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

Tech Companies: Be your own town and government

I saw this bit of news on Steven Colbert’s show last night. Seems Nevada’s Democratic Governor thinks tech companies need to be their own town. The thinking is that this is a way to attract business development without spending money. What could go wrong? From the AP news: “Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak announced a plan […]

Did you hear the one about a corporation and a democracy?

Time for a bit of comic relief. (video below the fold)  Julianna reporting on Net Neutrality.  Remember when President Obama said the days of lobbyists setting the agenda was over? I’m posting this here because this is about “markets”.  It is about competition.  It is about freedom.    The free market competition of…wait for it…IDEAS.  It […]

Who is the true beneficiary of welfare? or Please define: Entitlement

I wrote in February of 2012 about welfare: Welfare, I’m not hurting from it and neither are you. I noted the following: but it looks to me like what we spend on welfare is not much more than what the government is spending on just doing the government thingy, unless of course people can’t get […]

Don’t encourage them…

Via Holly, I learned of this cool site called: Sidewalk Bubblegum.   The subtitle is: Cartoons about War, Racism, Sexism, Capitalism, Worker Rights, Human Rights, the Environment and Consumerism. I really thought this one gets it so perfect.  From 1996 no less!  

The Great Recession captured in 1 minute of comedy

Just watch this.  It is 1 minute long. Could it be anymore surreal? HOW MANY TIMES DO WE HAVE TO DO THIS? HOW MANY FREAKIN’ TIMES DO WE HAVE TO LEARN THE LESSON? Obviously, the lesson has not been relearned since at least sometime before 1992.  If it had been relearned, we would not be […]

Welfare, I’m not hurting from it and neither are you.

A good friend and I got into an email debate. He sent me the latest message regarding how wonderful it is that Florida is going to be drug testing welfare recipients. I responded that I’ll consider the policy when we start testing all the CEO’s who get welfare for their sector of the economy, the […]

Senators Levin and Isakson: millionaire surtax vs corporate repatriation subsidy

by Linda Beale Senators Levin and Isakson: millionaire surtax vs corporate repatriation subsidy The PBS News Hour last night interviewed Senators Levin and Isakson on the jobs bill (video and transcript available here). Isakson was first off.  He sounded like a right wing sound bite machine: we’re overregulating businesses so we need a “time out” […]

Corporate Taxes from the AEI perspective–the AEI report gets an F

by Linda Beale Corporate Taxes from the AEI perspective–the AEI report gets an Fcrossposted with Ataxingmatter [edited to correct typos and add link to CTJ and Leonhardt articles 2/19pm] Kevin Hassett, an economic grunt at the American Enterprise Institute and frequent contributor to the Wall Street Journal op-ed pages, prepared a report for the institute […]

Price elasticity, taxes and wages: Or, why I don’t take wingnut economics seriously

by Bruce Webb It is I think a truism that in any economic enterprise all costs ultimately have to come out of price, that in the end ‘the customer pays’. But what is not true is that price is infinitely elastic, at some point price in and of itself will restrain demand, and while you […]