Tag: greg mankiw

  • We Need to Spur Business Investment. Yeah, Right.

    Comes before the court: Floyd Norris to point out that the heady dividends delivered by corporations 2004-2008 were in many cases not profits, but recycled loans. They borrowed the money, then paid it out to shareholders. Every penny in profits ($2.4 trillion) went out in dividends ($.9 trillion) and stock buybacks ($1.7 trillion), plus another…

  • Mankiw’s Right: Money’s Not the Incentive

    Subtitle: Pipe Dreams Greg Mankiw makes more than a quarter-million dollars a year. We know that, because he's expecting to pay the 2-4% payroll tax surcharge under Obama's tax plan, on any extra dollars he earns. He's also planning to leave his children more $3.5 million dollars (the current inheritance tax exclusion) when he dies.…

  • Paulson/Dodd Plan: Mankiw Stipulates to the Merits

    Greg Mankiw posted the views of a surrogate (his "smart friend") to dis the Paulson/Dodd bailout compromise (buy assets, get warrants/equity as well). His friend addresses the plan on its merits. But when David Leonhardt replied , also addressing the plan's central issues, Mankiw changes tack, arguing that it will screw up the auction process:…

  • Mankiw Endorses Obama, Slams Palin

    The former chair of Bush II's Council of Economic Advisors, in his manifesto, Smart Taxes: An Open Invitation to Join the Pigou Club (pdf): "It is not a stretch to believe that more thought about an issue leads to more reliable conclusions." Okay well, not explicitly. And in any case he does contradict this sentiment…

  • Maybe Obama’s Not So Bad…

    My wonderful friend and former business partner Steve allows as how maybe Obama isn't going to drive our economy into extinction after all. His route to that revelation, via a Mankiw post, puts aside that sage's other comment in the post: [Obama quote:] Over the past decade, we've seen…hefty corporate profits, but a shrinking share…