Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism points us to exploring how the pursuit of “efficiency”, for example in supply chains, without assessing what other risks are involved and planning ahead can result in major problems: It isn’t all that hard to understand that stressing efficiency at all cost comes at the expense of safety. Engineers will […]

by Linda Beale Audit rates for the rich increasing–about time crossposted with Ataxingmatter Note to readers:  sorry for the long absence again–personal circumstances prevented my blogging for the last several weeks.  I hope that I can again resume regular blogging now, but do apologize for the absence. The IRS recently released its 2010 Data Book, […]

David Zetland at Aguanomics offers this review of a topic that gets little national attention – the use of water between watershed areas, water rights, and how we value water to date at least in this area of the country. Use of water and policy on water use tends to be regionally and locally based, […]

Health Care: Defining an ACO Having recently plowed through about hundreds of pages on Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) and Integrated Delivery Systems (IDSs), I should know how to define an ACO. But I don’t know, not exactly. Using an old Supreme Court standard, I know one when I see it, I think, because of certain […]

The Guardian via Alternet offers this note on the Bradley Manning pre-trial treatment: PJ Crowley Resigns After Remarks Bashing Bradley Manning’s Detention PJ Crowley, the official spokesman at the state department, has fallen on his sword after calling the treatment of Bradley Manning, the alleged source of the WikiLeaks files, “counterproductive and stupid”. The resignation […]

op-ed by Dale CoberlyIs It or Isn’t It (And what is a “budget” anyway) There have been a number of comments and counter-comments on the subject of the definition of “on budget.” I may have contributed to this “debate” by referring to Social Security as “off budget.” I knew what I meant, and I thought […]

In a perfect world, you use distilled HOH to cool and control a nuclear reactor. In a flawed world, you use potable HOH and hope nothing damages the reactor in the longer term. In an emergency, especially one where potable HOH is going to be in short supply and you are near the coast, you […]

{Cross posted from dKos Social Security Defenders group. Some parts will be pretty familiar to AB readers} You may have to bear with me here. Because very few people have seriously examined what a solvent Social Security system would actually look like. One of those that has is (thankfully) Steve Goss, the Chief Actuary of […]

McConnell is Partially Right About Government Employment David Weigel listens to Senator McConnell so we don’t have to: Weigel says: I looked at the government employment data provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and it is true that most of those working for the government work for state and local government. As our table […]

by Mike Kimel Justifying Progressive Tax RatesCross posted at the Presimetrics blog. The Atlantic’s website carries a blog by a conservative/libertarian who writes very well on a wide variety of topics, and who sometimes covers economic issues with great insight. Of course, I’m talking about Andrew Sullivan. (What, you didn’t think… of course not. Don’t […]