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.

About

I studied Bioengineering at the University of California at San Diego. While there I served as a trustee on the investment committee of the UCSD Student Foundation, a group that manages an endowment to fund scholarships. While in college I applied my interest in finance and economics by working as a summer associate at Clarium Capital Management, working part time my senior year, and joining full time when I graduated in 2006, staying there through August 2010. I am currently working as a portfolio manager at another global macro hedge-fund in the Presidio (And blogging about more directly market related ideas at their restricted blog). I’ve been focusing on quantitative finance, currencies, commodities, the interplay between finance and politics, demography and other long term trends.

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