Yves Smith provides an overnight look at OWS Zucotti Park ‘cleaning’ by NYPD. The post has frequent updates and is very long, so a visit is in order if interested.

by Linda Beale GOP two-step approach problematic Discussion continued apace yesterday about the “supercommittee” and the idea of agreeing to agree someday on some revenue increases while going ahead with cuts. This approach is a terrible one since it gives the obstructionist GOP members just another setting in which to refuse to go ahead with […]

by Mike Kimel Scott Sumner Digs Deeper Scott Sumner criticizes my most recent post in which I indicate that Keynesian theory explains growth rates during the New Deal era better than theories proposed by monetarists. He starts by criticizing this, which I wrote in my earlier post. Aggregate demand was very slack when FDR took […]

In the New York Times today: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a challenge to the 2010 health care overhaul law, President Obama’s signature legislative achievement. The development set the stage for oral arguments by March and a decision in late June, in the midst of the 2012 presidential campaign… … Appeals from […]

by Linda Beale Super-Congress wants to have its cake and eat it too So the Democrats and Republicans on the so-called “Super-Committee” that is supposed to find $1.2 trillion in budget reductions/increased revenues within a week now thinks it has a solution–let the regular tax committees (Finance and Ways & Means) come up with the […]

Mother Jones points us to a Stimson Center study, titled What We Bought: Defense Procurement From FY01 to FY10 (PDF), (via Reader Supported News). From the report Procurement funding grew from $62.6B in FY01 to as much as $135.8B throughout the decade.3 In constant dollars, base procurement funding in FY10 increased by 41 percent from […]

Rumors suggest that Italy is so desperate for money that it will try the full Monti*. Mario Monti is about to be asked to try to form a government. Of course the actual negotiations have begun, except it doesn’t seem that Prof. Monti is inclined to negotiate. His position seems to be that Italian politicians […]

Quote by from San Francisco Chronicle via Reader Supported News on the Berkley OWS “The individuals who linked arms and actively resisted, that in itself is an act of violence,” UC police Capt. Margo Bennett said. “I understand that many students may not think that, but linking arms in a human chain when ordered to […]

by Linda Beale GOP wants to repeal Dodd-Frank: instead they should listen to Nassim Taleb Nassim Taleb, the author of the book on long-tail events, suggests in a Nov. 6, 2011 op-ed in the New York Times that “it is only a matter of time before private risktaking leads to another giant bailout like the […]

by Dale Coberly SOCIAL SECURITY AIN’T BROKE A Reply to Linda Beale I want to take advantage of Linda Beale’s essay “Social Security: It Ain’t Broke Unless China is too” to make some points of my own. I want to be clear at the outset that I am grateful to Linda for her essay. She […]