The CBO Wants to Discuss Healthcare and the Deficit?(from run75411) Someone struck a nerve, “The Lady Doth Protest Too Much: CBO Director Asks for A Chat . . .”. Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism received an interesting email after a voice mail from the Associate Director of Communications for the CBO: Greetings, Susan.I am following […]
Left out in the wake of the election and material, Linda’s post is still relevant as we continue to clean up, repair and replace damage done by Hurricane Sandy and the Nor-easter.. I would like to see more information on plans for future ‘unique’ storms and ways to handle some of the unique problems encountered […]
Historian Mary Beard comments on the history of Why the rich look down on the poor. You know, the poor tend to snort a lot and live under awnings!
by Linda Beale If the Dems got a backbone Yesterday I urged the Democrats to develop some backbone in response to the continuing right-wing extortion demands for military spending increases, tax cuts and entitlement program changes.How should that backbone be used? Not an easy question to answer and likely my answer will upset many economists […]
by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Health Care Thoughts: Reform Status According to Really Smart People So after two days in rooms full of top notch front line experts, and two nights sleeping on a couch in a hospital waiting room, I offer a list of key take-aways.. This is reporting only, not advocacy. Some of my […]
Every four years, the race for the White House ends in accusations of deceit. Each side says the other spent millions of dollars to lie and skew the outcome. This year’s post-election accounts of backstage calculations and fateful turning points continue that tradition. But if you read these accounts carefully, you’ll find a happy surprise […]
Jim Manzi, curious as always (especially about how to evaluate government policies), tries to plumb the problem of causality. Here’s where he begins: Consider two questions: – Does A cause B? – If I take action A, will it cause outcome B? I don’t care about the first, or more precisely, I might care about […]
The GOP’s extortion demands: cut Social Security or we’ll shoot the country in the foot The GOP created the fiscal cliff beginning with the “temporary” tax cuts passed in 2001, 2003 and 2004 under the Bush administration, all as purportedly temporary provisions with sunset dates. They hoped that the passage of the tax cuts would, […]
by Robert Waldmann What has Nate Silver done for us lately ? This isn’t really about Nate Silver. It is about poll aggregators in general and just as much about the Huffington Post pollster, Real Clear Politics and Talking points Memo as about Silver, Wang Linzer and others who try to estimate outcome probabilities […]