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

THE GREAT MODERATION

Since the early 1980s the US economy has undergone a significant shift with the old 3-4 year business cycle giving way to much greater economic stability as since 1984 the US has experienced only two minor recession. It appears that the US has shifted from having a recession roughly every 4 years to one every […]

The game of statistics

The tune for the other game of statistics The Boston Globe printed this poem. By Mary Oliver October 13, 2007 In the language of baseballI am 3 and 2,and not so nimbleas I was once and the game, at the moment,is indecisive.There are many poetswho love baseballwhich is, after all,a metaphorfor many thingsthat happen when […]

Slavery in my backyard 2

Another point of view regarding US slavery is expressed in WAPO. … Congress passed a law, triggering a little-noticed worldwide war on human trafficking that began at the end of the Clinton administration and is now a top Bush administration priority. As part of the fight, President Bush has blanketed the nation with 42 Justice […]

Potential fizzle of WTO GATS?

WTO GATS rounds of talks are really stalled for many reasons on issues of agriculture and food, water, attempts to get developing countries to ‘liberalize’ areas of their concern that we refuse to do in areas of our concern. The potential failure of the sixth Ministerial will actually throw the WTO into a deep crisis. […]

Location, location, location

I was dreaming about my lock on derricks and ports in Canada. For the record, no one sold me Canada’s only main port on the Arctic Ocean. Mr. Broue bought it for $7 American. I bought the railroad that is the only link to the rest of the country(the Hudson Bay Railway)in my dream. However, […]

FDIC op ed in NYT

Sheila C. Blair of FDIC offers an opinion on the mortgage crisis in the NYT. THERE have been many proposals to deal with the problems in the mortgage market. But the best place to begin is by looking at the poor lending standards and weak consumer protections at the root of the problem — in […]

Children’s health care in the better towns

Children’s health care report card demands taking personal parental responsibility, new pay incentives, and real quality checks. Less than half of the outpatient medical care delivered to American children is in line with recommendations for the best treatment, concludes a study released Wednesday.The results, which researchers called “shocking,” show that 47% of the care delivered […]

Sea ice and beach front property

The NYT reminds us of continuing concern of ice melt. The Arctic ice cap shrank so much this summer that waves briefly lapped along two long-imagined Arctic shipping routes, the Northwest Passage over Canada and the Northern Sea Route over Russia. Interactive Graphic Sea Ice in Retreat The Big Melt: A Series From The New […]

Fox News

Fox News carries a story you will be interested in as intelligent descriptive reporting. I did not know they could. Sweeeeeeet.

BLS, Businessweek, and phantom GDP

Business Week carried an article by Are You a Victim of ‘Phantom’ GDP? Here are four signs to help you determine whether your industry’s output and productivity are being overstated According to government statistics, output in almost every major manufacturing industry expanded between 2001 and 2005. That seems a little surprising since manufacturing employment dropped […]