by Henry Oliner | Apr 27, 2025 | Economics
From Robert Graboyes’s excellent Bastiat’s Window, Trade Winds 2025-Seriously and Literally: As seen in the accounting equations in the previous post (“Real-World Trade-Deficit Math-Magic,”), you can’t get rid of a trade deficit without also losing foreign...
by Henry Oliner | Sep 18, 2023 | Economics
From Kevin Williamson at The Dispatch, ‘Dispossessed of Their Pathetic Livelihoods’: (firewalled, I highly recommend a subscription) The more enlightened view understands that human beings are not liabilities but assets. Human effort is inherently valuable. And that...
by Henry Oliner | Aug 10, 2023 | Economics
Presidents get too much credit and blame for an economy as if it turns on a dime the moment they are elected. The right want to credit Trump for the sharp rise since he was elected, but attributes no credit to Obama for the long rise during his tenure. In both cases...
by Henry Oliner | Aug 9, 2023 | Economics, Uncategorized
From Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of Coolidge’s Inauguration: Why He’s the Model President; Upon Harding’s death in San Francisco on the evening of August 2, 1923, the Harding–Coolidge administration gave way to that of Coolidge alone. He purified a Cabinet that...
by Henry Oliner | Jun 4, 2023 | Economics
From The Wall Street Journal, by Scott Patterson, 6/2/23, When Markets Melt Down, These Traders Cash In, Market crashes. Pandemics. Terrorist attacks. Riots. Megafires. Superstorms. Extreme, destructive, often deadly events seem to be happening across the planet with...
by Henry Oliner | May 14, 2023 | Economics
From John Cochrane at The Grumpy Economist, Missing mortgage contract innovation: So why are we here, and given that we are here why does this strange contract seem so resistant to innovation. I think the answer is simple: 15 and 30 year fixed rate mortgages were a...
