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

Herman Cain, funded by Koch Bros, Says "Let the Little Guys Pay Taxes

by Linda Beale Herman Cain, funded by Koch Bros, Says “Let the Little Guys Pay Taxes (not the uber-rich) The New York Times’ “Room for Debate” ran a ‘mini-op-ed’ segment on Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan, called “What’s So Bad About a Flat Tax?” New York Times (Oct. 14, 2011) (with the subtitle: Isn’t Herman […]

Piling On William Keller

William Keller who until recently was executive editor of The New York Times asserts that Venezuela is a neighbor of Peru. A screenshot and a geography lesson are after the jump. I am following Glenn Greenwald, via Brad DeLong and was scooped on breaking geography news by Tim Dickonson and DeLong commenter GvaGuy The explanation […]

Notes toward A Blog Post on Chrystia Freeland’s Interview of GE CEO Jeff Immelt

UPDATE NOTE: The following isn’t complete. Many of my notes from the latter part of today’s interview can be found on Twitter, hashtagged #Immelt. At the moment, I both (1) don’t have easy access to them and (2) have other things that need to be done. Feel free to look there, and/or mention anything you […]

Super Committee and GME funding

By Michael Halasy Super Committee and GME funding SO, about that super committee. Surely you remember, the gang of 12 that was created by the showdown over the debt ceiling this summer. Well, they’re hard at work but among the proposals out there, is one that is causing some grave concerns. As a health workforce […]

Joined the GE Capital Board in 1997

The cause of that “small tax bill”: Immelt said a small tax bill for 2010 was due to more than $30 billion in losses related to GE’s financial services business during the financial crisis. In 2009, GE Capital’s losses were so large that it company overall lost money on its U.S. operations. GE’s federal taxes, […]

WHAT KOTLIKOFF (REALLY) SAID

by Dale Coberly WHAT KOTLIKOFF (REALLY) SAID Larry Kotlikoff responded to my post in comments (Social Security: It’s Just Math). by saying that I (coberly) “wrote quite a lot about something I [Kotlikoff] didn’t really say.” He has a point. I based my speculations about where he obtained his misleading numbers on an NPR summary […]

Economists:Entrepreneurs::Blind Men:Interior Decorators

As part of my continuing series of Analogies that Should Be on the SAT, this is what Famous Entrepreneurs do (h/t Brad DeLong): In the IBM PC era, Steve drove innovation forward with the Macintosh. This, like the Apple II, was squarely aimed at expanding the use of PCs to everyone, the “computer for the […]

Roman Riot

Your intrepid if somewhat tardy correspondent confirms the number one story at www.washingtonpost.com. The OWS demonstration in Rome provided cover for people who like to smash and burn things (the black block). This is the line of Rome’s right wing mayor and the right wing minister of the interior. Being late, as usual, I missed […]