What are Hillary’s chances? What are Hillary’s chances?
15 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
in politics - USA Tags: 2016 presidential election
Real GDP per Canadian and American aged 15-64, 2013 price level, updated 2005 EKS PPP, detrended, 1970-2013
15 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
in economic growth, economic history, macroeconomics, politics - USA Tags: Canada, living standards
Figure 1: Real GDP per Canadian and American aged 15-64, converted to 2013 price level, updated 2005 EKS purchasing power parities, detrended 1.9%, 1970-2013, base 1970
Source: Computed from OECD Stat Extract and The Conference Board, Total Database, January 2014, http://www.conference-board.org/economics
A flat line means growth at the trend rate of 1.9%; a falling line means below trend rate of growth ; a rise in line means above trend rate of growth. Canada appears to have mostly been falling behind the USA.
Figure 2: Real GDP per Canadian and American aged 15-64, converted to 2013 price level, updated 2005 EKS purchasing power parities, 1950-2013
Source: Computed from OECD Stat Extract and The Conference Board, Total Database, January 2014, http://www.conference-board.org/economics.
Hollywood’s highest paid star Leonardo DiCaprio earns three times average FTSE 100 boss | City A.M.
15 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, entrepreneurship, Marxist economics, politics - USA, Public Choice, Rawls and Nozick, rentseeking Tags: Occupy Wall Street, top 1%
This top 1% gets a pass from the Occupy activists
Hillary is running as some sort of class war warrior against the big end of town
14 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
in income redistribution, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: 2016 presidential election, campaign finance report form, expressive voting, Hillary Clinton, median voter theorem, rational ignorance, rational irrationality, special interests
Top 20 Hillary Clinton campaign contributors, 1999-2014, in case you were wondering. http://t.co/c8KTOkJ30X—
Downtown Josh Brown (@ReformedBroker) April 14, 2015
Hillary’s first TV
14 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
in politics - USA, technological progress Tags: 2016 presidential election, creative destruction, Hillary Clinton, The Great Enrichment
Hillary Clinton is older than this http://t.co/drxM6eZyhe—
TakingHayekSeriously (@FriedrichHayek) April 14, 2015
Double Standards in Evaluating Violence by Self-Identified Christians and Muslims
14 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, economics of religion, politics - USA
There are no large differences between Republicans (10 percent), Democrats (17 percent) and independents (14 percent) in views of whether a self-identified Christian who commits acts of violence in the name of Christianity is really Christian. However, there are significant partisan differences in views about whether a self-identified Muslim who commits acts of violence in the name of Islam is really Muslim. A majority (55 percent) of Republicans say that such a person is Muslim, compared about 4-in-10 Democrats (40 percent) and independents (39 percent). Majorities of Democrats (51 percent) and independents (53 percent) disagree that a self-identified Muslim who commits acts of violence is really Muslim.
White evangelical Protestants stand out strongly from other major religious groups in evaluating the religiosity of a self-identified Muslim who commits violence. Only roughly 4-in-10 white mainline Protestants (41 percent), Catholics (39 percent), black Protestants (36 percent), and non-Christian religiously affiliated Americans (35 percent) say a self-proclaimed Muslims who commits acts of violence in the name of Islam is really Muslim. In contrast, nearly 6-in-10 (57 percent) white evangelical Protestants believe that self-identified Muslims who commit acts of violence in the name of Islam are really Muslim.
Who pays income tax in the USA?
14 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
in politics - USA, public economics Tags: tax incidence, top 1%
The top 1% of income earners in the U.S. pay nearly half of all income tax on.wsj.com/1IRkAr1 http://t.co/n6L8QhArtq—
Nick Timiraos (@NickTimiraos) April 12, 2015
The survivalist community have finally gone organic and renewable
14 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
in environmentalism, health economics, politics - USA Tags: Big Wind, conspiracy theorists, organic farming, survivalists, wind power
For sale: luxury apocalypse-proof condos in a missile silo gu.com/p/4398h/tw via @guardiang2 @IAmTimDowling http://t.co/tH1B7M4lXT—
Guardian Visuals (@GraphicGuardian) November 13, 2014
PETA does not run a no-kill shelter
14 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
in politics - USA Tags: animal liberation, Animal welfare, Left-wing hypocrisy, PETA
The racial demographics of police arrest rates in the USA
14 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: crime and punishment, police misconduct, racial discrimination
Gun control advocates in the USA will have to rethink their messaging
13 Apr 2015 1 Comment
in economics of media and culture, economics of regulation, politics - USA Tags: gun control
Hillary’s presidential run is Directors’ law personified
13 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture, politics - USA, Public Choice
The 2008 US presidential campaign was the best soapie on TV. The 2016 season of that show looks even better.
