Long Wave Theory Blog

More on the pending Fed crisis

Fed Policy at the Breaking Point — Seeking Alpha.

Oh, crap! This could get really ugly in a heartbeat.

Visualizing The Upcoming Treasury Funding Crisis | zero hedge.

I wish these would be updated to current dates.  

Charts of the day: US macro disequilibria – Credit Writedowns.

Sometimes the simplest things are the hardest to grasp.

Nice thesis.  He’s right.  We need a picture of all three: The income statement (GDP), the balance sheet (total debt), and the statement of cash flows (Gov’t revenues)

It’s the debt, stupid « naked capitalism.

umm…yikes! this doesn’t sound too good.

The Coming Consequences of Banking Fraud — Seeking Alpha.

What a compelling read.

Is economic boom around the corner? « naked capitalism.

Deflation is coming

Thought Offerings: Price Deflation Today versus the Great Depression and Post-1990 Japan — Comparative Charts.

Tyler Durden’s back to old form…depressingly insightful analysis.

September 2009 – Fundamentally…Disconnected | zero hedge.

Stiglitz Doubts Recovery Can Be Sustained « naked capitalism.

This is a well-thought out and argued piece on the dangers of current economic intellectualism, but there’s something very troubling in the piece.  I agree with the basic argument–free-market economic demogogery, quantitative-based economics, and neo-classical views of the efficient market, rational actor, and perfect competition theories are BAD for society. But Krugman is either a patsy or disingenious in this article, and it’s really troubling given that I respect him and admire his command of our economy’s perilous perch.

On page 7 Krugman calls out Casey Mulligan for an absurdist set of claims about unemployment.  Reading the quotes, one would think Mulligan’s Machiavellian interpretation of why the unemployed “seek to be” unemployed reflects an argument gone haywire, or is clearly a farce.  Except Krugman gives no hint of either possibility, offering the quotes up as evidence of the tragic role economics is playing in our current drama.  In fact, Krugman intimates it’s precisely these kinds of intellectual positions that are part of our problem.

Problem is it’s all bullshit–pardon my language but in this case the obscenity is warranted.

See, Krugman either doesn’t realize or, worse, doesn’t care to tell you that Mulligan’s claim “Employees face financial incentives that encourage them not to work . . . decreased employment is explained more by reductions in the supply of labor (the willingness of people to work) and less by the demand for labor (the number of workers that employers need to hire)” is PURELY A SATIRICAL POINT, written precisely to make an absurd claim.  Mulligan doesn’t truly believe this–as no rational semi-intelligent person possible could.  Yet the casual reader would walk away from the article thinking just the opposite.

Too bad, because that little bit of intellectual dishonesty (or naiveté) makes one question the motive and sullies an otherwise important set of arguments by the very talented Mr. Krugman.

How Did Economists Get It So Wrong? – NYTimes.com.