Month: January 2014

The misconceptions embodied in this post’s headline sow more confusion in economic discussions than any others. “Saving” and “Savings” seem like simple concepts, but they’re not. They have many different meanings, and their different usages (often implicit or unconscious) make coherent understanding and discussion impossible — even, often, in writings by those who have otherwise…

I was having a discussion with a conservative friend recently, and challenged him to write up a budget for a decent life for a responsible, hard-working American: Living in Shoreline, a relatively inexpensive area north of Seattle. Divorced, two kids. Not very smart or capable, but has worked hard their whole adult life. He has…

I’m hoping my gentle accounting-dweeby readers can help me. I’m very interested in looking at economic measures (i.e. debt/lending/borrowing) for the U.S. “real” sector: households plus nonfinancial business. My problem: with some exceptions, various national accounts (NIPA, FOFA, IMA) don’t provide tables for this “sector.” I don’t think I can simply sum up household and…

I don’t think there’s anything eye-popping or revolutionary this post, but it’s thinking that I’ve been finding useful. Long before Larry Summers bruited his recent ideas about secular stagnation and the need for bubbles, I came up against this great line from Nick Rowe (April 2011): The economy wants a Ponzi scheme. I’ve been pondering…

I’m rather devastated to find (thanks to Tom Brown at Pragmatic Capitalism!) a discussion  I missed at Winterspeak’s place from mid-December, with some of my favorite commenters going after the underconsumption argument that I’ve been going on about. It starts by citing Mark Sadowski’s comment from Interfluidity “clarifying the difference between wealth and income.” I found that rather puzzling at first…