Be? A Look at Labor Shortages and Immigrant Labor Several publications recently ran stories on issues with the H-2B visa program and impending shortages that are affecting local economies of various parts of the country. For those who aren’t familiar, the H-2B program allows US employers to bring in temporary workers for non-agricultural jobs. While the length of stay varies and can sometimes be extended, typically these...

“The basic idea is that the government can’t run out of money. It creates money just by spending.” — Stephanie Kelton This is true. Government cannot run out of its own money. But what is money? It is a token or pledge that can be redeemed for something of value. If government creates much more money that there are things of value to redeem it for the prices of those things go up. Not to worry, Zach Carter assures us: But even inflation doesn’t impose a...

Dan here….Downsizing the home when retiring? How is that done? Anecdotal evidence in the Boston area reveals to me several reasons why downsizing is only a small percentage of the housing market:  Aside from being able to handle maintenance to a later age than in the past, and wishing to maintain personal community that a move would disrupt, downsizing is not necessarily as affordable as a cursory look might suggest.   Here is one look at data: Via...

Class war? What class war? Stephanie Kelton Has The Biggest Idea In Washington  “Everybody wants a piece of Kelton these days because a simple, radical idea she has been workshopping her entire career is the next big thing in Democratic Party politics. She calls it the job guarantee… “ “Once an outsider, her radical economic thinking won over Wall Street. Now she’s changing the Democratic Party.” “A onetime college dropout at California State...

The current mania for “job guarantee” policies is making the Sandwichman anxious. I’ve been on the full employment beat for over 20 years so I think I have a pretty good grasp of the terrain. First principle is that there are no panaceas. My favorite policy option — reduction of working time — is not a panacea. Neither is yours. Like my learned friend Max B. Sawicky, I am in favor of a job guarantee — provided it meets MY criteria. The proposals currently...

by Joseph Joyce A Guide to the (Financial) Universe: Part III Parts I and II of this Guide appear here and here. 4.      Stability and Growth Is the global financial system safer a decade after the last crisis? The response to the crisis by central banks, regulatory agencies and international financial institutions has increased the resiliency of the system and lowered the chances of a repetition. Banks have deleveraged and possess larger capital bases....

“The Trump administration wants to effectively pull Title X funding from family planning clinics providing abortion services” as reported in Modern Healthcare. Planned Parenthood while offering other healthcare services would not receive federal funding if they provided any abortion services or referred patients to other facilities that did perform abortions. The Washington Post “For Planned Parenthood abortion stats, ‘3 percent’ and ’94 percent’ are...

The percentage of employees who don’t get wage raises; is the Taboo undergoing an “extinction burst”? I came across the below graph yesterday from the Kansas City Fed. It’s pretty shocking: It represents “wage rigidity.” In english, that means the percentage of employees who don’t get any annual wage increases. It speaks for itself. Nine years into the economic expansion, with an unemployment rate under 4%, and un underemployment rate of 7.8% (only...