Many have noted that under success hating kenyan islamosocialist Barack Obama nominal corporate profits just set a new record. Uh so what. A dollar isn’t worth what it used to be worth. Graphing nominal quantities is silly. The more interesting points is that the ratio of after tax corporate profits to GDP just set a […]
by Linda Beale There are no “per se” tax or spending caps: lame duck negotiations no place for Medicare/Medicaid cuts When George W. Bush got reelected with a minority of the popular vote and contested state counts, the GOP claimed a mandate to keep going with the fiscally irresponsible program of high military spending combined […]
by Kenneth Thomas Gigantic journalistic investigation into tax havens While Mitt Romney may be fading from view in the wake of his defeat on November 6, the issue of tax havens is definitely not following suit. Via the Tax Justice Network, I’ve just learned of a massive, multi-national joint investigation into secrecy jurisdictions by three […]
by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Health Care Thoughts: EMR Cluster Mess The 2009 stimulus bill kicked off the process to install electronic medical records (EMR) tied into electronic health records (EHR) networks. The stimulus bill included financial rewards for installing systems and meeting “meaningful use”standards. Couple of problems, with unfair heat aimed at the Centers […]
This Galbraith article – pointing to Ron Unz’s ongoing good thinking on the topic, got me thinking: If employers are faced with higher wage rates, that gives them more incentive to invest in business capital that 1. makes workers more efficient and productive, and 2. reduces the number of workers they need. Is this incentive […]
I’ve pointed out before that in some areas (here, Medicare), government programs are hugely more efficient and well-run than their private counterparts. I don’t know if this qualifies as one of those, but it does make a very important point that I’ve also made before: Government is not the problem. Bad government is the problem. […]
Lifted from comments from this post US to be leading producer of oil is Spencer England’s comment about structural change in the oil markets. Obvious to some but bears repeating for a lot of us, as we discuss environmental issues or gasoline prices in the media more than structural economic impacts: Spencer says: The development […]
I have written several posts pointing to the role economics blogs play in the media, and am sorting out strengths and weakness to be addressed at Angry Bear in our own content. Nick Rowe at Worthwhile Canadian Initiative posts Four MC curves and two PPFs. The comments flesh out the ideas involved in a beginning econ […]
I sometimes get the ‘eyes rolling’ reaction from people in my social sphere when I insist that at least linking to original documents is important, and that someone needs to follow up on what an author says someone else says (as a way to gain traction and authority status for their own writing, such as […]
Lifted from a note from Beverly Mann in response to a query of mine, as a note of interest: Here’s a link to a long Politico article on those cases and on the prospects of their success: http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=67901EA4-2955-4FD7-A52E-1E8CB0EA8E56 Apparently it looks like the Supreme Court eventually will hear two or three of these cases, probably […]