Guest post by Nancy Ortiz (Rdan here…Nancy is a long time reader of Angry Bear and has worked within the Social Security system professionally) One of the many fixes now being considered as a remedy for Social Security and Medicare’s projected shortfalls is means testing benefits. The rationale is that rich people shouldn’t get SS […]

Angry Bear invites Dan Reale. Dan Reale, Chairman of the Libertarian Party of Connecticut replies with this e-mail: Libertarians oppose the initiation of force to promote social or political goals. We acknowledge that a “right” is a power, faculty or ability inherent to ownership and incident upon another. This applies to both to your property […]

An Invitation for Libertarians Here at Angry Bear, we’ve had a number of posts on LIbertarians over the years. Inevitably, someone writes to tell us we’re misrepresenting Libertarians… even when we’re quoting well known libertarians. So… if you are libertarian consider this an invitation. Send me one to three paragraphs on what it means to […]

I don’t see why the aggregate state funding gap is not numero uno on the ‘risks’ to the US outlook (I usually hear oil, Europe, China, etc., in my line of work). According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the State budget gap is not expected to clear at least through 2013. From […]

by Beverly Mann Paul Clement’s weird tail-can-morph-the-dog ACA-litigation argument Earlier this month I wrote a post called “Markets and the ACA: Why the Supreme Court Will Uphold the ACA” that discussed an article-length post by Santa Clara constitutional law prof. Brad Joondeph published on a blog he runs dedicated entirely to the ACA litigation. I […]

As our manufacturing sector has shed jobs, especially during the past 15 years, there have been few opportunities for young people to start working and train in manufacturing. Now that manufacturing is picking up just a little, and as the boomer work force hits retirement age, there are reports of a growing shortage of skilled […]

We have just printed the eleventh (11th) straight week in which new jobless claims have exceeded 400,000 people. As Krugman notes, “The Fed predicts disastrously high unemployment as far as the eye can see(pdf) [a]nd, in response to this dire prospect, it declares its work done.” So this it is almost palliative that Barry Ritholtz […]

Guest post by Michael Halasy AMA backs the mandate… The AMA has its annual House of Delegates meeting last week, and boy, are they concerned. Recent evidence has suggested that they have lost 12,000 members since 2009. Much of this has been due to the AMA’s support of the PPACA. Today, the HOD voted to […]

by Mike Kimel Ignorance, Fake Turing Tests, and Bads I don’t think Bryan Caplan realized he was advocating ignorance as a strategy for passing this non-Turing test. But it actually got me thinking. I may soon be spending a bit of time on a small project that some years ago I might have tackled by […]

PGL, in the process of an optimistic piece, points us to Martin Feldstein ringing in 2011. Apparently, the reason is this: The most substantial potential boost to spending comes from a temporary reduction of the payroll tax, lowering the rate paid by employees on income up to about $100,000 from 6.2 per cent to 4.2 […]