Unpleasant Facts

The only way to solve problems is to be willing to think about them first

QE, the deficit and the TSA: Links

1. Scott Sumner Has an open letter to conservatives about monetary policy.  A lot of it is pretty reasonable, but he makes the mistake of thinking that conservatives care about nominal GDP when in reality they care more about real GDP.

2. My solution to the deficit, according to choices offered by the NYT.  It's nice how they let you cap spending on medicare at GDP rates without explaining how this is going to happen.  But it does show how the budget deficit can be balanced without tax increases. I chose to remove the employer tax break on healthcare (which for some reason the NYT doesn't treat as a tax increase), since the connection between employment and healthcare has been one of the reasons the healthcare system costs have gotten out of control.

3. The quantitative easing debate, in video format. Against QEII. For QEII.

4. Orlando is trying to opt out of the TSA, but the TSA points out that their regulation for private screeners requires them to be just as invasive. Ron Paul proposed a law that would remove the immunity of TSA screeners.  Hopefully this issue will get fixed soon, but preventing is people who think the only thing worse than everyone getting seen naked or groped is a little bit of racial profiling.

Mark Cuban against start ups

Mark Cuban has a blog post up where he shows that he thinks the government should encourage people to work at steady 250k a year jobs rather than getting a job in a potentially successful start up where they are often paid via high capital gains.  He tries to justify this by calling it "earned money" vs. "found money" but his definition of "found money" sounds awfully similar to something that would impact early employees in a successful start up.

The disparity in wealth in this country does not come on the backs of people making 250k, or even 500k or 1mm per year FROM THEIR JOBS. The ever increasing delta between the rich and everyone else does not come from EARNED INCOME at all. It comes from found money.

Found money is when an internet bubble hits and the options you got for 1 dollar are sold for 250. It comes from buying a stock for $1 and seeing it turn into a “10 bagger”. It comes from hitting the lottery. It doesn’t matter whether you were smart or lucky, it is money you FOUND based on good fortune.

He seems to assume that everyone making enough income from multi-hundred percent capital gains for it to be called "found money" is in league with him or Steve Jobs. 
When I sold broadcast.com does anyone seriously think I would have cared if the tax on my FOUND money was 10pct or 20pct more ? Hell no. Would I have made any decisions differently, HELL NO.
But he sets the bar to impact people much lower than that level.

For long term capital gains, it would be more difficult, but I would tax it at a gain greater than $1mm or a basis equal to the compounded CPI for every year held, against a 300pct increase and reduce the GOT LUCKY percentage to 20pct..

He'd have to raise the bar much higher if he wants good people to continue focus on building companies. I know a lot of people who have had to choose between the start up world and the corporate consulting/finance world. Passing a law like this would make it much easier for them to decide to avoid start ups.  

But even with a higher bar, that would only incentivize founders of moderately successful companies to focus on generating cash flow for income and dividend payments sooner than they would otherwise chose to because they would be hit hard by high "Found money" gains if they let their capital appreciate by too much. If raising taxes is the goal, raising it from some of the most productive people by calling it "found money" or a "lucky tax" might sound good but it probably won't work out in practice when the second order effects beyond its impact on Steve Jobs and Mark Cuban are considered.

Do people realize that in the next economic downturn the dollar will most likely strengthen?

People talk about a weak economy and weak currency almost like they are the same thing.  Certain commentators like Peter Schiff encourage this view. However, the correlation in the US has actually been the reverse.

When there is growth, a lot of things are pushing down the dollar at the same time the market goes up.

1. Increased demand for commodities weakens the US's terms of trade.

2. Re-leveraging allows people to increase their bets against the dollar.

3. Many other countries (excluding Japan) have interest rates that react more strongly to global growth, so an economic recovery means that the interest rate differential will become less favorable for the US.

4. When the Federal Reserve promises weaker monetary policy than expected the market reacts positively.

Of the variables listed here, numbers one through three will most likely reverse in a downturn not centered around a dollar crisis. People in macro often focus on reason number 2, calling any dollar strengthening during a downturn a "Dollar carry unwind" in reference to the people who have been short the dollar and long a higher yielding currency that have to close out their positions during volatile markets.  This explanation is probably underweighted by people following the markets from day to day, but correlation it describes is still accurate even if the causal reasons behind it are not.

Political Time Preference: A Case Study

Jerry Brown was governor of California in the late 70's and early 80's.  During that time he had an opportunity to try and push government towards defined contribution plans rather then defined benefit plans, but the topic never came up because he was a big supporter of unions*. Defined contribution plans contain the potential for economic volatility, something unions try to avoid at all costs.  

When Jerry Brown was mayor of Oakland some unions received generous pension increases, presumably in lieu of large pay increases. Defined benefit pension promises are currently a major cause behind California's budget problems, some have estimate that California has about $500 billion in unfunded pension liabilities. So 25 years after his governorship when the pension problem is coming home to roost the people of California decide to elect... Jerry Brown**.

And if we wonder why politicians seem to think too short term, it is because voters don't have very good memories. This short sighted point of view is also why the economic environment of election year is much more influential than other years.

*Maybe it is unfair to blame him for not fixing a problem that no one else in the public sector fixed, but 401(k)'s were written into the law around 1980. His first governorship's term coincided with a large shift among private companies towards defined contribution and away from defined benefit plans. 

**The budget was balanced when he was governor, and the stupider pension mistakes have occurred in the last few decades such as SB400 passed in 1999.  If not for Brown's support of union pensions from his position in Oakland and his support of unions more generally things might be looking up.