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

Attacking Iran…repeat of crazy reasoning?

Peter Beinart in The Daily Beast points us to the crazy nature of our current attitude regarding attacking Iran in The Crazy Rush to Attack Iran. He lists and quotes an impressive series of experts familiar with the the last decades wars, and finally asks: Can you find former military and intelligence officials who are […]

Politicians’ wealth and the tax policies they support

by Linda Beale Politicians’ wealth and the tax policies they support A story in the Boston Globe by Britt Peterson on Feb. 19, 2012 explored “Why it matters that our politicians are rich” (available here on Boston.com). A key point–the four remaining GOP presidential candidates all are millionaires, with most making more than a million […]

More links

Whats the matter with Chisago county?  One look at the NYT’s article on how and why people who receive benefits from the government think they don’t, and considers the ’causes’ slid into the article as ‘fact’. Payroll tax cut undermines Social Security  An article in the LA Times that considers the messages involved in using the […]

Has America Lost its Drive? Part 2

I made a mistake in my original post.   Graph 4 in that post was based on the wrong data set.  As Roger Chittum pointed out in comments, that graph only covers a subset of total gasoline deliveries. This is the correct graph.  (Source.)  Thanks, Roger! Graph 1 Gasoline Supplied The fall off in gasoline delivery […]

Massachusetts Home Seizures Threatened in Loan Case: Mortgages

Yves at Naked Capitalism  comments on this Bloomberg article about the Eaton v. Federal National Mortgage Association case before the MA Supreme Court in the article  Massachusetts Home Seizures Threatened in Loan Case: Mortgages: This is super important … The highly respected Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is going to rule on whether the mortgage (the lien) can be […]

Health Care Thoughts: Here We Go Again – SGR Edition

Health Care Thoughts: Here We Go Again – SGR Edition Congress has passed a ten month patch of the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula by which Medicare reimburses physicians. I have lost count, but I believe that is the 11th or 12th year since creation of the formula which has never been put into full […]

Does Latvia Give Us Any Clues?

by Rebecca Wilder Does Latvia Give Us Any Clues? Short answer: yes, as long as global trade growth is negligible. Over the weekend I came across a December CEPR paper about the Latvian economy. Authors Mark Weisbrot and Rebecca Ray highlight the Latvian experience with internal devaluation, which may prove to be a case study […]

Links worth noting

by Linda Beale Links worth noting Lynn Parrymore (Alternet, Naked Capitalism) on the difficulties in putting a stop to congressional insider trading: Can Rep. Bacchus and his money-crazed congressional colleagues be stopped from insider trading? OMB Watch BudgetBlog, Small Biz Owners: Big Businesses, Millionaires Not Paying Fair Share (showing that small businesses are more aware […]

A oh, Some in Europe can’t take the pressure

Seems the austerity thingy is starting to hurt where it really counts. Just read via the AP: … and amid growing concern in Europe that austerity aimed at cutting ballooning deficits may also be choking growth. A dozen European Union leaders, including British Prime Minister David Cameron and Italian Premier Mario Monti, called Monday for […]

Former Sen. Gramm retires from UBS

by Linda Beale Former Sen. Gramm retires from UBS Let’s see. Gramm pushed through the Commodities modernization act in Dec 2000–the thousand pages that nobody read but that made sure that credit default swaps (CDS) stayed unregulated. CDC then went on to form one of the pillars of the financialization of the economy–as they mushroom […]