U.S. Government Debt Revisited

Honestly, this material is not difficult and the data is readily available. I always have trouble understanding why people don’t simply look at the facts instead of trusting the media. Nearly everyone in the media, including most of those who report on economics, are illiterate about even the most basic economic concepts. Remember, their college degrees are in journalism or communications. Somewhere along the way an editor decided they knew some economics. They don’t. Continue Reading →

What Really Happened in the First Quarter

The U.S. economy is in for a rough time in 2014. In large part this has been caused by the implementation of Obamacare, the Dodd-Frank financial reform act, and the flood of new regulations emanating from a plethora of U.S. government agencies. I’ll just mention the de facto war on coal being waged by the EPA and the broad use of “disparate impact analysis” in the Department of Labor. Continue Reading →

The Minimum Wage Yet Again

David Neumark, J.M. Ian Salas, and William Wascher (NSW) used the same data that both ADR and DLR used. Their paper “Revisiting the Minimum Wage − Employment Debate: Throwing Out the Baby With the Bathwater?” (January, 2013. National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 18681). In fact, the title is too kind. ADR and DLR have apparently thrown out the baby and kept (and published) the bathwater. Continue Reading →