by Linda Beale Illinois’s Tim Johnson (Rep.) Squirms under Norquist No-Tax-Increase Pledge Back in 2002, Tim Johnson represented a safely red district in Illinois and the radical right was pressing on his back with its reaganomics-inspired program to cut-taxes-to-shrink-(nonmilitary)-government-and-eliminate-public-infrastructure-and-social-justice-programs; de-regulate-to-free-up-big-business; privatize-wherever-you-can-especially-schools-bridges-and-other-essential-services.  Not to be outdone, Tim Johnson signed the no-tax-increase pledge on the dotted line, […]

No it is not a guide to proper grammar, and I know perfectly well that a preposition isn’t the sort of thing I’m supposed to end a sentence with. The case for assuming rational expectations rests on two valid arguments. 1) Expectations matter a lot.*2) If you allow people to assume whatever they want about […]

by Linda Beale  Hey, didn’t the GOP say it cared about deficits? Just when you think those on the radical right had gone about as far as they could go without recognizing their own zaniness, those in Congress have revived their version of a tax “reform” for businesses.  It was first proposed in 2009–as an […]

I had problems with the blogger account and was not able to sign on until 2:30 this afternoon.. It is a little late for analysis of the employment report, so I’ll just post a couple of charts I had prepared to add this morning. If you go back to old days before the great moderation, […]

Last Wednesday, the day after oral argument at the Supreme Court in a case called Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, both Linda and I posted about the case.  Linda’s post I believe was written shortly before the argument although posted afterward.  Mine was written after the argument and discussed news reports about what occurred.  The […]

This is the object:  No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury,… nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;   It’s all one sentence. Any questions?   This is Art: The lyrics of […]

In Part 3 of this series, I wondered a couple of things.  – With the vehicle/1000 people number in the range of 825 to 845 since 2004, is the market near saturation?– Is the January sales number of 14.2 SAAR (seasonally adjusted at annual rate) enough to maintain the vehicle/1000 people number? For the first […]

by Mike Kimel Random Thoughts on the Cato Dispute Recently there’s a bit of a to-do about the battle for the soul of Cato, one of the big Washington policy think-tanks. I’m at best a disinterested observer – unlike most people weighing in, I have no conceivable stake in the outcome. I can’t see any […]