Macroeconomics for Dummies

If you believe -- as I do -- that Rutgers economic historian James Livingston and others are correct in postulating that consumer spending is what really drives the economy, you may also buy into my own modest econometric proposition.

It suggests that while economists may palaver at length about the multiplicity of economic indicators they rely upon to crystal-ball the economy, there is -- at bottom -- only one: the number of items-per-second sold by Amazon on Cyber Monday:

• 2010 – 158
• 2011 – 200
• 2012 – 306
• 2013 – 426

QED.

Economics 2013

Reaganomics: Trickle-down good, demand-side bad.
Liberalonomics: Demand-side good, trickle-down bad.
GHWBushonomics: Trickle-down is “voodoo economics.”
GOPonomics: No new taxes!
Libertarianomics: No taxes.
Popeonomics: “This opinion [trickle-down]…has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system.”
Limbaughnomics: “Pope is a Marxist”.
And, in conclusion,
LBJonomics: “…making a speech on economics is a lot like pissing down your leg, it seems hot to you, but it never does to anyone else.”