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

Guest post: “The Pay Off: Why Wall Street Always Wins”

By Jeff McCord  is a former US Senate staffer, Securities Investor Protection Corp (SIPC) executive and has been a free-lance journalist for Dow Jones publications. His academic background in economics includes post-graduate work at the London School of Economics and George Washington University. He can be read at Investors Advocate.    EX-BIDEN AIDE’S MEA CULPA REVEALS […]

Is Harry Reid’s Bain-Investor Friend the Gawker Leaker?

Having now read the Gawker articles summarizing some of the Bain documents leaked to Gawker and published there today, I’m speculating that the leaker of the documents is also Harry Reid’s source for Reid’s allegation that Romney paid no taxes for at least a decade, and that the leaker believes that the documents suggest either that Romney […]

Debt, Recession, and That Ol’ Devil Denominator

Krugman recently presented this graph, showing household debt as a percentage of GDP. and made this comment. Second, a dramatic rise in household debt, which many of us now believe lies at the heart of our continuing depression. There are those who seem to believe that if Krugman says it, it must be wrong.   Here […]

Health Care Thoughts: Physician Burnout

by Tom aka Rusty RustbeltHealth Care Thoughts: Physician BurnoutDuring the years I worked every day with physicians I learned a great deal, including about the time pressure, the relentless work flow and the sleep deprivation during physicians’ “on call” days.A Mayo Clinic (http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1351351) has been published and 50% of physicians are feeling impacts of burnout. […]

Kemp Roth Reagan Miller

Matt Miller has an excellent column in The Washington Post in which he coins the phrase “Drawbridge Republicans.” Basically he accuses Romney and Ryan of being pro-rich class warriors who aim to eliminate equality of outcome and of opportunity. A very standard Rhetorical gesture is to concede in the second or third paragraph of an […]

Dutch Domestic Demand Dragging Real Home Values

by Rebecca Wilder Dutch Domestic Demand Dragging Real Home Values Today Statistics Netherlands (CBS) warned ”House Prices Nosedive“. Prices of existing owner-occupied dwellings sold in July 2012 were on average 8.0 percent down from July 2011. This is the most substantial price drop since the price index of existing residential property was first recorded in […]

Most U.S. Trade Agreement Improve Trade Balance, but Effect Overwhelmed by NAFTA and China Trade

by Kenneth Thomas Most U.S. Trade Agreement Improve Trade Balance, but Effect Overwhelmed by NAFTA and China Trade The U.S. trade deficit figures heavily in the analysis of Jeff Faux’s new book, The Servant Economy. Faux, the founder of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), was one of the most important voices speaking out against NAFTA […]

Polls and reporting

Lifted from Robert’s thoughts: by Robert Waldmann Polls and reporting It is clear that, whenever respected non-partisan media adopt rigid rules, Republicans abuse those rules. The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are a very clear example. Since news organizations often present both sides of a debate without fact checking in each article, it is possible […]

Not on Tax (or only indirectly so): GOPer Akin’s "legitimate rape" comment

by Linda Beale Not on Tax (or only indirectly so): GOPer Akin’s “legitimate rape” As most of you have heard by now, the Missouri Republican nominee for Senate, current House Rep. Todd Akin, in a Sunday interview with KTVI-TV, justifying his opposition to any abortion ever, even in the case of rape, made the following […]