Mankiw on repealing the estate tax
Gregory Mankiw, Professor of Economics at Harvard and former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors under George W. Bush, gave a speech to the National Press Club in 2003 in which he advocated abolition of the estate tax. This post provides my attempt to rebut his speech. The post is organized to correspond to […]
Bob Herbert – The US Economy on the brink
I like Bob Herbert. He mostly speaks for me in this column about America’s sinking economic fortunes. I’m not too sure what would be so awful if America were to be like Germany – I guess Herbert means that America would be consigned to lower average growth in GDP. Herbert says that America’s economic problems […]
Movie Review, Lakeview Terrace
This post contains a review of the movie “Lakeview Terrace” (2008), starring Samuel Jackson. The post contains plot spoilers. I recommend the movie, with some reservations. It would be better to have seen the movie than to read this post before watching the movie. The movie, in my judgment, is first about race, second about […]
Les grandes bouches
We have just heard a wonderful concert by a jazz vocal group from Toulouse called “Les grandes bouches.” They performed in our little nonprofit café spectacles called La Tannerie in Agen. The concert was undersubscribed, but as is ususally the case with real professionals, the group seemed to take it in stride and to enjoy […]
Healthcare reform, a question
I have heard that Obamacare would be the most redistributionist federal program since…since what, I’m not too sure. But one does not hear, not very often, that opposition to the plan, from whatever quarter, is based upon opposition to economic redistribution. One could say that this motive is implicit in much of what one does […]
The state of the Union is bad, continued
I am a self-identified progressive. My favorite economists in the public arena are Paul Krugman and Robert Reich. But I am also a deficit hawk. Today, I received an email from Nouriel Roubini’s consulting business that addresses America’s likely long-term fiscal deficit. The picture is bleak. This is the main reason that I think America’s […]