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

Repeal LyndonJohnsonCare?

While I was reading an article on the web this morning from my phone, up popped one of those incessant anti-Obama/anti-Obamacare “take-a-survey” ads—one of those little square red-and-white-bordered things with a goofy-looking picture of Obama on it.  My laptop software blocks these things, so I was lucky enough to have not seen one of those […]

Vulgar Empiricism Obama V Reagan

Just compare the graphs (reminder, mainly to myself, at least with Chrome, you have to click “read more” to see the graphs) Reagan Obama Overall Reagan saw a decline of 0.5% from 7.5% in January 1981 to 7.0% in September 1986, while Obama saw a decline of 1.9% from 7.8 % inJanuary 2009 to 5.9% […]

Boeing moving 2000 jobs from Washington state

Via @BlogWood, I learned that Boeing is going to move 2000 skilled jobs away from Washington state, despite just receiving $8.7 billion (with a B) in subsidies for the years 2025-2040. Really, I’m speechless. “Chutzpah” is one of the more printable words I can think of to describe this. You will recall that the state’s […]

Rolling Jubilee: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing?

authored by Alan Collinge of the Student Loan Justice Organization, a grass roots group seeking the swift return of standard bankruptcy protections and other consumer protections to all student loans in the U.S. “We started by going after Sallie Mae debt because Sallie Mae is for my generation sort of the Voldemort, this cosmic level […]

Gail Collins’ don’t-miss column on Social Security—and on Joni Ernst—today

Highlights: There was this at the Senate debate in Iowa on Sunday: “I will fight hard to protect Social Security and Medicare for seniors like my mom and dad because our Greatest Generation has worked so hard for the American dream for our families,” said Republican Joni Ernst. Like many conservatives, Ernst supports some sort […]

It’s the Dems, not the Repubs, that should ‘nationalize’ this election. Here’s how:

Best as I can tell, the concept of “nationalizing” this election has been used exclusively to mean that the Republicans want to make this election all about Obama, Obamacare, and such.  Therefore, if the election is “nationalized,” the Repubs win, right? In a post here at AB two weeks ago, I listed some of the […]

Apple set to lose billions in EU state aid case

The Financial Times reported on September 30th that the European Commission has decided to open a formal investigation into whether Apple received illegal subsidies (“state aid,” in EU-speak) from Ireland going as far back as 1991. The FT quotes “people involved in the case” as saying that this can cost Apple billions of euros. What […]