Jobless Benefits Extension Will Reduce Unemployment, Not Increase It

Contra a WSJ columnist, the stimulative impact outweighs any negatives

By Felix Salmon   Dec 9, 2010 at 08:32 PM

Last week, when I wrote my post on how to boost employment, the list started off unambiguously: The first—and this... More

The New York Times Demonizes the Bond Market

By Felix Salmon   Dec 8, 2010 at 03:22 PM

Did you know there's a fight to the death going on in Europe? The NYT covers it today, under the... More

The $100 hamster wheel

By Felix Salmon   Dec 7, 2010 at 10:26 AM

Back on October 1, the Fed put out a short, bland press release announcing "a delay in the issue date... More

Can Rolling Stone Claim Blankenship’s Scalp?

By Felix Salmon   Dec 6, 2010 at 04:59 PM

Can Rolling Stone claim another scalp? Six months after ending the career of Stanley McChrystal, Rolling Stone published Jeff Goodell's... More

Crain’s Calls Out the Bank of New York

By Felix Salmon   Dec 6, 2010 at 12:55 PM

With Peter Eavis having left the WSJ, who will join Jonathan Weil and David Reilly in taking on the job... More

A Credulous NYT Piece on Dimon

By Felix Salmon   Dec 6, 2010 at 08:31 AM

I'm not a huge fan of Roger Lowenstein's NYT Magazine piece on Jamie Dimon, which comes complete with a positively... More

The NYT and the Urgency of the Unemployment Crisis

By Felix Salmon   Dec 3, 2010 at 11:02 AM

The unemployment rate has long been called Obama's Katrina, but at this point it's clear that it's much worse than... More

Shorting the “Heard”

By Felix Salmon   Nov 24, 2010 at 11:26 AM

Does the Ireland crisis bespeak a major weakness in the Basel capital-adequacy regime? Simon Nixon thinks so: the fact that... More

Expertise Mission Creep

A sensationalist headline shows how TV tempts commentators to reach

By Felix Salmon   Nov 23, 2010 at 12:15 PM

Last week, Chris Whalen appeared on Tech Ticker with Henry Blodget; he said, in the accurate if sensationalist words of... More

Benjamin Wey and the Power of PR

By Felix Salmon   Nov 23, 2010 at 12:33 AM

In September, one Benjamin Wey, calling himself "Chinese American Financial Expert Foremost Expert On Chinese Business in U.S.," put out... More

Still Looking for Good MSM Coverage of Indian Microfinance Crisis

By Felix Salmon   Nov 18, 2010 at 01:08 PM

Are we ever going to get a good article on the hugely important microcredit crisis in the Indian state of... More

WSJ’s Casino Piece: A Few Details Short of a Full Deck

By Felix Salmon   Nov 17, 2010 at 04:07 PM

Alexandra Berzon has an enjoyable piece in today's WSJ about the Cosmpolitan, the new $4 billion casino, fully paid for... More

The Treasury Stops by Freakonomics

By Felix Salmon   Nov 14, 2010 at 11:31 PM

I love the way that Michael Mundaca, the assistant Treasury secretary for tax policy, has taken to the blogs to... More

Re-examining the mortgage interest deduction

By Felix Salmon   Nov 14, 2010 at 11:21 PM

One of the positive effects of the deficit commission report is the way that it has brought the stupid mortgage-interest... More

The NYT’s attempt to fix the budget

By Felix Salmon   Nov 14, 2010 at 11:05 PM

In the wake of his excellent rent-vs-buy calculator, David Leonhardt has helped create another interactive tool, this one called... More

Another WSJ Deficit Plan Headline Misses the Mark

By Felix Salmon   Nov 12, 2010 at 12:18 PM

The WSJ does none of its readers any favors with its silly headline attempting to sum up the effects of... More

Medicare and the Deficit

The commission noise aside, it’s all that matters

By Felix Salmon   Nov 11, 2010 at 11:40 AM

The most clear-eyed view of the silliness of the deficit commission report comes from Kevin Drum, who points out that... More

Brad DeLong’s Fiscal Manifesto

By Felix Salmon   Nov 9, 2010 at 03:13 PM

Brad DeLong is fed up with vague hand-waving from technocrats, Bob Rubin very much included, who call for the government... More

Beyond Just-the-Facts

A debate illuminates the Fed’s latest moves

By Felix Salmon   Nov 8, 2010 at 12:15 PM

After the Fed formally announced its new bout of quantitative easing, the CFR’s Sebastian Mallaby lost little time in declaring... More

Nasiripour on America’s Failing Monetary Policy

By Felix Salmon   Nov 5, 2010 at 08:52 AM

Shahien Nasiripour has delivered a massive 4,000-word article on the Fed’s monetary policy, laying out with great clarity just... More