There is no Zero Lower Bound!

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-22/draghi-signals-new-stimulus-may-come-this-year-as-growth-falters


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-22/the-great-negative-rates-experiment

Discretionary Fiscal Spending

The news story http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/20/us/politics/republican-freedom-caucuss-revolt-in-house-is-stoked-back-home.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=1

refers to a Congressional Budget office report that indicates the levels of discretionary fiscal spending has dropped as a percentage of GDP.


Congressional Budget Office report: https://www.cbo.gov/publication/50724

The Bolivar

On inflation: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/19/world/americas/few-in-venezuela-want-bolivars-but-no-one-can-spare-a-dime.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top--news&_r=0

Thee Modern Tools of Monetary Policy

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-21/these-are-the-fed-s-three-weapons-if-the-economy-falters

More on Glass-Steagall

Here is another opinion article that mentions the Glass-Steagall Act:  http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/16/opinion/democrats-republicans-and-wall-street-tycoons.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region

Glass-Steagall and Dissent on the FOMC

In the recent Democratic debate, the Glass-Steagall Act was mentioned.  Here are some opinion pieces concerning the Glass-Steagall Act:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/15/upshot/what-is-glass-steagall-the-82-year-old-banking-law-that-stirred-the-debate.html?hpw&rref=upshot&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

and

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-10-14/clinton-is-right-glass-steagall-is-debate-democrats-don-t-need

Also this week, a couple of members of the Federal Open Market Committee publicly disagreed with the majority’s view of monetary policy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/14/business/economy/a-2nd-fed-governor-opposes-raising-rates-this-year-breaking-with-yellen.html?hpw&rref=business&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

Poverty, Health Insurance, and Median Household Income

In the article

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/17/us/politics/census-bureau-poverty-rate-uninsured.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

the author notes that the number of people without health insurance has declined in the last year, but that there was no significant change in median household income or the poverty rate.

Neil Irwin comments on this in the blog post at

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/17/upshot/why-americans-still-think-the-economy-is-terrible.html

He notes that median income has been falling for several years.

In

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-16/the-richest-americans-are-winning-the-economy-recovery

the authors note that only the richest have fully recovered from the Great Recession