Paul Krugman posts a very interesting piece on his blog today by Kim Lane Scheppele about the current state of politics in Hungary.  Scheppele notes that after winning the last election the Fidesz party is radically re-writing the constitution in very anti-democratic ways, attempting to make Fidesz policy and political power permanent. While I would [...]

Greece’s Prime Minister George Papandreou has called for a referendum on the newest EU bailout/austerity program forced on the country. This has caused a rebellion in his own party. The austerity measures that were imposed with the past EU deals have been deeply unpopular with the Greek people, and polls show voters disapprove of this [...]

Using projections from Moody’s analyst Mark Zandi, Paul Krugman came to the conclusion that the Obama-McConnell tax deal could end up hurting President Obama’s 2012 re-election bid by reducing growth rates in the critical months leading up to the election. From Krugman: Look at the Zandi estimates: they show a boost to the economy in 2011, [...]

Gross Domestic Product grew by a pathetic (downward revised) 1.6 percent in the second quarter. This means we are not technically in a recession, but as Paul Krugman aptly put it today, “so what.” Given that we are a country with a growing population, we would need 2.5 percent growth just to keep unemployment stable. [...]