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

New series on Social Security: Angry Bear and Committee on Responsible Federal Budget

This post is simply a short note to let readers know that a series of posts and topical threads will be published over the next weeks by staff at the Committee on Responsible Federal Budget and contributors to Angry Bear blog and several outside authors in our network. Marc Goldwein,  Policy Director for the Committee […]

A study of Financial Repression, part 1… a basic model

Is there financial repression in the United States? Are some people repressed economically, while others have inordinate advantages? Is there a similarity between financial repression and falling labor share? Is financial repression something to be feared or criticized? What the heck is financial repression anyway? This post begins a 5-part series on financial repression with […]

On the Horizon "After Obamacare"

Many of us have talked about bending the healthcare cost curve by changing the services for fee healthcare cost model to a model of better outcomes for those fees. This is precisely what the PPACA does. Phillip Longman based his book “Best Care Anywhere” on how the VA brought about such a change in the […]

Komments on Kilgore

by Robert Waldmann Komments on Kilgore Here are some of my usual comments on Ed Kilgore. Unlike me, he has been very interesting lately. He is clearly trying to reconcile the centrist and populist wings of the Democratic party noting that they agree on the main things (mostly that Republicans are evil nutcases). I think […]

Oregon medicaid report and use of the hospital ER

The current buzz revolves around a study suggesting increased access to health care by medicaid recipients may actually increase visits to the ER, not decrease them as the White house claims. The people at The Incidental Economist tackle the issues A few thoughts on the latest Oregon Medicaid results, the latest results aren’t actually counter […]

Brad DeLong asks questions about the financial panic of 2007-2009 and our current macroeconomic predicament

by Robert Waldmann Answering Brad DeLong’s questions Brad asks: There are a large number of serious and, so far, unanswered questions about the financial panic of 2007-2009 and our current macroeconomic predicament. Among them are: 1)Why is housing investment still so far depressed below any definition of normal? 2)Why has labor-force participation collapsed so severely? […]