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

Colors (Mostly) Restored

By overwhelming popular demand the colors are now back to something similar to the original design. I used Firefox (as all right-thinking web surfers should do) when I was testing the layout. Viewed in Firefox, the blog is comprised of nice muted tones and the panels are evenly spaced. However, it doesn’t look nearly as […]

Bush’s Approval Ratings

UPDATE: Gallup reports: Many States Shift Democratic During 2005. For a map of the Gallup results, see my post: America Turning Blue. According to the American Research Group, Bush’s approval rating “Returns to Record Low“: George W. Bush’s overall job approval rating has returned to its lowest point in Bush’s presidency as Americans again turn […]

Health Care: Do Tax-based Subsidies Reduce Costs?

Kash has promised to spend a fair amount of time discussing the health care debate – a topic he assuredly knows far better than yours truly. My contribution to this debate is to toss out a query that has been bugging me for quite a while and this article by Peter Gosselin of the Los […]

Steve Antler Needs a Better Tutor than Stephen Moore

Unless there is some new math that really does say 1.08 divided by 131 equals 6%, Max Sawicky is having fun with Steve Antler. But his On Reaganomics and Supply-side is truly sad as he simply accepts the latest spin from the op-ed pages of the Wall Street Journal as evidence as to the following […]

Iran – Did Anyone Say Imminent Threat?

A week ago, Dean Baker wrote: The latest news about Iran should be very scary to anyone old enough to remember the 2002 elections. Those who lived in that distant time will remember a president slumping in the polls in the wake of a sinking economy and an accounting scandal that centered on his Texas […]

Medical Care Spending: How Big a Bite?

It should come as no surprise to anyone that, partly as a result of a persistently higher-than-average rate of inflation in medical care, consumers have been spending a larger and larger fraction of their income on medical care. So how much of household spending actually goes to health care? Well, that depends on whom you […]

Was Kevin Drum Too Timid to Call Karl Rove on His Latest BS?

Kevin points to the latest GOP attack on my party’s interest in national security – delivered by none other than Karl Rove: “The United States faces a ruthless enemy, and we need a commander in chief and a Congress who understand the nature of the threat and the gravity of the moment America finds itself […]

Dark Matter: Tamny v. Feldstein

While John Tamny does not explicitly have Dark Matter in mind, his criticism of Martin Feldstein largely rest on the thesis: When he served under President Reagan as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, Martin Feldstein called for a weaker dollar to reduce the U.S. deficit in the current account … Nearly twenty years […]

Not Far to Go…

Some members of the FOMC are indicating that the Fed will be raising interest rates a little, but only a little bit more: LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve has lifted interest rates to more appropriate levels amid solid economic growth, policy-makers said Thursday in remarks that hint the U.S. central bank will raise […]

What Do Public Employee Unions Want?

In keeping with my New Year’s resolution, let me say that I agree with Mallory Factor & Phil Kerpen with respect to at least part of the following: Currently, the long-term fiscal-policy outlook is bleak. A report issued last month by the Congressional Budget Office shows that federal spending as a percentage of the U.S. […]