Casualties, force levels and expenditures
Proposition 87 tax plan
Sixteen of the 191 pages that Californians are asked to read in order to vote intelligently in the upcoming election are devoted to discussion of Proposition 87, the Clean Alternative Energy Act. This calls for $4 billion or more in new taxes and spending. In this post, I discuss only the tax side of this proposal, and hopefully will have an opportunity to take up the spending details in a sequel.
Perspective on the Employment Release and Preliminary Benchmark Revision
There was a lot of discussion surrounding the BLS’s benchmark revision. Dave Altig at Macroblog has an excellent review, while Ritholz at Big Picture is perturbed about the magnitude of the data revision. Without claiming to have greater insights into why the revision is so large, I do think a look at the context would be useful.
Following the U.S. elections
If you’re looking for an alternative to the talking heads and endless spinning, here are some quantitative tools for following the U.S. elections that I’ve found useful.
So now the Saudis did it
Some people remain intent on believing that falling oil prices are the result of a conspiracy to keep Republicans in power. No sooner had I addressed the theory that Goldman Sachs had somehow initiated the huge price swings currently underway than a new theory pops up to replace it.
Twin deficits redux
On the current account deficit, “We have met the enemy, and he is us”.
And they all lived happily ever after
Can high-flying stocks be reconciled with an inverted yield curve? David Rosenberg of Merrill Lynch, via Felix Salmon and Business Week thinks “it is highly doubtful that both asset classes can be getting the story right.” But here’s one scenario under which both markets in fact might be telling the same story.
It’s not such a small world after all (and it’s getting bigger)
Taking a break from recession talk, I discuss some aspects of the progress of economic integration highlighted in a paper by Bergin and Glick presented at a SCCIE–JIMF conference on Financial and Commercial Integrations.
Pending home sales up
The National Association of Realtors released favorable news today on pending home sales.
The great gasoline price conspiracy
Have you heard the latest explanation for how President Bush contrived to lower gasoline prices in time for the election?