Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

CRS: Social Security: What Would Happen If the Trust Funds Ran Out?

(Dan here…reposted due to discussion in a previous thread) CRS: Social Security: What Would Happen If the Trust Funds Ran Out? Bruce Webb | July 21, 2015 Very interesting paper that I missed in real time. Social Security: What Would Happen If the Trust Funds Ran Out? Almost everyone who addresses this question assumes that the answer […]

“One neat trick to stop Social Security ‘Reform'”

Republicans constantly try to bring Social Security into ongoing debates about ‘Balanced Budgets’. But they face a fundamental problem with their math. For a variety of reasons, some quite reasonable and others nakedly political (seniors vote) nearly every ‘Reform’ proposal out there promises to hold 55 and older harmless. Meaning you can’t have any more […]

2nd Amendment/Open Carry vs Police “I feared for my life”

Supporters of Open Carry and ‘Must Issue’ Concealed Carry insist that no one should be afraid of someone exercising his or her 2nd Amendment Rights whether that be in some public park or the aisles of your local Wal-Mart. Yet right along side that we have a doctrine that everyone should comply with every request […]

“Kremlin: Obama’s Trump criticism anti-Russian, won’t foster better ties”

Wow, I don’t know quite what to say here but this is an honest to God headline from Reuter’s Kremlin: Obama’s Trump criticism anti-Russian, won’t foster better ties Now we can take it as given that none of Obama, Trump or even the Russians are responsible for writing Reuter’s headlines. So I leave it to […]

Kevin Durant’s New Oaktown Crib

OK actually about half a mile from the Oakland border. But as a Bay Area ex-pat I am kind of drooling over the Warriors up-side (and they are already pretty up). Suck it Lakers.

You DID hear it here first. I picked Becerra for VP 15 months ago.

Clinton-Becerra 2016 Back then and even now it was and is ‘Xavier Who?’ But equally nobody thought Trump would even be running, still less making his campaign largely center on the Yuuuge Wall. And a lot of progressives are little leery of Julian Castro based on his mixed record as HUD Secretary. I think Congressman […]

Major Foreign Holders of U.S. Treasuries: now with greater country breakouts

MAJOR FOREIGN HOLDERS OF TREASURY SECURITIES (in billions of dollars) Don’t have a lot to say except to note that previous versions of this table lumped together “Oil Producers” and “Caribbean Banking Centers” while this disaggregates them. This leaves the Cayman Islands in third place at $265 bn while putting Saudi Arabia down to 13th […]

How Trump Can Drive the Republican Establishment/1%ers to the Libertarian Party

Lot of angst out there among the Republican Establishment facing the Era of Trump. They are facing a candidate who combines a fatal toxic brew of nativism/racism with economic and foreign policy stances that (to the extent they are even coherent) go against every tenet of Conservative orthodoxy on both sides of the Reagan/Elder Bush […]