In order to make this timely I am cut and pasting a note from CEPR pointing to the efficacy of cutting spending in the Social Security through means testing. The MSM and politicians have proposed this and raising the retirement age as answers to ‘the deficit’ crisis, some commenters indicating a ‘tipping point’ of disaster […]

Premier Wen Jiabao made stabilizing prices China’s top economic priority for 2011. Amid the surge in world energy costs, this story didn’t make the front page. However, Chinese policymakers did take their time spent out of the limelight to allow the Chinese yuan to appreciate roughly 0.3% against the US dollar. Chinese inflation is elevated […]

Health Care thought: Cost versus Benefit Sixteen year old Wes Leonard made a dramatic last second shot to win a tournament game for Fenville High School in Michigan. Then he fell on the floor and died from cardiac arrest due to an enlarged heart. Every year young athletes die during and after games, many in […]

James K. Galbraith, Lloyd M. Bentsen, Jr. Testify on Sensible Tax Reform Tax policy was demystified in testimony by Galbraith and Bentsen, Jr. Will Congress listen? Statement by James K. Galbraith, Lloyd M. Bentsen, Jr. Chair in Government/Business Relations and Professor of Government, The University of Texas at Austin, and Senior Scholar, Levy Economics Institute, […]

by Linda Bealecrossposted from Ataxingmatter Why Tax Law Should be Required of All Law Students We tax profs have a tendency to tell our colleagues that tax law should be a mandatory topic for all law students because there’s nothing that you do that has economic consequences for which tax law isn’t relevant.  Whether you […]

by Mike HalasyHealthcare concultant and researcher, PA UPDATE: Part 1 here; Part 2 here. (h/t rjs in comments for the suggestion.)Update 2: Post fixed…Dan Medical Malpractice Reform: Truth in Advertising Needed (Part Three of Three) So in the first two articles we have addressed the historic effects of tort reform using Texas as an example, […]

Part of an e-mail from Beverly Mann on additional expansion of corporate personhood concept at the Supreme Court: I agree that, as the article at Raw Story says, the decision is a striking contrast to the court’s ruling in Citizens United, which upended decades of campaign finance regulation, allowing corporations to spend unlimited amounts on […]

by Beverly Mann Does the Tea Party Dislike Goodwin Liu? Politico had an article last week called “Will Senate ever vote on Liu?” Liu is Goodwin Liu, a prominent liberal Constitutional Law professor at the UC, Berkeley. His official profile at the U. is here. Obama nominated him in 2009 to the Court of Appeals […]

Barry Ritholz shines a light on an alternative to the current meme on public sector unions: In a Labor Day address in 1980, Ronald Reagan said: “These are the values inspiring those brave workers in Poland … They remind us that where free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom is lost.” Reagan as above, […]