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

I’m sooooo not happy that my main email account was hacked today…

… but I’m really grateful that so many friends and acquaintances, including Dan C., have let me know.  (My favorite, from my friend “A”: “Beverly, someone is sending spam around in your name!”) I’m luckier than the Bush family, though.  At least whoever hacked my account just wanted to use my email identity to try […]

NW Plan for Social Security: Abridged Spreadsheet

First attempt at putting the NW Plan 2012 into viewable form. This graphic compresses the original spreadsheet in both axes. I will be putting links to the full spreadsheet in comments because I am not sure this one will share correctly (I am bouncing between Google Accts) link. In any event the key columns are […]

Reveal Your Preferences! Show Your Support for Accounting-Based Economic Modeling

If there’s one thing that distinguishes modeling by mainstream and neoclassical economists — and that is arguably their Achilles Heel — it’s their failure to come at the problem from a fundamental accounting, and monetary, standpoint. (That failure is understandable given the curricula in economics departments.) I know that many of my readers share with […]

Updated cost projections for the Pell Grant program

New America points us to Pell Grant cost projections: The Congressional Budget Office this week released updated cost projections for the Pell Grant program – and the estimates show an unexpected surplus over the past several years. The figures are much awaited because they dictate what lawmakers must allocate to the program in the upcoming […]

Geithner’s Baa Humbug to Jobs and Labor

Dan here…Taking a look back to 2009: Geithner’s Baa Humbug to Jobs and Labor 12/25/2009 (h/t Run75441) “Ebenezer: Since you ask me what I wish sir, that is my answer. I help to support the establishments I have named; those who are badly off must go there.” Daniel Gross at Slate interviews Tim Geithner here: […]

2013 Northwest Plan for a Real Social Security Fix

The Northwest Plan for a Real Social Security Fix was first introduced and revised in 2009. Obviously it was never adopted. Still the basic mechanism remains the same as does the rationale and working assumptions and in what follows I am going to assume a certain knowledge of the mechanics of Social Security finance and […]

Northwest Plan for a Real Social Security Fix: Duesenberg Draft

The Northwest Plan for a Real Social Security Fix was introduced and then revised in 2009, explaining why the post link references ‘Vers 2.0’. What makes the NW Plan ‘real’ is that it is both permanent and contingent. To explain this mild paradox lets take an analogy. Let’s say you have a 1935 Duesenberg that […]

Why do Republicans Hate Market-Incentive Based Solutions?

Contrary to what you might think, this new survey says that 69% of Republicans think that climate change is a “somewhat” or “very” serious threat. Table 3. Perception that climate change is a threat among Democrats (N=377), Republicans (N=306), Independents (N=389), and overall U.S. population (N=1089) in January 2013. Columns may not add to 100 […]