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Krugman vs. Bernanke: Who's Reckless?

Kevin Spak — Mon, 07 May 2012 15:45:05 CDT

Call it the "battle of the beards," suggests Robert Samuelson of the Washington Post : Paul Krugman vs. Ben Bernanke. Both are prominent economists, both have facial hair aplenty, and each has called the other "reckless." Krugman has been lambasting the Fed for not doing enough to help the economy recover—...

10% of Adults Get Allowances

Dustin Lushing — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 06:37:05 CDT

Around one in 10 American adults are on the dole—they regularly collect money or other financial assistance from their parents or relatives, reveals a poll from the Pew Research Center. The results showed no difference between gender or race, reports the New York Times , but the youngest adults were...

Romney Is a 'Closet Keynesian'

Matt Cantor — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 12:33:05 CST

Mitt Romney pretends to subscribe to the right's economic orthodoxy, but his real beliefs are apparently very different, writes Paul Krugman in the New York Times . He let them slip the other day, saying that "if all you’re thinking about doing is cutting spending, as you cut spending you’ll slow...

Students Calculate Price of the Death Star

Kevin Spak — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:47:55 CST

Just how wealthy would the Empire have to be to build a Death Star? Well, wealthy enough to blow somewhere around $852 quadrillion on metal alone, according to a group of economics students at Lehigh University. How did they get that number? Well, the first Death Star has a reported...

Behind Europe's Economic Mess: 'Willful Amnesia'

Matt Cantor — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 08:56:38 CST

Europe has been lauded for its commitment to austerity measures as a means of restoring its economies. But a quick look at the state of those economies reaffirms what any economist should already have known, writes Paul Krugman in the New York Times : The effort is backfiring. Krugman explains that...

Candidate Turns 'Home Ec' Into 'Economics' Degree

Neal Colgrass — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 16:32:00 CST

Tiny note to political candidates: "Economics" and "home economics" aren't quite the same thing. Missouri gubernatorial contender Dave Spence quickly updated his website this week after reporters discovered that his touted "degree in Economics" was actually a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Home Economics, TPM Muckraker reports. The AP also...

What's Up With Ron Paul's 'Austrian' Ideas?

Neal Colgrass — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 16:54:41 CST

Just what did Ron Paul mean when he finished third in Iowa and said, "We are all Austrians now"? Republican candidates don't often celebrate European economic policies, but this is different, Matthew Yglesias writes in Slate . Those familiar with the inside baseball of libertarianism know that Paul is referring to...

Finally, the Obama We Elected

Kevin Spak — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 13:50:09 CST

The speech President Obama gave last night in Osawatomie, Kansas, was the "most important economic speech of his presidency," writes former labor secretary Robert Reich. "Here, finally, is the Barack Obama many of us thought we had elected in 2008," one who actually fights Big Money the way Teddy and...

Want to Earn $400K? Fix the Euro Zone

John Johnson — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 16:56:54 CST

Econ majors, dust off those textbooks. If you can come up with the best way to help the euro zone through its current mess by the end of January, you earn $400,000. That's the reward being offered by British CEO Simon Wolfson as part of the Wolfson Economics Prize,...