The government has posted its revised GDP numbers for the last three months of 2008, and they are ugly – a 6.2% annualized rate of decline. I link to the New York Times story on the GDP, which includes this nugget: Among the more distressing aspects of the report, according to Joseph Brusuelas, a director […]
In the Peoria Journal Star today, Paul Gordon writes about a report produced by the Peoria area’s economic development organization. The report is designed to make everyone feel better about the local economy. Apparently, the Heartland Partnership has gotten some grief over its ad campaign that says “It’s better here,” even with the poor economy […]
From an AP article, three U.S. House representatives from Illinois – two Republicans and one Democrat – have sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Energy to get stimulus bill money for the FutureGen coal plant near Mattoon, Ill. Of course, as we all know, every single Republican in the House voted against the […]
This is from a footnote in Robert L. Heilbroner’s “The Nature and Logic of Capitalism.” It’s a bit convoluted, but bear with it: I cannot resist adding an example of the modern use of economics as a system of clarificatory belief. Thomas Schelling writes: “[T]he free market may not do much, or anything, to distribute […]
Free markets are great – right up until they’re not.Free trade is great – right up until it’s not.It’s liberals that have the perspective and tools to point out the “nots” in conservative economics.
Conservatives like to talk a lot about market discipline – that people who make poor decisions should pay the price. But what about people who make the “right” decisions – or no decisions at all in a given case – and yet still get slammed by economic events?
A post from Ezra Klein highlighting the useful – and accurate – re-framing that’s making it’s way around the blogosphere: conservatives’ “entitlement reform” is just a subset of health care reform.
The Peoria Journal Star has the latest results from its regional economic survey, produced by Bradley University. As the headline says: “Economic decline continues.” I was struck by this graph, quoting Bernard Goitein of Bradley’s Center for Business and Economic Research, on employment during the recession in 2003: Declining to predict whether area employment will […]
In an earlier post, I highlighted a progressive plan for balancing the budget. In it, the author calls for cutting agricultural subsidies. And that got me thinking close to home. Thanks to the Farm Subsidy Database from the Environmental Working Group, we can come up with some dollar figures and comparisons. Not too suprising, Illinois […]
A five-point plan from Mike Lux over at Huffington Post.
Bill Poorman 