Apr 28 Keynes vs. Hayek Round Two "We've been going back and forth for a century." So began an economics rap between two long-dead English economists, interventionist John Maynard Keynes and governmentophobe Friedrich Hayek that went viral. The rap's dress rehearsal debuted on the NewsHour back in… Continue reading
Apr 27 The Obamas Gave $131,000 to the Fisher House Foundation Last Year. What Is It? By Elizabeth Shell Editor's Note: The Obama document du jour may be the President's birth certificate but here on the Business Desk we've been looking into another document: the First Family's tax return. Last week we ran an infographic illustrating their… Continue reading
Apr 26 Suppose You Want to Pay Down the National Debt All by Yourself? By Elizabeth Shell Slate, the online magazine, has a fascinating explainer of an oft-asked question: can individuals help pay down the debt and if so, how?… Continue reading
Apr 25 Should Banks Modify Home Loans to Today’s Home Values? Name: Charles Robertson Question: The media estimates 5 to 8 million houses are currently underwater or at some point in the foreclosure process, and housing values have declined 25 percent. If one million homes were put on the market in… Continue reading
Apr 22 Our National Debt: Political Gamesmanship or a Game of Chicken? A graphic chronicle of debt ceiling hikes from Bloomberg Businessweek. For the record, it doesn't seem like either 'political gamesmanship' or a game of chicken, so much as a vivid illustration of how and why the national debt has… Continue reading
Apr 21 Budget Showdown: What’s In the Obama and Ryan Plans? By Elizabeth Shell Editor's Note: This week President Obama has been crisscrossing the country selling his budget plan to the American people. Meanwhile, Republican Representative Paul Ryan has been pitching his budget proposal to constituents in Wisconsin. We wanted to take… Continue reading
Apr 20 What Happens to Us Codgers if the Debt Limit Isn’t Raised? By Elizabeth Shell We reported last week on the fear and trembling of bond vigilantism, real or imagined -- that the bond market would punish the country for profligacy by raising the interest it demanded to lend us money, thus making everything… Continue reading
Apr 19 S&P’s Dire Warning: Of Any Significance At All? Call me a contrarian -- or just your garden-variety journalist/skeptic -- but when I read the much-ballyhooed Standard & Poor's announcement yesterday, I shook my shiny head. "Because the U.S. has, relative to its AAA peers, what we consider… Continue reading
Apr 15 How Does Investing Create Jobs? By Elizabeth Shell Name: Scott Question: If my company's stock is currently $10 and then in a month goes to $20, how does this doubling show up on a company's balance sheet? And if it does not show up on a firm's balance… Continue reading
Apr 12 Tool$ Tuesday: Tips For Tax Day By Elizabeth Shell Tax day is breathing down our necks: just under one week left to file. And that's including this year's three-day extension; tax day bumped from the traditional April 15th to the 18th since DC government workers are off Friday (the… Continue reading