op-ed by reader coberly SOCIAL SECURITY: Unpacking the Lies Social Security is not difficult to explain. The difficulty comes because EVERYONE has been hearing stories about Social Security that are not true. And they have been hearing them their whole lives, so they believe them in their bones. They do not know that these stories […]
Harpers has an article worth reading on Mukasey and his recent statements regarding former Justice Department hiring practices. Notice the lack of consequences and the lack of actual actions on his part to fix the problem…it is now standard practice from my reading of the statement. The conduct described in those reports is disturbing. The […]
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Before we get to carried away about the impact of the weak dollar on US trade, and especially exports I suggest we look at some recent history. See the previous post. This chart has the dollar inverted, so remember the dollar was strong in the 1990s and weak since 2000. What this shows is that […]
Don Boudreaux at Cafe Hayek requests readers to stay cool and think. To quote: Although I seldom agree with him (her?), I’m glad that Muirgeo has returned to commenting on posts here at the Cafe. Indeed, because I seldom agree with him I’m glad that he’s returned. I ask everyone who comments here to treat […]
Huffington Post has a post on a new proposal from Department of Health Education and Welfare apparently allowing conflation of contraception and abortion for those using federal money in their agencies. Does anyone know more?
For the last several years there has been a conservative, libertarian meme that the drop in the savings rate did not matter because the growth in the value of peoples homes substituted for savings.Even if this was good economics to begin with and did not ignore the point that wealth is a stock and savings […]
Hat tip to CoRev Will I Live to see 80? Here’s something to think about.I recently picked a new primary care doctor. After two visits and exhaustive lab tests, he said I was doing ‘fairly well’ for my age.A little concerned about that comment, I couldn’t resist asking him, ‘Do you think I’ll live to […]
Responding to EconomistMom, he ends his breakdown of flows with: Aiming for a balanced unified deficit over the business cycle would, I think, be a good thing economically–but I really do not see how we could possibly get there. Apparently, spending eight years Serbing the budget has worked. As the current Administration surely knew it […]