New post: Economism: Special Holiday Offer
http://baselinescenario.com/…/economism-special-holiday-off…
New post: Economism: Special Holiday Offer
http://baselinescenario.com/…/economism-special-holiday-off…
By James Kwak I wrote two days ago about the fairy tale that you can lower tax rates for the very rich yet avoid raising their actual taxes by eliminating those mythical beasts, loopholes and deductions. The basic problem with this story is that, at the very high end of the distribution, deductions and exclusions (with the possible exception of the deduction for charitable contributions) just don't amount to very much as a percentage of income. [ 402 more words ]
http://baselinescenario.com/…/02/more-on-the-deduction-fairy
By James Kwak My new book—Economism: Bad Economics and the Rise of Inequality—is coming out on January 10 (although, of course, you can pre-order it from your local monopoly now). If you'd like more information about the book, the book website is now up at economism.net. (I used Medium instead of WordPress.com this time.) The post below, which is also the top story on the book website, summarizes the main themes of the book. [ 650 more words ]
http://baselinescenario.com/…/economics-101-economism-and-o…
By James Kwak Several of my friends, some of whom I haven't spoken with in a long time, have reached out to me over the past week to discuss what to make of last week's election. I imagine this is happening with a lot of people. Although I don't have any simple answers, I do have some thoughts on what we can do in response to the prospect of Donald Trump and the Republicans controlling the entire federal government, as well as a large majority of states. [ 1,676 more word ]
New post: Let my kids vote!
http://baselinescenario.com/…/the-biggest-voter-suppression…
New post: Models of Economic Policymaking, on Democracy Against Domination by @ksabeelrahman.
http://baselinescenario.com/…/models-of-economic-policymaki…
New post: The Last Chapter Problem, on The Reconnection Agenda by @econjared.
http://baselinescenario.com/…/10/29/the-last-chapter-problem
New post: Ideas, Interests, and the Challenge for Progressives, on @rodrikdani and @rortybomb.
http://baselinescenario.com/…/ideas-interests-and-the-chall…
New post: Structure and Superstructure, on @Noahpinion's latest column (and Karl Marx!)
http://baselinescenario.com/…/…/structure-and-superstructure
New post: Economic Anxiety and the Limits of Data Journalism
http://baselinescenario.com/…/…/you-cant-get-there-from-here
New post: The Problem with Personality Contests
http://baselinescenario.com/…/the-problem-with-personality-…
New post: The Absolutely Best Debate (no moderators, fact checking by the candidates!)
http://baselinescenario.com/…/10/08/the-absolutely-best-deb…
By James Kwak Last week, Council of Economic Advisers chair Jason Furman took to the Washington Post to announce that President Obama has "narrowed the inequality gap." Furman's argument, bolstered by charts and data from a recent CEA report, has won over some of the more perceptive commentators on the Internet, including Derek Thompson, who concludes that Obama "did more to combat than any president in at least 50 years. [ 1,503 more word ]
http://baselinescenario.com/…/is-inequality-rising-or-falli…
New post: This Chart Does Not Say What You Think It Says
http://baselinescenario.com/…/this-chart-does-not-say-what-…