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

SCOTUSblog’s Problem: It’s Not Incorporated [OK, I’m sure it is, but you get the point.]

Last week, the Senate Press Gallery denied SCOTUSblog’s application for a press pass, and advised us that it would refuse to renew the credential it had previously granted Lyle when it expires next month.  We were disappointed in that decision, and we are grateful for the support that we have received through social media, emails, […]

Speaking of Jimmy Carter and Energy

Of course Carter’s approach to dealing with energy did not consist only with eliminating the insane regulation keeping US crude oil prices below world crude oil prices. Totally aside from (and opposite too) freeing the market, he also subsidized potential new sources of energy. As I recalled correctly, he focused particularly on “shale oil” and […]

Picking on Pollsters

It’s only April and I am getting poll addicted already. Sorry to bother you, but I’d like to update my views on some Pollsters whom I suspect of Republican bias (in the statistical sense).

Can the SEC prohibit publicly-traded corporations from making political expenditures (and, eventually, direct campaign contributions) unless the corporation first gets approval from a majority of shareholders?

It’s already become something of a favorite parlor game among liberals, especially among liberal law geeks, to speculate about when the Supreme Court will strike down state and federal statutes that prohibit corporations from making direct campaign contributions to candidates and political parties. In Citizens United, the court killed statutory bars to corporate and union political […]

Capital Liberalization and Inequality

by Joseph Joyce (is a Professor of Economics at Wellesley College and the Faculty Director of the Madeleine Korbel Albright Institute for Global Affairs) Capital Liberalization and Inequality Inequality, which has drawn a great deal of comment and analysis following the publication of Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century, has sometimes been seen as […]

Tax loopholes to envy

Andrew Ross Sullivan in Dealbook points to some benefits Looking at some corporate tax loopholes ordinary citizens may envy to acknowledge tax day…not very comprehensive, but a quick read. Two are listed here: U.S. PIRG highlighted a study conducted by the Government Accountability Office in 2005 that found that of 34 settlements worth more than […]

Private ownership of public infrastructure… A doom of inequality

It is happening as I feared. Hilary Russ writes… Private money, public projects: More U.S. states doing deals. The movement has started for private funds to own public infrastructure. This is the entrenchment of inequality, which will be very hard to reverse. So why do I fear private ownership of public infrastructure? From what I […]

How Much Will You Pay for Health Care in 2015? What You Need to Know About Healthcare Inflation

Maggie Mahar: You probably have seen headlines like this one: “O-Care premiums to skyrocket.” The warning, which was posted on The Hill, seemed designed to cheer conservatives distraught by Obamcare’s enrollment numbers. It began by announcing that next year, “premiums will double in some parts of the country. The sticker shock will likely bolster the […]