Robert Waldmann Tries to answer. Drum summarizes better than Waldmann Last year Christina and David Romer wrote a paper that attempted to quantify the effect of tax changes on economic growth. I read it at the time and didn’t understand it. I read it again a few minutes ago and I still don’t understand it. […]

by reader coberly WHY BILL GATES GETS SOCIAL SECURITY for Aaron In a recent thread reader Aaron asserts in his confident way that “if Trump, Soros, and Redstone get Social Security “then in can’t be an insurance policy for poverty in old age. These three are not poor yet they qualify for social security.” To […]

by: Divorced one like Bush As we watch the “team” Obama is putting together and the discussions regarding how reflective of progressive ideas they are vs same old, same old, I thought I would add to the hunt for Obama’s true identity. These are comments from his policy positions regarding development of our living environment […]

Robert Waldmann reads Eric Dash and Julie Creswell who argue that Citibank took insane risks holding CDOs on its books, because of a failure of the fixed incomes risk management team, reckless ‘short termism’ and two amazing mistakes. The two alleged mistakes are that they trusted the ratings agencies and that they assumed that the […]

Via Felix, we discover Joe Nocera at the NYT reporting that securitization professionals are not as stupid as they would have had us believe: What [the FDIC] has discovered, said [Michael H. Krimminger, the F.D.I.C.’s special adviser to the chairman for policy], is that the contracts are rarely as constricting as investors and servicers have […]

Bloomberg has an article on the international implications to remind us competitors are watching and acting as many of us look inward very intensely. This article reminds us that even though the Doha rounds are done, the WTO structure is in place. A U.S.-triggered spate of global carmaker-bailout proposals may spark trade disputes over whether […]

rdan David Sirota at Salon has reflected my take on media and says it much better than I. And here in addition to the first link. If you’re having trouble remembering what the recent election was all about, rest easy: You’re probably not going senile — you’re likely experiencing the momentary effects of brainwashing. For […]

Late Working-Age Suicides Rising: Study Noni Mausa This study from the American Journal Of Preventive Medicine offers troubling statistics – between 1999 and 2005, there has been roughly a 5% increase in suicide rates. But all that increase is confined to one demographic — whites aged 40 to 64. An L. A. Times story today […]

Robert Waldmann Matthey Yglesias points to an old mediamatters.com report which attempts to demolish the center right nation claim. I think the report is a precious resource as it collects the relevant data. Previously I found myself wasting a lot of time searching pollingreport.com. I have some thoughts on the report after the jump. update: […]

By Bruce Webb PGL raises and answers this question over at Econospeak Health Care Debate: So This is Why Conservatives Hate Social Security. Or rather he allows Conservatives in the person of Michael Cannon at Cato admit the fundamental truth: successful government social programs fatally undercut future political success for the Right. Cannon: Blocking Obama’s […]