Thursday, August 2, 2012

Europe is back on track.

There has been no rescue.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/02/this-isnt-the-draghi-youre-looking-for/

I’m Outta Here

Note to the Europeans: you cannot have a crisis for the next couple of weeks, because I’m going on a long-scheduled family vacation — probably without internet access most of the time. Please wait until the last week of the month.

Theses On Taxes

Some brief notes:
1. Neither candidate is offering a realistic tax plan, because the fact is that the federal government is going to need more revenue than either is currently proposing. But the two men are not equivalent in their unrealism: Obama is proposing to raise revenue by around $80 billion a year compared with current policy, while Romney is proposing to cut revenue by around $450 billion a year compared with current policy. Obama is inadequate; Romney is intensely, screamingly irresponsible.
2. On top of that, Romney is scamming voters, claiming not only that he can make up the lost revenue by closing unspecified loopholes, but that he can do so in a way that doesn’t shift the tax burden away from the rich onto the middle class. He can’t, as a matter of sheer arithmetic — which is the point of that Tax Policy Center study.
3. The Romney campaign isn’t even trying to make a substantive argument in response — they’re just calling names.
Even if you approve of Romney’s policy thrust, you should be appalled by the cynicism and contempt for voters on display.

This Isn’t The Draghi You’re Looking For

Update: Rumor is that the ECB is actually going to do more than Draghi seemed to say.
Oh, my. No concrete action from the ECB, just vague statements of intent.
I’ll post updates when we have more indications of market reaction, but it looks as if European leaders have once again failed to rise to the occasion — even as all indicators are that the ongoing euro area recession is rapidly deepening.
Not good.
Update: Spanish stocks:

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