Lifted from Robert’s Stochastic Thoughts: The Fournier Transform Near Stupidoclypse Alert Major meme #Fournierderp It looks as if Ron Fournier may sweep the left blogosphere. I read this by Joan McCarter at DailyKos The nation’s most stubborn and willfully ignorant pundit, Ron “why won’t Obama lead and make Republicans like him” Fournier, strikes again. On […]

Dan here…hang on to this definition for examples.  It is also full of  Robert’s somewhat unique humor.  Lifted from Robert Waldmann’s Stochastic Thoughts. Phrase of the Day: Fournier Transform Fournier Transform: This phrase is a technical term which describes the process through which an urgently needed excellent moderate proposal supported by all very serious centrist […]

Addendum below. A very interesting article at Daily Kos has been posted.   Title: There’s been HOW many Pipeline spills in Alberta in the last Four Months? Seems the Canadian news system does not find oil, gas and toxic water spills from the mining of carbon fuels to be news worthy.   But, the native Indian sure […]

Tim Worstall at Forbes takes issue with my last post, claiming that we actually don’t know that U.S. state and local governments give more in location incentives than EU Member States do. He then says that while it is true that EU states give less in cash grants and other kinds of subsidies defined as […]

Lifted from Robert Waldmann‘s StochasticThoughts In which I compare  Rand Paul, Jay Ackroyd, and David Dayan Jay Ackroyd notes DDay’s excellent policy proposals. I comment That is indeed an excellent list. I especially like point 3 (I think it is useful to ask people how much money Medicare Advantage saved the government if they object). […]

From Naked Capitalism, Yves continues to point to enforcement theater: One of Teddy’s Roosevelt’s famed sayings was “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” The SEC seems to be hoping that speaking loudly and brandishing a water pistol will be as effective. As we’ve written, the securities regulator made an impressive initial salvo at the […]

by Joseph Joyce (re-posted from Capital Ebbs and Flows) Dealing with the Fallout from U.S. Policies The divergence of monetary policies in the advanced economies continues to roil financial markets. The Federal Reserve has reacted to better labor market conditions by ending its quantitative easing policy. The Bank of Japan, on the other hand, will […]

Shinzo Abe didn’t fool any of the people any of the time. Japan is now in a recession by the standard definition of two quarters of declining GDP in a row. The timing leaves little doubt that this recession was caused by the 3% increase in the consumption tax this April fools day. Japan’s GDP […]

by Linda Beale Election Puzzle The elections got me down.  I must admit that I am truly puzzled by the American electorate–that is, the very small slice of American voters that actually makes it to the polls and votes.  We know that many of the right-wing efforts at voter repression –claimed as necessary to deal […]