In a continuing effort to provide words of wisdom from beyond the walls of Zacks, here are a few things that I think people should find to be interesting. The views expressed in the articles are not always shared by either myself or Zacks, but I do find them thought provoking.
Tim Duy, a Professor of Economics at the University of Oregon, has a nice overview of the debate going on within the Fed over the likelihood of inflation rising substantially. He argues that while inflation might increase for a little while as the economy moves up toward potential, the rise is not likely to be sustained given the huge amount of slack still in the economy. Much will depend on how much of the increase in unemployment is structural, rather than cyclical. I am firmly in the camp that says it is mostly cyclical, as in due to low aggregate demand, not due to a huge increase in the skills mismatch that would cause structural unemployment to increase.
Deficit Dilemma: Why Economists Can’t Agree
Mark Thoma, also a professor at the University of Oregon (it must be the Day of the Duck) has a good explanation of why, if all the economists in the world were laid end to end, they still would not reach a conclusion.
James Kwak, of the Baseline Scenario blog, and the co-author of “13 Bankers” explains why the Ryan plan for turning Medicare into a voucher system would eventually undermine the political support for Medicare entirely, leading to its demise. I agree. The Ryan plan does absolutely nothing to control costs, it simply shifts the costs and the risks onto individual seniors, and would raise the overall costs substantially (private insurance plans have far more overhead than does traditional Medicare). The net result is that many seniors would be priced out of health insurance, and as a result would have to do without health care.
Why Aren’t the Honest Bankers Demanding Prosecutions of Their Dishonest Rivals?
William Black, one of the few banking regulators who warned about a possible financial crisis before the 2008 meltdown, and currently a Professor at the University of Missouri at Kansas City discusses the consequences of accounting control fraud, and the de facto legalization of it from the failure to prosecute it after the 2008 financial meltdown. Much of the article is a take-down of Stephen Moore of the Wall Street Journal. That is an easy target, as I have never thought that Mr. Moore or the WSJ Editorial Page in general deserved serious consideration. Still, he makes an important point: When it comes to crime, the pen really is much more powerful than the sword — and a lot less likely to get you sent to jail.
Zacks Investment Research
Be the first to comment