Huh? Repeal the PPACA to Help Hispanics and African-Americans ? ? ? Crooks and Liars carries a conversation by Repub Senator Ted Cruz with Candy Crowley on CNN. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas is making it his crusade to repeal the PPACA so as not to cause harm to the most vulnerable of America who […]

Robert Hall wrote a paper (pdf warning)which is getting attention from Krugman, DeLong and their slavish follower uh here. Neither DeLong nor Krugman is convinced, but both are respectfully doubtful, because sometimes that which seems to be arrogant recklessness is not pointless Hall used to be famous at MIT for talks along the lines of […]

From colleague New Deal Democrat at the Bondadd blog comes this comment and clarification regarding the reporting from this post at Angry Bear: I have left this comment elsewhere, because there is widespread misreporting and misunderstanding of this report. While the data is correct, the conclusion drawn by most of your readers probably is not. The […]

by Robert Waldmann Ryan Avent has some fun with Graeber.  Click for the article but here is a summary. Graeber “The ruling class has figured out that a happy and productive population with free time on their hands is a mortal danger”. [skip] Avent (my bold) “Employers had to retain such workers—had to pay them […]

Salon offers an article on expectations for public sector pensions. Given the demise of many private pension plans and the lackluster performance of 401ks for many people, what’s next?

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 […]

The markets don’t believe it. Exhibit:       If the market isn’t stupid enough to believe that CEOs are compensated based on the “value” they add to the company, why should we be?

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]