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

Same Store Sales

By Spencer With Christmas season upon us and a great deal of attention being focused on the retailers reports of same store sales I thought it would be a good time to report on one of my pet peeves. I see people time and time again taking the retailers same store sales data and deflating […]

Cross-post: A human economy for the twenty-first century

Professor Keith Hart, author of the book The Memory Bank and proprietor of the blog of the same name, has graciously allowed AB to cross-post his 6,000+ word essay, A Human Economy for the Twenty-First Century. Enjoy. Our moment in history Magellan’s crew completed the first circumnavigation of the planet some thirty years after Columbus […]

France? Ireland? Begium? Mauritania? And now Italy

No, not the 2010 World Cup draw. Countries that have more faith in the ability of people paid to protect them than the United States: Since 2002, more than 550 detainees have departed Guantanamo Bay for other destinations, including Albania, Algeria, Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Belgium, Bermuda, Chad, Denmark, Egypt, France, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Jordan, […]

Proposed Financial Overhaul Bill

Rdan How does Congress keep track of such things, if at all, and again who reads these things except those willing to be wonks or lobbyists? Sen. Chris Dodds Proposed Financial Overhaul Bill can be found at the link. Huffington Post notes that de novo is back from Treasury: Despite bipartisan consensus on Capitol Hill […]

More Cautionary Stuff from Generals

Gen. Anthony Zinni, USMC, (Ret.) Remarks at CDI Board of Directors Dinner, May 12, 2004 And what I thought I would do tonight is go through the ten crucial mistakes to this point that we’ve made. Because I think it helps frame what, in fact, has happened over time … and is going to be […]

Crowding Out, Social Security, and the Military Industrial Complex

by Bruce Webb In the course of an exchange between me and a fellow Bear, the question arose if social spending had a crowding out effect on other social spending. In particular if we have a small problem in Social Security and a big problem in providing health care would solving the first problem put […]