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

Less money to spend

From the Washington Post: Recession’s pain reaching deep into the economic recovery–The buying power of Americans continues to be weaker than it was when the recession ended four years ago, underscoring the lasting damage wrought by the downturn, according to a report released Wednesday. Inflation-adjusted median household income has declined 4.4 percent, to $52,098, since […]

Republicans’ “Market-Oriented” Health Care Reforms Won’t Work, Part 1

http://www.middleclasspoliticaleconomist.com/2013/08/republicans-market-oriented-health-care.html Republicans’ “Market-Oriented” Health Care Reforms Won’t Work, Part 1 This has been a week of Republicans saying they have actual ideas for replacing Obamacare, rather than just repealing it. The centerpiece has been an article by Karl Rove in the Wall Street Journal (paywalled) detailing all the swell ideas Republicans have. In addition, a […]

Recycle reuse reduce?

by David Zetland from Aguanomics: Recycle reuse reduce? When it comes to consumer goods, reduce-reuse-recycle makes lots of sense. Don’t buy that bike if you’re not going to use it. If you are going to use it, then reuse a used one. Once you’re done using it, recycle it instead of dumping it into a […]

Behavior of capital income is a precursor to a recession

A precursor is something that signals the arrival of something else. There are precursors to a recession. The trick is finding them. I want to show a precursor to the 2007 recession looking at the spending behavior of capital income. Let’s look at a flow chart for the 1st quarter of 2007. Graph of 2007 […]

Social sharing shows us what?

New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI) offers a brief glimpse into how people share or point to information on social networks, in this case Twitter. The subject of BBC programs caught my eye as opposed to food or pets, being rather wonky in image and therefore noticeable in relation to Angry Bear. Angry Bear has […]