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

Is New York Times columnist Timothy Egan the only one who noticed THIS?

New York Times columnist Timothy Egan writes today: The Mitt Romney of the second debate, to use Mike Huckabee’s memorable phrase, “looks like the guy who fires you.” He exposed, once again, his biggest fault: that he has no idea what it’s like to be middle-class and struggling in 2012 America. To take just a […]

Romney’s "Binders full of women" comment

by Linda Beale Romney’s “Binders full of women” commenteditor’s note:  this is a political commentary and not a tax discussion. When Romney was asked what he could do about the inequity in women’s compensation, he didn’t answer the question.  He tried to turn it to his advantage by telling a story of how he ended […]

Romney’s Tax (Mis)Calculations:

by Linda Beale Romney’s Tax (Mis)Calculations: if your two and two don’t add to four, pretend the Laffer curve gives you more Anybody watching last night’s presidential debate surely became aware at some point that Romney’s so-called “plan” for economic growth is an empty shell based on the idea that he’s made money for himself […]

Amazon and Apple: The Myth of the Rational Market?

Can anybody explain this to me? AAPL AMZN Price/Earnings 15.15 302.68 That’s a 20:1 ratio. Yes, Amazon has a lower price to revenues ratio, by a 2:1 margin. AAPL AMZN Price/Sales 4.06 2.06 And presumably at some point Amazon can turn the prices-versus-market-share dial away from gaining market share/maximizing revenue and toward price and profits. […]

Standard silly rounding for polls, 4th grade style fail

Lifted from Angry Bear Robert Waldmann’s Stochastic Thoughts: All aggregators are doing funny things by rounding first then subtracting.  This is a comment on Singiser, but it could be on any aggregator.  In the Gallup Tracker likely voter subsample, Romney is up 1.2% (this link points to numbers which will change)  If one must round […]

It’s Happening. The pundits are now recognizing what HAPPENED last night.

Okay, thus far it’s just one major pundit, the Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne, whose column posted at 1:58 p.m. demolishes the media’s Conventional Wisdom of last night and this morning, which focused mainly on Romney’s two gaffes, and concluded that Obama had won but only barely.  Binders-full-of-women is irresistible fun, but ultimately unimportant; Romney just […]

The Binders That Bind

The most revealing moment last night came as Ann Romney walked toward her husband onstage at the end.  That expression on her face.  I thought she looked like a woman in a binder. It is, I suppose, poetic justice for Romney that an obviously misspoken phrase of that sort is the catch phrase from last […]

Did Romney speak blasphemously?

Of all the things being deconstructed regarding the debate last night, this is the one that stood out for me: QUESTION: The outsourcing of American jobs overseas has taken a toll on our economy. What plans do you have to put back and keep jobs here in the United States? Romney:…which will allow me as […]