rdan Just a reminder of reality for the many: But Mr. President what does real prosperity look like? There is a fair amount of talk lately that the severity of the current economic downturn will produce new generation of depression-era babies, people terrified into thrift and frugality by the hard times. The Wall Street Journal […]

by Bruce Webb (Update 4/13: several commenters pointed out that this claim is in fact wrong: “In this Report CBO has introduced a new term of art called ‘Primary Surplus’.” ‘Primary surplus’ is not a new term of art at all, it is instead one of five measures of ‘Budget Surplus/Deficit” as described in Table […]

rdan The Plum Line repoprts: Big Liberal Bloggers Tee Off On Progressive Groups For Not Sharing Ad WealthSome of the leading liberal bloggers are privately furious with the major progressive groups — and in some cases, the Democratic Party committees — for failing to spend money advertising on their sites, even as these groups constantly […]

rdan Associated Press reports: Massive investment losses sustained by public pension funds are pressuring state lawmakers from New Mexico to New York to spend more taxpayer money to shore up their programs, boost the retirement age for newly hired government workers and seek more from employee paychecks. Pensions need $270 billion in additional contributions over […]

Robert Waldmann An amazing figure (just click the link) via Don The Libertarian Democratvia Felix Salmon all fascinated by Goldman Sachs. If a bank repackages mortgages and doesn’t sell the securities it *still* can reduce required capital. Wow. Goldman Sachs has been criticized a lot recently, but they do seem to have strong support among […]

rdan Jan 09, 2009 report Congressional Oversight Panel Feb. 6, 2009

Robert Waldmann is trying to write coherent English I might be able to explain the topic of the paper on which I want comments. Here’s my current effort. People often claim to have trouble controlling their spending. Thus as they plan future spending and saving, they would like to restrain their future selves. This can […]

rdan Sovereign Immunity can be invoked to prevent lawsuits by citizens against their government. What is up with the the lastest move to prevent such in wiretapping cases? Update: Glenn Greenwald keeps us up to date.

rdan Subprime by Todd Federman Inspired by “There was an old lady who swallowed a fly”, lyrics by Rose Bonne No money down, two years interest free, Buying a house was no problem you see. And so the young man along with his spouse, They could not afford, but yet bought the house. A company […]

rdan Yves Smith catches a caution from the father of capitalism, Credit cards can charge 30%, definitely not near prime rate for loans. Adam Smith, in The Wealth of Nations, advocated usury laws (limits on interest rates) because they would promote lending to prudent borrowers and productive projects, which was better for society as a […]