Fire and Ice Some say the world will end in fire,Some say in ice.From what I’ve tasted of desireI hold with those who favor fire.But if it had to perish twice,I think I know enough of hateTo say that for destruction iceIs also greatAnd would suffice. Robert Frost Poem hunter Ice (hat tip francis snoot […]
By: Daniel Becker (DOLB) On Countdown (12/9/10), Keith had on Thomas Buffenbarger, president of the International Machinist Union. It was a chance for an “I told you so moment”in that Mr. Buffenbarger noted while campaigning for Secretary Clinton that President Obama would not be a fighter. Go watch the episode. I made my position on […]
by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Health Care: Reality is Ugly An Indiana baby with an extremely rare condition will not be receiving $500,000 experimental surgery at Duke because the State of Indiana cannot afford to pay the bill for the surgery. The immediate howls of protest are directed at the Republican governor, but there are […]
Ten great cities dying of thirst in Wallstreet 24/7 points to a problem already serious in some cases, and during the 2007/2008 drought made readily apparent – our lack of will to address water infrastructure problems and replacement, and our use of water that is outstripping sources. This report by Ceres and Water Asset Management […]
The National Association of State Budget Officers reports on the growing concern for state budgets. (hat tip MG) Spending Remains Lower than Pre-Recession Levels State general fund spending is forecast to rise 5.3 percent in fiscal 2011 as 35 states enacted a fiscal 2011 budget with general fund spending levels above those of fiscal 2010. […]
by Linda BealeMore on the White House “deal” on tax cutscrossposted with Ataxingmatter Dan Shaviro, a colleague at NYU, ends up being hopeful about the Obama-GOP deal. See “The deal on extending the tax cuts“, Start Making Sense, Dec. 6, 2010 and “The tax cut deal: too soon to tell who really won?“, Dec. 7, […]
The NYT pretends that the Cuomo/Rattner battle is about personalities, but briefly let’s the mask slip: Neither side seems willing to budge, each insisting he is the wronged party: the attorney general feels deceived and affronted, and the Wall Street money manager feels persecuted for conduct he views as standard business practice. “‘Feels’ deceived and […]
by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Health Care: Yes, No , Sorta, Kinda, Maybe Medicare rates for physicians have been, supposedly, regulated by the SGR* formula since 1998, but the formula is so wretched and lobbyists so strong the formula has been repeatedly postponed. The Obama administration has been determined to do a one time catch […]
by Mike Kimel The Effect of Changing Top Marginal Tax Rates – an op ed free to a good homeCross posted at the Presimetrics blog. I wrote most of what follows in the anticipation of trying to get it accepted as an op ed at a newspaper, but I guess the deal cut the other […]
Well the answer is in the above figure, or actually answers because the post title actually hides multiple questions depending on your view of Social Security generally. This is going to get kind of long so I will take it below the fold right away. There are actually three lines represented in the figure: scheduled […]