VICE News: “Why Pay Your Taxes?”
This Vice News segment makes the normally dry and daunting subject of taxes (really tax policy) accessible and entertaining. Plus it features Lee Sheppard.
Read more...Author Archives: Yves Smith
Wolf Richter: It Starts – Broad Retaliation Against China in Currency War
Struggling economies that compete with China are going to protect their exports against Chinese encroachment via currency depreciation.
Read more...Links 8/20/15
FT Alphaville Credits Our Richard Smith for Busting GXG Markets, “European Scam-Central”
Richard Smith’s relentless gumshoe work has put a rancid fraud-enabler, GXG Global Exchange Group, out of business.
Read more...Greece’s Missing Drivers of Growth
This post mines an issue we’ve discussed repeatedly, that the heavy dose of “reforms” imposed on Greece succeeded in lowering wage costs without providing the expected boost in exports.
Read more...Low Oil Prices Could Break The “Fragile Five” Producing Nations
Five countries, and not necessarily the ones you’d expect, are particularly vulnerable to protracted low oil prices.
Read more...Louis Proyect: Once More on IT and a Return to the Drachma
Why selling magic sparkle ponies, in the form of presenting a conversion to the drachma as easy when it isn’t, makes for bad IT and even worse policy prescriptions.
Read more...Links 8/19/15
The ALEC Rankings: Does Smaller Government Mean Higher Growth?
Demonstrating why Menzie Chinn stated, “The ALEC economic outlook ranking is, in my assessment, a manifestation of faith based economics.”
Read more...Michael Pettis: Do Markets Determine the Value of the RMB?
A thorough discussion of the background and implications of the so-far modest devaluation of the RMB.
Read more...William J. Astore: Seventy Years of Military Mediocrity
How the US has developed military muscle at the expense of brainpower.
Read more...The Teach For America Bait and Switch: From ‘You’ll Be Making a Difference’ to ‘You’re Making Excuses’
A report from an insider on organization dedicated to scabbing known as Teach for America.
Read more...Kanbur/Stiglitz: Rent Seeking as a Major Driver of Wealth and Income Inequality
Yves here. This post is wonky but important. While Stiglitz has written regularly about inequality as problematic from an economic perspective, and has mentioned rent seeking as a contributor, to my knowledge, this is the first time he’s said that old theories need to be tossed and that rent seeking is one of the main factors now driving wealth and income inequality.
Read more...Links 8/18/15
Why Bernie Sanders Should Add a Job Guarantee to His Policy Agenda
Bernie has unapologetically rejected sclerotic visions of what is ‘politically possible’. And now he should add the Job Guarantee to his list of issues.
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