KaleckiThe Political Economy of DevelopmentJob Guarantee and Employer of Last Resort schemes: the political constraints on maintaining full employmentNick Johnson

Justice Clarence Thomas asked why there weren’t more examples of states disqualifying candidates under the 14th Amendment after the Civil War. There have been and I am confident Clarence knows this. Rather than face the issue of who can disqualify trump, Clarence chose a moment when he can shine by asking a question and then insisting it be answered. Indeed, he is probably the weakest justice on the SCOTUS bench. Last line, Section 3 of the...

 The US CPI data released yesterday showed that inflation continues to decline and the so-called ‘surprise’ that seems to have shocked the ‘markets’ are mostly down to the eccentric way the US Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates housing costs. The data provides no justification for further rate hikes in the US or anywhere else for that matter....William Mitchell — Modern Monetary TheoryUS inflation rate is declining – no case for further rate risesBill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and...

It never ends as commercial interests keep trying to horn in on healthcare for the old geezers like myself. Except, it is not person related healthcare. It is related to the size of your wallet. More on Medicare Advantage by Jake Johnson at Common Dreams. ~~~~~~~~ A right-wing coalition’s proposal to make Medicare Advantage the default enrollment option would be a “clear handout to the private insurance industry,” said one critic. ‘Hell No’:...

Eleven* Years of #ACA Medicaid Expansion in One Image, ACA Signups, Charles Gaba I just posted a colorful graph which tracked ACA Qualified Health Plan (QHP) enrollment over eleven years of Open Enrollment Periods. Below I’ve done the same thing for ACA Medicaid Expansion. The data comes from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services quarterly Medicaid Budget & Expenditure System reports. *Unfortunately, the MBES reports only...

Why economic models do not explain One of the limitations of economics is the restricted possibility to perform experiments, forcing it to mainly rely on observational studies for knowledge of real-world economies. But still — the idea of performing laboratory experiments holds a firm grip on our wish to discover (causal) relationships between economic ‘variables.’If we only could isolate and manipulate variables in controlled environments, we would...

They sold today on a hotter than expected CPI but it’s the fiscal developments now that may help them. 

January 2024 consumer inflation: still a tug of war between gas and housing  – by New Deal democrat As it has been for going on two years, consumer inflation has boiled down to a contest of strength between energy (mainly gasoline), which peaked in June 2022 and roughed in June 2023, and housing, which peaked in early 2023 and has been gradually disinflating since. The headlines, as you presumably already know, are that total inflation rose...

but came in above Wall Street’s expectations, another sign that the Federal Reserve’s path to interest-rate cuts is far from settled. The Labor Department reported Tuesday that consumer prices rose 3.1% in January from a year earlier, versus a December gain of 3.4%. That marked the lowest reading since June. Inflation at 3.1% Reflects “Stubborn Pricing Pressure, Clouding Outlook for Fed Rate Cuts,” msn.com, WSJ article. Open Thread February 6...

Åtstramningspolitik är inte lösningen Oavsett hur mycket förtroende du har för de ekonomisk-politiska åtgärder som förespråkas av regering och riksbank nuförtiden, kan det inte förvandla dålig åtstramningspolitik till bra jobbskapande politik.   Åtstramningsåtgärder och överdriven och enkelspårig fixering vid penningpolitiska åtgärder och inflation är inte vad som krävs för att få vår haltande ekonomi ur dess nutida dvala — och inte heller diskussioner om...