Back in 2008, Hillary Clinton’s campaign rhetoric intrigued me. It was all about the middle-class and helping the middle class. No working part class warriors today in the main strain of the Democratic Party. The 2016 campaign is the same.
The median voter is a middle-class voter. The median voter is the swinging voter or the independent voter in American terminology. All parties go after this voter if they want to win elections.
Director’s Law of public expenditure is that public expenditure is used primary for the benefit of the middle class, and is financed with taxes which are borne in considera class war rhetoric in a campaign announcement is mainly for the benefit of the left of the party to discourage primary runs by Sen Warren, in particular ble part by the poor and the rich because the median voter comes from the middle-class.
Presidential primary and general election debates in 2016 will be about how things were getting harder for the middle-class and the Republican or Democratic candidate pitching for votes will stand up for the middle-class better than their competition in the presidential primary or general election.
Morning radio in New Zealand, the state owned broadcaster, interviewed one of their political contacts about Hillary’s announcement. His suggestions were her were go left, young Hillary, go left. He wanted her to imitate the policies of the left-wing Democratic Party potential candidate Senator Warren and significantly increase the minimum wage.
At no time did our intrepid reporter on 9 to Noon ask whether this go left political strategy would increase the chances of Hillary winning or have any relevance under a Republican-controlled Senate and House of Representatives or help the Democratic Party win back the House.
Republican-control of Congress will be a strong incentive to Hillary to go to the centre if she wants to have any chance of implementing any of her policies. The class war rhetoric in her campaign announcement is mainly to neutralise the chances of Senator Warren contesting the primaries. Oddly enough, the priorities of Senator Warren also focus on the concerns of the middle-class voters such as about student loans rather than paying the rent and buying groceries.
The NZ Greens want to introduce food stamps, but only for part of the year?!
12 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
in income redistribution, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, Public Choice Tags: expressive voting, food stamps, Left-wing hypocrisy, rational ignorance, rational irrationality, school breakfast programs, soup kitchens, welfare reform, welfare state
The welfare state has a long history of providing some of its support to the needy in kind rather than in cash. This can range from soup kitchens to public housing as well as food stamps.
In the USA, food stamps provide provide food-purchasing assistance for low- and no-income people living. Food stamps can only be exchanged for food.
Instead of requiring the poor and needy to attend a soup kitchen, they can be given vouchers to buy food at supermarkets and take it home and cook at themselves. These days some sort of debit card system can be used where purchases are restricted to food at supermarkets and other participating retailers.
A close parallel with food stamps, properly understood, is free school breakfast programs. The welfare state is providing in-kind support to hungry children. This is done at school, to ensure that the children eat the meals.
Rather than rely on their parents to spend their welfare benefits and income support on food for their children, the food is given directly to the children when they arrive at school in the morning. In New Zealand, these free school breakfast programs are restricted to schools in low income areas.
There is a Feed the Kids Bill in Parliament sponsored by the Green Party. I have frequently criticised this proposal as it doesn’t provide breakfast to needy children at the weekends and school holidays. They are left to go hungry. Abandoned by their so called social justice champions through lack of imagination and self-awareness.
If children are showing up at school without their breakfast on a regular basis, their parents should reported that the child protection authorities for intervention. This can start with budget advice and assistance with applying for any additional and emergency financial support they are eligible for from Work and Income New Zealand.
Soup kitchens not only provides people with food, it provides various other assistance to help people to get back on their feet.
If you were proposing a food stamps program in New Zealand because children are going hungry, you’ll be laughed at if you suggested it should only apply the part of the year such as during the school term.
That is precisely what the Greens are doing. The only difference is how they are organised the provision of in-kind support to children, this case, food. Instead of their parents collecting a debit card that can only be used to buy food, the food is eaten by their children at school.
New Zealand, Australian and US real housing price index, 1975–2014, 2005 base
12 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
in business cycles, global financial crisis (GFC), great recession, macroeconomics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, urban economics Tags: GFC, housing prices, land supply, zoning
The housing spikes in Australia and New Zealand preceded the global financial crisis, starting in about 1999, and were largely unaffected by the GFC. Housing prices in the USA were pretty calm except in the lead up to the GFC, and took a dive with the onset of the global financial crisis and great recession.
Source: Dallas Fed; Housing prices deflated by personal consumption expenditure (PCE) deflator.
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