The US doesn’t have a good way of determining who’s poor →

In the age of Big Data, we can get closer to solving this problem:

In New York City—the most expensive city in the US—a two-adult, two-child family is considered poor if it earns less than $30,949 a year. The federal government sets the level at about $23,000.

 

The federal poverty threshold, which was developed over five decades ago and is based on what the estimated food costs were for a family at that time, has been widely criticized as being outdated and flawed. Meanwhile, the New York City poverty number, which is calculated by the City’s Center for Economic Opportunity, takes into account all of a family’s expenses, including housing and resources such as government benefits. While the New York poverty number is a closer reflection of how people live, it’s still not the most accurate measurement.

And 2014's Worst Currency Was...Bitcoin →

Albeit Bitcoin is fundamentally different from the currency of nation-states, but this will inform views of the long-term potential of "cryptocurrencies" (even if only in the short term).

Seven Questions About The Recent Oil Price Slump →

Oil prices have plunged recently, affecting everyone: producers, exporters, governments, and consumers.  Overall, we see this as a shot in the arm for the global economy. Bearing in mind that our simulations do not represent a forecast of the state of the global economy, we find a gain for world GDP between 0.3 and 0.7 percent in 2015, compared to a scenario without the drop in oil prices. There is however much more to this complex and evolving story. In this blog we examine the mechanics of the oil market now and in the future, the implications for various groups of countries as well as for financial stability, and how policymakers should address the impact on their economies. 

'What 5 Percent Means' →

OK, that was a seriously impressive GDP report — 5 percent growth rate, and it’s all final demand rather than an inventory bounce. But what does it mean?

It does not necessarily mean that now is the time to tighten; that depends mainly on how far we still are from target employment and inflation, not on how fast we’re growing. ... It’s interesting to note that the bond market seems quite unimpressed, with only a slight uptick in long-term rates.

Time for gaijin to take a second look at Abe's Womenomics →

This interests me on two fronts. I hadn't realized there was any backlash against Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's efforts to undo some structural sexism. And as Noah Smith says:

So if Abenomics succeeds, the thinking goes, Abe might be able to push Japan in a xenophobic direction. But that doesn't explain the particular venom many gaijin writers have toward the Womenomics part of the program. I have a hypothesis to explain this: Abe stole their issue.

You see this all the time in politics. Democrats gave Bush little to no credit for the Medicare expansion. Republicans gave Clinton little to no credit for scaling back welfare. And so on. When a leader of the Enemy Party does something you've long been calling for, the instinctual response is to A) discount it as tokenism, and then B) deride the Enemy Leader for engaging in tokenism.

Reacting to the Sony Hack →

First we thought North Korea was behind the Sony cyberattacks. Then we thought it was a couple of hacker guys with an axe to grind. Now we think North Korea is behind it again, but the connection is still tenuous. There have been accusations of cyberterrorism, and even cyberwar. I've heard calls for us to strike back, with actual missiles and bombs. We're collectively pegging the hype meter, and the best thing we can do is calm down and take a deep breath...

The CIA Torture Program: A Case of Can’t Control or Won’t Control? →

A principal finding is that the CIA actively impeded oversight. It says that the committee was not fully briefed about the application of techniques and some information was restricted to the committee chairmen or vice chairmen. The White House also only had incomplete and inaccurate information. What the report fails to address in the forensic detail it applies to the techniques is just how the White House and Congress allowed the agency to impede oversight for so long?
Elected politicians may have been unfamiliar with “rectal rehydration or rectal feeding without documented medical necessity.” But Congress knew, early on, that the gloves were off. Members could read about it in the Washington Post. The mistreatment of detainees in Afghanistan, deaths in custody, and the use of rendition was on the front page in December 2002...