Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Joseph Stiglitz: Of the 1% by the 1% for the 1%

by Daniel Becker This is an interview of Joseph Stiglitz on Democracy Now regarding his article in the current Vanity Fair.  He discuss the issue of income inequality, taxes, etc and how it has set us up to be less of a land of oportunity than what old Europe was. A few quotes: The question […]

How to Soak the Rich Without Making them buy Bigger Houses

This is new. This post by Matthew Ygelsias isn’t about monetary policy, and I don’t find it convincing at all. He wrote if you raise high-end marginal rates while leaving deductions alone, what you do is massively increase the value of the deductions. The home mortgage interest tax deduction, for example, is both distributively regressive […]

What Will We Tell the Doctors?

“The practice of medicine was accepted to be a chancy way to make a living, and nobody expected a doctor to get rich, least of all the doctors themselves.”  – Lewis Thomas, The Youngest Science, p. 4 (Penguin, 1995 edition, quote via Google Books) Lost in the discussion of Paul Ryan’s “plan” is the group […]

Why Would Anyone Call Congressman Ryan’s Plan "a Budget"?

More on the health-care later, but let me be clear: Congressman Paul Ryan’s “plan” is NOT a budget. Budgets show Sources and Uses. As the CBO analysis makes clear, this “budget” is no more a budget than Ryan’s last round of fakery. To wit: The path for revenues as a percentage of GDP was specified […]

Retail Sales

Much is being made of the reported gains in same store sales by major retailers. But it may be best to take these reports with a grain of salt. Until late last year price increases in the retail sector were minimaland the reported retail sales increases reflected real gains. Through year end the Y/Y deflator […]

Justice Kennedy’s Hard-Right Turn After (and Because of?) Citizens United

by Beverly Mann Justice Kennedy’s Hard-Right Turn After (and Because of?) Citizens United Anyone who watches the Supreme Court closely surely recognizes that Justice Kennedy last year took a hard-right turn, effectively removing himself from the role of swing voter and siding nearly always with the Court’s four-member rightwing bloc in ideologically determined cases. This […]

Wisconsin Judicial Election

Wisconsin Supreme Court election update They seem to have gone to sleep over in Wisconsin. I did too but now I’m awake.The current state of the supreme court election is that 3,596 of 3,630 precincts have reported and the incumbent conservative Walker ally is Prosser is ahead of the challenger Kloppenberg by 733,074 to 732489, […]