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

UPDATE to “What if Eisenhower’s budget were your (grandparents’) family’s?”

In my first of two posts yesterday, “What if Eisenhower’s budget were your (grandparents’) family’s?”, about an ABC News item from the evening before discussing Obama’s proposed 2013 budget, and propagating the truism, so popular among pols and pundits, that the federal budget is like a family’s, only with eight zeroes following total expenditures, income […]

Big government has various definitions, actually…

Peter Dorman at Econospeak reminds us of what is not discussed in this election cycle, the big government types taking more control. I would be much more bi-partisam than Peter. We also have the example of Virginia and their mandatory ‘transvaginal’ sonograms being inserted into the conversation. Except Texas beat them to it. And we […]

Attacking Iran

Glen Greenwald at Salon takes aim at the media coverage concerning our relationship with Iran and the barrage of coverage having little to do with real assessments. Lots of links.  But this Family Guy segment sums it up for me…  Any links to some real discussiom from readers??

Where are the investigators? Part one…

(hat tip David Zetland) for this informal note on the question of “Where are the investigative journalists?”. This comment is from a reddit thread and is a beginning to thoughts of how to take personal responsibility for change.  Eslader writes on reddit in response to the question of ‘Where are the investigative journalists?”: know? Ex-journo here. […]

Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis

Rolling Stone (via Reader Supported News) points us to an op-ed in Armed Forces Journal  by Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis and the pdf at Rolling Stone. Earlier this week, the New York Times’ Scott Shane published a bombshell piece about Lt. Colonel Daniel Davis, a 17-year Army veteran recently returned from a second tour […]

Levin proposed carried interest bill (HR 4016)

 by Linda Beale Levin proposed carried interest bill (HR 4016) Sander Levin has proposed H.R. 4016, which would characterize allocation of partnership profits in respect of a “profits interest” received for services–i.e., carried interest compensation– of investment fund managers as ordinary income subject to employment taxes rather than allowing it to be treated as a […]

Crony Capitalism On A Grand Scale

An article in yesterday’s New York Times, which I think deserves much more notice than it seems to be getting,  says that last week, “Mr. Romney’s campaign held an elaborate “policy round table” fund-raiser at a Washington hotel, featuring panel discussions run by lobbyists [who are] former cabinet officials or members of Congress.” Today in the Detroit […]

What if Eisenhower’s budget were your (grandparents’) family’s?

What if Eisenhower’s budget were your (grandparents’) family’s? What if Kennedy’s were? How about LBJ’s?  Nixon’s? What if Reagan’s were your parents’ or your own family’s? How about G.H.W. Bush’s? Clinton’s? G.W. Bush’s? One of my pet peeves is the use by political reporters and pundits of sophistic or downright imbecilic supposed analogies.  (Like last […]

Another Comprehensive Approach: The Fair Share Tax Reform Proposal

I just came across a fellow internet econocrank’s tax proposal, and find it quite interesting — especially its proposed progressive tax on net worth, which echoes the flat tax on financial assets that I’ve bruited. It also reflects many of the notions I suggested I’d implement if I was the Dictator of America.The basic problem […]