Political Economy

Edward Hugh here. This is a post which was originally published at A Fistful of Euros. Well, the Spanish government are due to announce their 2009 fiscal deficit number this morning, together with their adjustment plan for reducing the…

The cartoon speaks for itself

Of all the coverage of last night’s State of the Union address, the video below stands out. Now, I’m sure Matthews will have a defence for this piece of analysis i.e. “he was so good that all the talk about Obama and race slipped my mind…

As I indicated in my post Grading Obama’s economic policy after one year, I see the President as a triangulating center-left politician of the Bill Clinton variety. The reason we have seen public policy which has been favorable to big…

This comes from Ryan Chittum of the Columbia Journalism Review: Whatever Tim Geithner’s New York Fed was trying to hide in the AIG backdoor bailout was so volatile it was deemed worthy of national-security-like classification, and the…

Hat tip Prieur du Plessis Source 20 Jan 2010 editorial cartoon - Nick Anderson, Comics.com

I wrote this in April 2009 about the Federal Reserve’s machinations: You should note that only the fiscal stimulus required legislative approval. All of the other ’stimulus’ has been done without Congressional approval and largely…

The poll results are in on why President Obama has begun a ‘War on Wall Street.’ A majority of CW readers believe President Obama’s recent populist turn and harsh rhetoric directed toward Wall Street is a political stunt. And to the degree…

I think Bernanke probably will still get through. Congress need sixty votes to remove a filibuster hold. Thereafter, they only need fifty votes to get Bernanke through. I suspect Obama will go to senators like Barbara Boxer and say:…

I picked up this Robert Reich quote from Politico’s Open Mic section, which echoes the sentiments expressed by a Massachusetts voter in my recent post “President Obama, are you listening?”: A third political party is emerging in…