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

Greg Mankiw on the Employment-Population Ratio

I see that his blog Mankiw shows a chart of the employment population ratio to make a comment about the “so called recovery”. But he selected the start date of the chart so that you could not see that during the eight years of the Bush administration the employment-population fell from 63.0 to 60.3, a […]

Drug shortages and the mythical market

by Michael Halasy Drug shortages and the mythical marketI read an interesting article by Gehrett in the January issue of JAMA. In response to the increased utilization of generic drugs (currently about 70% of drugs used in the US), a fact which should be applauded, we have seen a frightening increase in drug shortages. In […]

Michael Halasy to write for Angry Bear

Michael has written for Angry Bear in the past (see two of many Prometheus and Bundled Payments and Medical Tourism, separating facts from fiction).  He is a practicing PA in Emergency Medicine. My undergraduate education started with economics. I function as a health policy analyst for a couple of national organizations and as a health […]

More on Private Equity, Carried Interest, Wealth, and Romney

by Linda Beale More on Private Equity, Carried Interest, Wealth, and Romney Those who’ve read much of this blog are aware of the various arguments against the notion that private equity firms are “do-gooders” that we should encourage and even subsidize (through the carried interest provision). On the whole, I believe they are part of […]

Employment Situation

The employment report was a major disappointment. Payroll employment rose some 120,000, significantly less than the over 200,000 anticipated. Moreover, the household survey displayed a-31,000 drop in employment. The unemployment rate did tick down from 8.3%to 8.2%. But that was largely because the labor force fell -164,000 Moreover, the average work week fell from 34.6 […]

Guest post: Top 1% Reduced Taxes in Last 3 Years but Probably Gained Income Share

Guest post by Kenneth Thomas Top 1% Reduced Taxes in Last 3 Years but Probably Gained Income Share Citizens for Tax Justice came out with a nice report today showing that the overall U.S. tax system is just barely “progressive,” which is to say that as your income goes up, so does your tax rate. […]

Health Care Thoughts: Physicians "Rationing" Health Care

by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Health Care Thoughts: Physicians “Rationing” Health Care   Nine physician panels have recommended less testing of patients presenting with various conditions and diseases and less treatment for some diagnosis.   For Details: New York Times Much of this is low hanging fruit, such as using less antibiotics for sinusitis. Some of this […]

The Brute Economics of Slavery

Preramble: I posted this on my blog exactly a year ago today, in slightly different form.  Dan linked to it once, from here, just a few weeks before I started writing for Angry Bear.  Recent comments got me thinking about it again.   In thinking about the economics of slavery, I’m considering slavery and serfdom to […]

Extraordinarily warm tempratures

This post is not very economic oriented except indirectly, but I felt a need to mark the extraordinary temperatures of high and some low 100 year records.  Lifted and edited for readability in blog format from an e-mail newsletter sent by reader rjs come examples and links for both record setting high temperatures and consecutive days of high temperatures this March. […]