Fed Chair Jerome Powell already warned he “may” have two more planned Fed rate increases in the making. Even a Fed comment is enough to stymie a housing market increase. US recession fears ease: surprisingly strong data on housing, consumer confidence, labor market, Financial Review, Vince Golle and Reade Pickert President Joe Biden told donors he thinks the US will avoid a potential recession that economists and banks have long been...

Calculated Risks Bill McBride Fed Chair Jerome Powell is participating in a panel discussion today at the European Central Bank (ECB) Forum on Central Banking 2023 in Sintra, Portugal. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell talked tough on inflation Wednesday, saying at a forum that he expects multiple interest rate increases ahead and possibly at an aggressive pace. From Jeff Cox at CNBC: Powell says more ‘restriction’ is coming, including...

from Maria Alejandra Madi Regarding Western democracies, Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, two Harvard scholars, think that the answer is yes. They base their answer on decades of study and a wide range of historical and modern cases, from 1930s Europe to modern Hungary, Turkey, Venezuela, North and South America. Instead of a revolution or a military takeover, the authors believe that there will be a steady and slow breakdown of long-standing democratic rules and institutions. For...

Pent-up demand and sales: an update  – by New Deal democrat There’s no big economic news today. So while we wait to see if initial jobless claims continue to worsen tomorrow, and what happens with real personal spending and income, as well as real business sales on Friday, let me point you to an updated detailed discussion of why the Fed’s rate hikes haven’t yet caused the economy to turn down (hint: gas prices plus pent-up demand in several...

This is kind of a big deal. We have all heard about peanut allergy and how dangerous a reaction can be. A new skin patch might increase their tolerance of the legume, according to the results of a late-stage clinical trial. It is not 100% protection if exposed or ingested. It does offer protection equivalent to 3-4 peanuts and for children 1-3 years of age. A start to something better. Just in passing. Good News for Toddlers with Peanut...

The façade of precision in mainstream economics [Jevons] is a man of some ability, but he seems to me to have a mania for encumbering questions with useless complications, and with a notation implying the existence of greater precision in the data than the questions admit of.  John Stuart Mill Fixation on constructing models — “implying the existence of greater precision in the data than the questions admit of” — showing the certainty of logical entailment...

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 A clever take-off on Plato using the Socratic method called elenchus (which became the template for the tradition of free inquiry and open debate as a foundation of Western liberalism).Global InequalityAthenian dialogues on global income inequalityBranko Milanovic | Visiting Presidential Professor at City University of New York Graduate Center and senior scholar at the Stone Center on Socio-economic Inequality, senior scholar at the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), and formerly lead economist...

Still $73 billion of outstanding tax drain needs to be recovered. You need commitment to be successful.

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