From the Los Angelos Times comes this article on Social Security Disability and reporting: Is it possible for a major news organization to produce a story about the Social Security disability program without interviewing a single disabled person or disability advocate? That’s the experiment “60 Minutes” conducted Sunday. The result was predictably ghastly. The news […]

From the many submissions of posts offered as publishable material, this one makes the guest post list.  Dan   by Dave Landry Jr. (Davis is a debt relief counselor and personal finance manager, working with National Debt Relief to alleviate the stresses of debt through consolidation and advisement.) 5 Reasons Why Student Loan Debts Are […]

by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Health Care Thoughts: Really Narrow Networks “Narrow networks” are in the news as the ACA exchanges begin to do business (or not?). From the Columbus Dispatch: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/10/07/low-cost-premiums-thin-out-providers.html There may be other problems besides low payment rates. According to the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) contracting is slow, uncertainty is high, and […]

Earlier in 2013, CBO’s Douglas Elmendorf’s forecasted return on Student Loan’s resulting in a positive return for the Government. Later Elmendorf reversed the forecast claiming student loans would cost the government and the taxpayers by generating a negative return. Using one cost model (FCRA) to estimate the return, the government will make $184 billion on […]

The IS-LM model is built upon two markets, the goods market (IS) and the money market (LM). The alternative view in this post will incorporate the effective demand limit into the IS-LM model. Money Market First The money market is described by a plot of the interest rate (y-axis) and the quantity of money (x-axis). The […]

The Myth of the “Free Market” and How to Make the Economy Work for Us MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 by Robert Reich One of the most deceptive ideas continuously sounded by the Right (and its fathomless think tanks and media outlets) is that the “free market” is natural and inevitable, existing outside and beyond government. […]

Take out one outlier month, and the ‘stunning growth’ in part-time employment falls from 59% to 19% of jobs added (Mark J. Perry, Carpe Diem, The American Enterprise Institute) Many are still quoting the grossly inaccurate figure of 96% of new jobs in 2013 being part-time. But even the actual 59% derives substantially from a […]

Dennis Hastert just said that there is not and never has been a Hastert rule.  He insists that he never had a rule that only bills supported by a majority of House Republicans would be brought to a vote.  Hastert is very hard on Boehner.  He also noted that he never brought a bill to […]

by Linda Beale Will Boehner Prevent Extremists from Causing US Debt Default? As the shutdown continues, Republican Speaker Boehner still refuses to bring a clean budget resolution to a vote.  It is most likely that a clean resolution would pass, ending the charade of the extremist Tea Party faction in the House willing to cause […]