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

Monkey Cage Match

by Robert Waldmann Lifted from Robert’s Stochastic Thoughts Monkey Cage Match A real smack down in the Monkey Cage via Jonathan Bernstein (who summarized better than I can) A catch to Andrew Gelman for correcting an attempted but inaccurate catch by Alfred Moore, Joseph Parent and Joseph Uscinski, who thought they had caught Paul Krugman […]

Santa Cruz CA and water policy

Drought in Santa Cruz, CA is especially relevant because the city relies on precipitation for sources rather than the extensive systems in place for the state. There are other towns in the same dilemma, but watching policy develop to change behavior is interesting. Like bottled water in Head scratching use of water in a previous […]

Sugar coated truths

Dr. Mark Harmon points us to a number of studies concerning the role of sugars in our public health arena and stunning changes over the last fifty years: This study of more than 40,000 people, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, accounted for all other potential risk factors including total calories, overall diet quality, smoking, cholesterol, […]

Declaring War on ISIS without Making War In Iraq or Syria

Put that way it sounds silly. I mean isn’t ISIS simply IN various parts of Iraq and Syria and wouldn’t US involvement in something like an all out attack on ISIS mean intervening in any number of civil wars? Well that depends on how smart your lawyers are (and I am only kind of smart […]

Damn. Just plain DAMN. Can anyone on Long Island come to this dog’s rescue?

Earlier this week I posted a post titled “Blackie, in Wantaugh, NY.”   Several people—Noni Mausa, Yves Smith (on Naked Capital), Bill H, and Dan Crawford (who made the post a Featured Story)—tried to help out. On Wednesday, Bill reported that Blackie had an approved adopter and would be picked up at the Town of Hempstead Animal […]

3 Potentially Ominous ideas from Yellen’s Speech

Janet Yellen gave a speech today at the Jackson Hole conference. Here are 3 parts from her speech that are noteworthy and somewhat ominous… 1. “For example, as I discussed earlier, if downward nominal wage rigidities created a stock of pent-up wage deflation during the economic downturn, observed wage and price pressures associated with a […]

Some background on Ferguson, Missouri

Charles Reid explains a bit on some background for the news in Missouri: Quite properly, journalistic reaction to events in Ferguson, Missouri, has focused on the militarization of the police, on the role of racism in the killing of unarmed African-American men, and on the political disenfranchisement that allows communities like Ferguson to operate in […]

Bullshit to cash ratio

Dan here…Yves Smith reminds us on the announcement of a reported ‘biggest fine ever’ on Bank America that the deals, fines, and reporting on mortgage misconduct need careful interpretation. And a skeptical attitude. (partially re-posted…worth the trip over) by Yves Smith Bank Settlement Grade Inflation: High Bullshit to Cash Ratio in $17 Billion Bank of […]