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

Solutions to the Middle Class Retirement Crisis

As I have noted in three recent posts, retirement security for those currently or recently in the middle class is no sure thing. 49% of the private work force has neither defined benefit (traditional pensions) or defined contribution (401(k)) retirement plans, while public sector pensions are coming under increasing attack. The United States has the […]

More on PTINs for previously unregulated tax return preparers

by Linda Beale More on PTINs for previously unregulated tax return preparers After considering the problems caused by incompetent or fraudulent tax return preparers who were not attorneys, accountants or admitted to practice before the IRS as enrolled agents, the IRS released a study in 2010 on tax return preparation with recommendations for regulation of […]

DEAR PAUL KRUGMAN Please Read This about Social Security

by Dale Coberly DEAR PAUL KRUGMANPlease Read This about Social Security Dear Paul Krugman, There was an indication the other day that you read Angry Bear, at least sometimes. I hope you read this, because it is important, and you have a better forum than I have. I think the following facts would be game […]

My Audacious Wish: Uwe Reinhardt for Secretary of Labor.

When it comes to the most important economic challenges facing the nation, President Obama offers soaring rhetoric. He campaigned vigorously against the decline of the middle class. He launched his new term this past week with a speech declaring widespread prosperity to be a deeply American virtue — and a threatened one. “We are true […]

Money and water

http://www.waterworld.com/articles/wwi/print/volume-27/issue-6/editorial-focus/utility-management/money-makes-the-water-world-go.html

Negative externality or just raising money

Lifted from one of David Zetland’s Aguanomics musings on how our conversations mix things up: Gasoline taxes are often justified as the response to a “negative externality” of pollution from cars, but the money from those taxes rarely (never?) goes to people who suffer from pollution. So is it really a tax on an externality […]

Health Care Thoughts: Law of Unintended Consequences

by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Health Care Thoughts: Law of Unintended Consequences Unions have been enthusiastic supporters of Obamacare. But not all unions and not all unions benefits are the same. Unions with lower income members are suddenly discovering the PPACA deal is not so great for everyone. Lower income workers with union plans will not […]

Not to beat a dead horse, but …

In further follow-up to my post of yesterday (I already appended the original post yesterday) called, “Stories That Will Continue to Get Far Too Little Attention As Long As Obama Allows Them To.”: Reader coberly and I exchanged the following further comments in the Comments thread: coberly: Beverly just to ease your heart, i agree […]

‘Solar’ is cheaper and cheaper

Via Uncommon wisdom daily comes this chart from Bloomberg: Current estimates suggest that solar might be as cheap as coal by the end of the decade, and half the cost of coal by the end of the next decade. When applied to electricity prices this predicts that solar generated electricity in the US will descend […]

GDP Gap Stuck at 6%

Pro Growth Liberal points us to this interpretation of new economic data: GDP Gap Stuck at 6% Dean Baker gets it right with respect to the latest news on GDP: A sharp drop in government spending, heavily concentrated in defense, coupled with a decline in inventories caused GDP to shrink at a 0.1 percent rate […]