On the heels of yesterday's post about student loans and their growth. I want you to know that Wall Street is hot on the problem. They've made a quiet proposal to the "supercommittee" that's supposedly addressing government deficits to have the government subsidize the banks via fees without creating any more student loans or taking … Continue reading Banks Want to Do To Student Loans What They Did to Mortgages
Micro
Oligopoly and the Costs of Higher Education – Journals Edition
There are many reasons why costs in higher education have been rising faster than inflation for many decades. A fundamental reason is because education is so labor-intensive and (so far) has been resistant to improved productivity via capital investment or technology. This is called Baumol's Cost Disease. But there are other reasons too. One is … Continue reading Oligopoly and the Costs of Higher Education – Journals Edition
The Fraudulent Flat Tax Pitch – A Rich and Powerful Tactic
Power and riches go together. But nowadays, they need political spin. Throughout history the very rich have usually also been the very powerful. And usually the very rich use that power to both protect themselves from the less well-off and to figure out ways to further enrich themselves. Often the enrichment comes at the expense … Continue reading The Fraudulent Flat Tax Pitch – A Rich and Powerful Tactic
Too Big to Fail Should Be Too Big to Exist
Against Monopoly has a great graphic that shows a big part of the problem with our financial sector and our economy. The four banks shown above are the four largest banks in the U.S.: JP Morgan Chase, Citi, BofA, and Wells Fargo. Together they dominate the financial industry. If you add in Goldman Sachs and … Continue reading Too Big to Fail Should Be Too Big to Exist
John Stossel Fails an Education Test and Demonstrates That He’s Economically Illiterate
John Stossel is a Fox Business News reporter. Stossel is an unabashed "libertarian" with a strong Austrian orientation on economics who focuses on economic issues. He's made a living out of being indignant and disgusted by "liberals" and "big government" which he sees as the root of all economic problems. He's been quite successful over … Continue reading John Stossel Fails an Education Test and Demonstrates That He’s Economically Illiterate
Where Are or Were The Jobs?
With the all the alleged concern in Washington now from both parties about job creation, there's something that's missing in much of the debate: facts. So let's take a look at some. I really like graphics like the one below. They're complex and take quite some time to read and fully absorb what's there, but … Continue reading Where Are or Were The Jobs?
Businesses (and Micro) Refute the Logic of Jobs Tax Credits
I wrote a few days ago about how I found the President's American Jobs Act proposal to be less than stimulating and I updated my assessment yesterday. Much of the proposal involves a lot of complex tax credit ideas that are supposed to provide the incentives for businesses to hire. The idea is that if a … Continue reading Businesses (and Micro) Refute the Logic of Jobs Tax Credits
The Famine in Horn of Africa and Political Economy Failure
The study of economics starts with recognition of the economic problem: we (humanity) have unlimited wants but limited resources to satisfy those wants, so something has to give. Famine is perhaps the starkest reminder of the economic problem. People die simply because they cannot get enough food to eat. Yet while there have been famines throughout … Continue reading The Famine in Horn of Africa and Political Economy Failure
Not Retiring Is the New Retirement Plan For Many
CalculatedRiskBlog tells us about a new major study of American workers and their retirement plans. The study is published by the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies [note for students: the center is an excellent source of research data and analysis]. CalculatedRisks summarizes: From Rachel Ensign at the WSJ: For Many Seniors, There May Be No Retirement … Continue reading Not Retiring Is the New Retirement Plan For Many
President Obama’s Jobs Advisor Ships Jobs Overseas.
No wonder jobs aren't being created. The President listens closely to Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of corporate welfare recipient large multinational General Electric about jobs policy. So what's GE doing about jobs? Bloomberg reports: General Electric Co.’s health-care unit, the world’s biggest maker of medical-imaging machines, is moving the headquarters of its 115-year-old X-ray business to … Continue reading President Obama’s Jobs Advisor Ships Jobs Overseas.
EconProph 