The 2012 Presidential is so close just so close that not only do different polls show different results but different averages of polls do. OK it is clear that extremely fancy models such as the fivethirtyeight model which attempt to assign undecideds and use state data to estimate the national vote and vice versa are […]
Via Naked Capitalism comes a heads up from reader Paul Tioxon: Propaganda on the Rise on the Health Care Policy FrontReader Paul Tioxon sent the following sighting by e-mail. By way of background, it’s important to keep in mind that pretty much every place that professes simply to read research and translate into stuff journalists […]
It is always easier to empathize with readers regarding an event if one is in the middle of the turmoil and emotions, and also in the path of a big, big storm. I did not post a similar best wishes for our mid-west readers concerning the impact of the drought. Of course, I believe this […]
From David Zetland (Aguanomics) comes this note… Marginal Revolution University [free, online] has released 14 lessons (2-7 min, each) on water economics as part of its development economics unit. They give a decent introduction to several issues. I am going to contribute a few lessons. The series has a point of view about an economic […]
Mark Thoma presses the issue of increasing income inequality: Via an email from Lane Kenworthy, here’s more research contradicting the claim made by Kevin Hassett and Aparna Mathur in the WSJ that consumption inequality has not increased (here’s my response summarizing additional work contradicting their claim, a claim that is really an attempt to blunt […]
Dean Baker ponders the lack of focus on Social Security via Alternet: It is remarkable that social security hasn’t been a more issue in the presidential race. After all, Governor Romney has proposed a plan that would imply cuts of more than 40% for middle-class workers just entering the labor force . Since social security […]
On Wednesday I posted here about Bella, my friend’s daughter’s three-year-old German shepherd/collie mix who suddenly started experiencing severe pain near the back of her spine last weekend and a day later became paraplegic. A wonderful lady who’s active in animal shelter work took Bella this morning to see a highly-regarded vet who works closely […]
Lifted from Robert Waldmann’s Stochastic thoughts: Brendan Nyhan autopsies the mittmentum narrative here. I comment. Thank you for this very good post. I had been puzzled by the “bad narrative about momentum” narrative on progressive blogs (largely because I interact with the rest of humanity largely by reading progressive blogs). You demonstrate that there was […]
Okay, all. Remember all the speculation last summer about how Romney managed to parlay an IRA in a Cayman Islands bank into an account worth between $20 million and $101 million? Much of the speculation concerned whether Romney stacked the account with Bain shares and significantly undervalued them as worth less than the maximum yearly […]
by Linda Beale Romney, Family Business, Carried Interest, and potential conflicts of interest Just a quick note this morning on an interesting article in the October 29, 2012 edition of The Nation magazine, Lee Fang, Romney Family Business: Investors in Tagg Romney’s firm, Solamere Capital, could hit the jackpot if his father wins, The Nation […]