Robert Waldmann Matt Taibbi is to Robert Rubin as Glenn Beck is to George Soros.

There is a lot of fanfare today about the success of GM to date as it turns around the bankruptcy of a couple years ago. Let’s look at the nature of this success, which may offer voters an insight into patterns of successful competition as it stands today. So, what does the new GM look […]

Hat tip Economist’s View for Lane Kenworthy’s post on growing the GDP and distribution of the benefits. It is also related to concpts determining trade policies: None of these countries significantly increased the share of GDP going to government transfers. What happened is that some nations did more than others to pass the fruits of […]

by Linda Beale Tax cuts and deficit commissionscrossposted with Ataxingmatter The game continues, as Republicans hold out for tax cuts for the wealthy (who are garnering increasing amounts of the total income) and various “deficit commissions” put out austerity plans that all call for cutting Social Security benefits and Medicare benefits. Alice Rivlin, who spoke […]

On Econbrowser last week: The Impact of Health Insurance Reform in Massachusetts The use of emergency rooms for routine care fell, as did hospital admissions for treating preventable conditions, and the proportion of uninsured among hospital inpatients (by 36%), while there was no increase in the growth of hospital costs. From the NBER Digest article […]

by Bruce Webb Well it is out and I have a copy. And no doubt in short order it will be up at the following web-page: http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/solvency/index.html but as of 10:43 AM PST it wasn’t. Because just like the SSA score of the Chairmen’s proposal there is a lag between release and web publication. I’ll […]

It’s Back! H.R. 3808 Interstate Recognition of Notarization Act of 2010…simply a watch and see item after the pocket veto by Pres. Obama, to be voted on today for confirming or overturning the veto, noted by 4closureFraud. Update: Voting in the House was pretty much by party…results are here.

by Linda Beale Brad DeLong on Economists (and non-economists)crossposted with Ataxingmatter In Economists (and Non-Economists) Behaving Very Badly Indeed Watch, Brad DeLong accosts the austerity bandwagon that objects to any more federal stimulus, whether from Congress or from the Fed. At the moment our flow of nominal spending at $14.7 trillion per year is some […]

by Bruce Webb And by ‘framing’ I mean as in Film Noir gangster movies rather than Lakoffian terms. (Apropos of nothing, Prof. Lakoff gave me the worst grade I ever got in college, but felt so bad about it I wanted to tell HIM to ‘buck up’. Long time ago.) Peter Orszag has made quite […]

by Mike Kimel Extrapolated September 2010 Debt, by President Cross-posted at the Presimetrics blog. This one is quick and dirty because I’m very low on time…. Anyhow, these days there’s a lot of talk about the debt, and some talk about how irresponsible Obama is, or maybe its GW. Who knows, there’s a lotta talk […]