rdan Trade policy debate begins in Pennsylvania? America’s economy is now struggling to recover from the Great Recession. But even when the economy was said to be humming, it did not work for most Americans. Wages were stagnant or declining and the costs of basics – health care, housing, college – were soaring. Growth was […]

by reader coberly Andrew Biggs wrote that current Medicare recipients have not paid enough for the benefits they will recieve. He states that “since this is zero sum, it means that future taxpayers will get less than they pay for.” Here is an excerpt of what he said, followed by my comments. Biggs said: unlike […]

rdan H/T Naked Capitalism for this New York Times article concerning the loan program established in May to help small businesses as part of the stimulus program. With $255 million, the program is prepared to make about 10,000 loans of up to $35,000 each. As of Monday, the agency reported that only 1,127 loans, totaling […]

by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Co-ops. Workable? The compromise to the “public plan,” as Robert points out in an earlier post, is the creation of co-ops (Robert wants to set up one giant co-op, which of course is his way of saying we should set up the “public option” whatever we call it). But suppose […]

a cross post by Susan of Texas Innovation Like many other pundits with good employer-provided health insurance, Megan McArdle has decided the rest of the country cannot have any type of national health care or insurance. She has given many reasons: rationing will kill your granny, drug companies need to charge the US more to […]

by cactus Holy wow. Here’s something in the NY Times: The Supreme Court on Monday ordered a federal trial court in Georgia to consider the case of Troy Davis, who is on death row in state prison there for the 1989 murder of an off-duty police officer.…Seven of the witnesses against Mr. Davis have recanted, […]

rdan You may have noticed the change in font size for text. I was experimenting with the font size and inadvertently saved the change, which for some reason does not readily change back. It should be easy through the widgets…however, meanwhile, let me know if the font size is easier or harder to read, and […]

Angry Bear is looking for an economist or other bright mind (no jokes please…well, some anyway)) to help us keep the issue of trade, trade policy, WTO, trade deficit/surpluses in the global and national contexts on the front burner at Angry Bear, not just sometimes. Send me an e-mail if you have the interest and […]

rdan The New York Times carries a story that is actually probably of more import than Fed announcement of not renewing the Treasury Bond program. Wednesday’s ruling goes to the heart of one of the biggest trade issues pending between China and the West: whether intellectual property, like copyrighted songs, books and movies, should be […]