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

Employment Situation

The September employment report was among the strongest this cycle. Private payroll employment rose 137,000 and despite the 34,000 drop in government employment totalpayroll employment rose 103,000. Moreover, the household survey showed a gain of 398,000.Even so, by historic norms employment continues to be weak. But compared to the other jobless recoveries this cycle continues […]

Reagan as a Presidential candidate today

by Mike Kimel A very interesting video from Think Progress juxtaposes a speech by Barack Obama with a speech by Reagan. In it, Reagan says: We’re going to close the unproductive tax loopholes that allow some of the truly wealthy to avoid paying their fair share. In theory, some of those loopholes were understandable, but […]

Uh, Brad, This is How You Do It

If your question—correctly—is “why Axelrod and Plouffe were satisfied,” then you have to think like people whose vote support came, in some significant numbers, from people who were just entering the workforce in 2008 (and who did not show up in 2010 because, having entered, they found they were unwelcome). Which means, if you’re any […]

Why can’t the Washington Post report on the Washington Post’s poll ?

The Washington Post had two articles on their latest poll. The first focused on the Presidential horse race. The second noted that US adults disapprove of congress and then went on to discuss other results. At the very end of the the second article this follows: Obama’s proposal to raise taxes on millionaires to help […]

Retaliating Against Currency Manipulation: A Primer

Kash at The Streetlight points us to other aspects of the world, touching upon the WTO and the IMF roles in global trade and China in particular: Retaliating Against Currency Manipulation: A Primer You’ve probably heard that this week the US Congress has been addressing the issue of how China controls its exchange rate with […]

Short list of articles on Occupying XX

A short list of thoughts on Occupying Together and comments makes for an interesting scan: Mark Engler, Five Things That #OccupyWallStreet Has Done Right Micah Sifry, #OccupyWallStreet: There’s Something Happening Here, Mr. Jones. Mike Konczal, Understanding the Theory Behind Occupy Wall Street’s Approach Doug Henwood, The Occupy Wall Street non-agenda Glenn Greenwald, What’s behind the […]

Elizabeth Warren and US Senate from MA Dem. candidates debate

Elizabeth Warren and other Democratic candidates for US Senate from Massachusetts had their first public debate last night. The embedded video from the Boston Herald is about an hour and a half…it is not working at present so is below the fold for when it resumes working. The link is here.