Calculated Risk features a very confusing article in the NYT by economist Robert Shiller. He seems to argue both for and against government subsidization of housing and I can’t for the life of me figure out where he really comes down. On the one hand he contends that economic theory would lead one to believe […]

Kenneth Rogoff has some important observations to offer with regard to the decades long decline of Japan. He calls it a “slow motion crisis” and points to reasons why it eventually will come to a head. His conclusion is worth noting: Investors who have bet against Japan in the past have been badly burned, grossly […]

If your eyes have glazed over as have mine from reading one too many wonkish articles about health care reform then let me direct you to two, short, to the point posts by John Hempton (here and here). Drawing on his Aussie experience he points out that unless costs are controlled, health care reform in […]

The February employment report elicited a sigh of relief as the unemployment rate held steady at 9.7%. The conventional wisdom seemed to be that we dodged a bullet given the horrible weather during the month and that with the onset of Spring and census worker hiring, the numbers might start looking better. All of this […]