Dr. Black hits the latest good news from Capitol Hill: The House has signaled that it isn’t going to play ball today And I am no longer the only economist noting that the House–not for the first time–is forcing the Administration to do what it should have been ready to do all along. In fact, […]
Salon writer Natasha Lennard reports that a sticking point around Social Security stalled ‘fiscal cliff’ back and forth rejoinders between the two parties, but also points out that the topic continues to be on the table (and has been offered by President Obama before these talks a couple years ago). Notice both parties using the […]
The problem with waiting overnight to post is that other people figure out the same thing: If the true CPI-E increases faster than CPI, then chained-CPI is worse, not better. It’s actually worse than that. The measure by which Social Security is raised turns out not to be what we usually call CPI (Consumer Price […]
by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Health Care Thoughts: While We Were Busy with the Election As we were busy watching the election the Obama administration agreed in late October to settle a class-action lawsuit with disability advocates on Medicare services for the disabled and those with chronic conditions. Medicare has historically required for certain coverage […]
If you are as cynical as I am, I know you are not surprised that Facebook paid Irish taxes (via Tax Justice Network) of about $4.64 million on its entire non-US profits of $1.344 billion for 2011.* This 0.3% tax rate is a bit below the normal, already low, Irish corporate income tax of 12.5%. […]
When I forwarded this link to Beverly Mann I was interested in following the current thread on civil rights, the legalities of state use of torture, the continuation in the NDAA exclusion of the prohibition of the use of indefinite detention for domestic ‘terrorism’, etc. This note is more a lesson for reading newsy items. […]
Marshall Auerback, a Director of Institutional Partnerships at the Institute for New Economic Thinking (www.ineteconomics.org) Let’s cut the crap about Japan’s Lost Decade. As Hill notes, we tend to use very narrow metrics to determine a nation’s economic success: “Americans are the only ones who seem to think they need three refrigerators, four televisions and a […]
On Wednesday, December 19, 2012 Robert Heron Bork died at age 85. I did not mourn. Bork first became infamous in 1973 for his role in the “Saturday night massacre” when as Solicitor General, the number three position in the Justice Department, he carried out, under President Nixon’s orders, the firing of Watergate Special Prosecutor […]
Bill McBride offers: A little holiday cheer … Discussions of the business cycle frequently focus on consumer spending (PCE: Personal consumption expenditures), but the key is to watch private domestic investment, especially residential investment. Even though private investment usually only accounts for around 15% of GDP, the swings for private investment are significantly larger than […]
Barkley Rosser at Econospeak offers his take on the current political situation and two players. (re-posted with permission from author) Norquist and LaPierre: Emperors Losing Their Clothes? Two figures have held near-dictatorial sway over a majority of members of Congress for several decades: Grover Norquist and Wayne LaPierre. However, both may be losing their grip […]