Nothing sinister. The Social Security and Medicare Annual Reports are released together each year because each interacts deeply with the other. The new Health Care Reform law significantly changes Medicare and so the Obama Administration decided to update its numbers to match the new reality. Which makes sense. But expect opponents to mount a hissy […]

On my way out the door hopefully to score an iPad today. Meaning it is time for the haters to step up. I think this is going to be the greatest advance in human history since the second biggest advance, which of course was baked bread. (The biggest advance obviously being the genius that let […]

The New York Times notes the passing of an important man: Mr. Gates knew what many had forgotten: that Dr. Roberts had made an early and enduring contribution to modern computing. He created the MITS Altair, the first inexpensive general-purpose microcomputer, a device that could be programmed to do all manner of tasks. For that […]

by cactus Economic Views – a Thought Brought About by Yves Smith’s (Excellent Book) Econned I’m still reading Econned, by Yves Smith. Sadly, these days I only have two minutes here or five minutes there. One day I will post something about everything going on right now, but that’s for another time. Anyway, its not […]

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by Rebecca Wilder The GDP recovery is underway. But below the GDP hood, the picture is not as bright. The labor market is weak, and income-generating prospects remain muted. The latter portends a back-up of consumer spending down the road without substantial policy support. Please see Spencer’s post for a very nice interpretation of today’s […]

The 2010 Social Security Report is due out any day now and I thought I could lay some groundwork for a number based discussion of its implications. Starting with changes to the 75 year projection over time. 1996-2.19%1997-2.23%1998-2.19%1999-2.07%2000-1.87%2001-1.86%2002-1.87%2003-1.92%2004-1.89%2005-1.92% 2006-2.02%2007-1.96%2008-1.70%2009-2.01%2010-??Each Report Year the Trustees give an estimate of how much payroll tax would have to go […]

Remember the old sailing ships movies with the tall ship stuck in the doldrums and the crew all out in the long boats pulling the ship behind them in the tropical heat. Well,sometimes these employment reports make me feel like one of those crewmen. Yes, the employment situation has quit deteriorating, and there are encouraging […]

by Rebecca Wilder Edward Harrison at Credit Writedowns is theorizing why the saving rate is falling when it should be rising, as households scram to deleverage their balance sheets. My reaction to this is twofold: first this is a meaningless exercise; but second, and worse yet, there’s likely something very “unhealthy” going on here. Meaningless: […]