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

Congress whittles many beaks

by ilsm If the war machine were not for the jobs and the PAC’s it may be more useful than whittled beaks. New England politicians saved jobs, diverted funds from better uses, many outside the military industrial complex. The Navy will build a third Zumwalt class destroyer. The Navy does not need a destroyer which […]

Static News

Billy asked me as a point of interest to alert people to the show for Millenium age voters. He is pro McCain, but his partner on air Stephen is pro-Obama. It is intended to be educational but not neutral as in a classroom. I shall be watching sometimes to see how they do. (Bios on […]

No laboring in economics

by: Divorced one like Bushat the beach on vacation Ha! Gee the economics profession is ignoring labor. I wonder why. Could it be who we follow? It’s not like we don’t quote old Adam often. Free market and ghost hand ideas are mentioned all the time as we follow Milton: According to The Economist, Friedman […]

Economic theory and workers

Michael Perelman at Econospeak and here has thoughts on the role of the worker in economic theory I found interesting. An August 8, 2008 search of 73 economics journals collected electronically in the JSTOR database revealed how marginal work, workers, and working conditions has become in economic literature. Of the articles published since January 2004, […]

New graphic data on taxes, growth, and revenues

(rdan here: I will put part of this post under the fold a little later in the day and delete this comment…I thought more would read it intact at first) by cactus This is a follow-up to a I wrote the other day, taking into account some very helpful suggestions from many helpful readers in […]

There’s almost $200 lying on the street; WWTD?

Since I’m cash-strapped for the next few years, I’m looking for ways (legally, semi-legal, other) to make money. Thank the L-rd for WaMu. Let’s see: HELOC is at Prime – 0.76%, currently 4.24%. So I can: Take $25,000 from HELOC. Invest in FDIC-insured WaMu CD for 12 months at 5.00%. Profit until the fourth 0.25% […]

An Economist Who Doesn’t Believe People Respond to Incentives

Ladies and gentlemen, Tyler (“So Right It Hurts“) Cowen presents the following, er, argument: Excessive bank regulation is another danger. To be sure, the regulatory structure for financial institutions failed in the current crisis, and change is in order. But we shouldn’t reform in a way that will discourage bank lending and weaken the tie […]

Social Security 2027: A date for action?

I spend a good deal of time talking about ‘Nothing’ as a plan for Social Security. You can make an excellent numeric case for ‘Nothing’ in the short run VIII: Calculating the Cost of Inactivity and you can make a reasonable economic case for ‘Nothing’ in the long run II: The Shape of Low Cost. […]

The Silver Standard

Poblan Unico jamás será vencido Extremely regular readers of AngryBear will have noticed that I became a guest contributor a while ago. Then I vanished. The reason is that I have become obsessed with Presidential Polling and don’t have much original to say about it. A dialog from last night between me and my 11 […]

One Aussie viewpoint

Lessons from Italy and Australia by One Salient Oversight Statements:———————–1. Together, the amount of money the Italian government spends on debtservicing (interest plus paying back principal) is €263,663 million. Now let’s put that number in perspective. €263,663 million represents a whopping 41.2% of the Italian government’sspending in 2007. According to the same document, Italy’s GDP […]