by Tom Walker (aka Sandwichman) (Dan here…this piece is in the middle of a conversation starting in 1997 to now and how we measure up in our capacity or willingness to learn different lessons from the series of financial bailouts of the last thirteen years. The links are necessary to flesh out the argument, but […]

by Linda Beale Increasing taxes on the richcrossposted with Ataxingmatter Sometimes a few letters to the editor can restore one’s faith in the sensibleness of fellow Americans.  I particularly like Jerry Trupin’s Nov. 25, 2010 New York Times letter responding to Nicholas Kristof’s article on hedge funds.  In A Hedge Fund Republic, New York Times, […]

What Treasury under Geither does, according to the Washington Post: “I think we are known as the front line,” said [Michael] Pedroni, 38, a former International Monetary Fund economist and Federal Reserve Bank of New York employee who has spent time at a Wall Street research firm. “Our analysis is meant to be very candid, […]

A letter sent from Ireland (updated): For less than what the US spent to save AIG, a corporation, with relatively easy terms; a country sinks below the financial waves. TBTF reaches across the ocean. As posted by Zeus-boy, his comments on his homeland of Ireland. (introduction by run75441) Ireland is Bankrupt Herman Van Rompuy, President […]

This is another post linking to Ezra Klein. I can’t help linking to his post noting that self identified Republicans and Democrats agreed about how the economy was going when Clinton was President, but then disagreed when Bush was President, with most Republicans saying it was excellent or good in 2006. The data from Pew. […]

First, there was Fred Schwed’s Where are the Customer’s Yachts?, which is still the standard bearer for why Money Managers are overpaid. Now (via the NYT) there is The Investment Answer (preface here [PDF]). The Prologue opens more Matt Taibbi than Jason Zweig: Wall Street brokers and active money managers use your relative lack of […]

by Linda Beale Friday Animations: Why is health care reform so difficultcrossposted with Ataxingmatter If you think about it, health care surely is one of the basic human needs that we should try to ensure is met for every person, if at all possible. That’s the idea behind universal health care–that is, that the US […]

Higher Wages, Profit Sharing and Greater Flexibility Benefit All Employees — And the Company Bottom Line Too(link repaired) Costco is so certain that its policy is sound that it has kept paying better wages than rivals, even as Wall Street has pressured the company to conform to industry standards. As the economy slowly recovers, it’s […]

To solve the deficit, the numbers add up – but not the votes Ezra Klein The sudden proliferation of deficit-reduction plans is a reminder that the deficit is, at its heart, a math problem. To get the budget into “primary balance” in 2015 – that’s wonk-speak for a balanced budget before interest payments, and it’s […]

EEOC offers this information: The Commission heard testimony from a number of experts on the impact of the economic crisis on older workers, the legal issues surrounding age discrimination today, and best practices to retain older workers. Dr. William Spriggs, Assistant Secretary for Policy, U.S. Department of Labor, testified that the rate of unemployment for […]