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

O Brotherhood, Where Art Thou? (Ezra Klein versus … Me (and Others))

Oh, dear.  I like Ezra Klein. A lot.  So I’ll leave out the sarcasm–a necessity anyway, since I’ve already exhausted this week’s supply. But I do want to point out, because he’s so influential now, that Klein’s piece yesterday siding with those who thought Obama’s speech Monday should not have set forth liberal policy positions […]

Do Good Wall Street Days Translate to Good Days for Most Americans?

by Linda Beale Do Good Wall Street Days Translate to Good Days for Most Americans? As usual, there was one of those all-knowing snippets in the news last Friday about what the direction in the stock market meant for the economy.  Observing high corporate profits and buoyed by the idea that the GOP might not […]

Taxes and job creators

Via Robert Waldmann Richard Thaler at Bloomberg provides a different take on innovators and job creators: A recurring theme of this year’s presidential campaign is the need to encourage the formation of new businesses. Republicans in general, and Mitt Romney in particular, have stressed that the best way to stimulate such startups is via low […]

A Question About Apple

by Mike Kimel A Question About Apple My wife has been an Apple user for a long time. I on the other hand have tended to avoid purchasing Apple products for myself – I just cannot get around the concept of a single button on a mouse, nor why I should be interested in buying […]

Does David Brooks Really Think Student Loans, Public Universities, Public Infrastructure, and Small Business Loans Are Attempts at Socialist Central Planning That Undermines Creativity and Private Enterprise? I Mean … REALLY?* [Appended 1/23]

I’m a political junkie, born and bred.  And so the number of political opinion pieces I’ve read in my life, dating back to my teenage years (me being a child of my parents, they of the ardent liberal Democrat variety– “Oh, no, Bevy!  You have to return that purse.  That company is anti-union!”  “Okayyy, Mom.”)–run […]

Top economic/finance blogs

Suitpossum offered a look at the names of the top 100 finance blogs and shared his somewhat quixotic methodology, which seemed on second thought to be the way many readers might look for blogs to read, through networking other names through links to blogrolls or links within posts.  Suitpossum stuck to blogrolls for a first […]

Dell’s Offshored Cash Hoard and Fair Taxes

by Linda Beale Dell’s Offshored Cash Hoard and Fair Taxes As most people who follow mergers, acquisitions and other mega transactions are likely aware, Michael Dell wants to take the company he founded private in a leveraged buyout. LBOs, of course, use the company’s own assets as collateral for debt to purchase the company–one of […]

Obama Asked Not What His Country Can Do For Him — He Asked What He Can Do for His Country. Which is why Dana Milbank–yes, him again–hated the speech.

There was less wow in the address that preceded [singer Kelly] Clarkson. Obama teased the crowd with a theme of unity: “Now, more than ever, we must do these things together, as one nation and one people.” But his “we the people” theme turned out to be more of a campaign retread. “We the people […]

That Time of Year Again

I end up posting this, I believe, every year. And every year, despite not trying at all, I find a newer and better reason to post it. This year, it’s because cities in Virginia, including Harrisonburg City, have their students in school today—a Federal holiday—but made damned certain the kids were out on Friday for […]