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

Before we can get to issues…

Via US News: Less than half of recently polled Trump supporters believe Donald Trump Jr. met with a Russian lawyer, despite the president’s eldest son admitting he attended the controversial meeting.The latest survey from Public Policy Polling finds that only 45 percent of Trump voters believe Trump Jr. attended a meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia […]

DID MAYA MACGUINEAS of CRFB LIE on TIME magazine website OR WAS SHE JUST FOOLIN’ AND DID ANYONE NOTICE

by Dale Coberly   DID MAYA MACGUINEAS of CRFB LIE on TIME magazine website OR WAS SHE JUST FOOLIN’ AND DID ANYONE NOTICE   Maya MacGuineas is president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) which reliably confuses the Federal Budget with the Social Security program.   CRFB claims to want to cut government […]

Non competes

Via Alternet, Thom Hartmann writes: …This type of labor system has been the dream of conservative/corporatists, particularly since the “Reagan Revolution” kicked off a major federal war on the right of workers to organize for their own protection from corporate abuse.Unions represented almost a third of American workers when Reagan came into office (and, since […]

Not business but finance models

Financialized business models sticks to faith based “Market knows best” rule. …The number of MBAs graduating from America’s business schools has skyrocketed since the 1980s. But over that time, the health of American business has decreased by many metrics: corporate R&D spending, new business creation, productivity, and the level of public trust in business in […]

R and D

Angry Bear has over the years described the Pharma industry and its spending on Rand D and stock buybacks, among other developments in comparing US health outcomes to other countries. Via New York Times discussing this study at Ineteconomics. US Pharma’s Financialized Business Model JUL 2017 | Price gouging in the US pharmaceutical drug industry […]

It’s the Debt, Stupid

Dan here…another post by Steve Why Tyler Cowen Doesn’t Understand the Economy: It’s the Debt, Stupid Steve Roth | November 16, 2015 In a recent post Tyler Cowen makes an admirable effort to lay out his overarching approach to thinking about macroeconomics, revealing the assumptions underlying his understanding of how economies work. (Even more salutary, […]

Nation “Too Broke” for Universal Healthcare to Spend $406 Billion More on F-35

Nation “Too Broke” for Universal Healthcare to Spend $406 Billion More on F-35 (Photo: Forsvarsdepartementet/flickr/cc) The nation’s most expensive weapons program isn’t done showing U.S. taxpayers how much it will ultimately cost them, with Bloomberg reporting Monday that the F-35 fighter jet budget is now predicted to jump by a cool $27 billion. “Think about […]

GOP leaders definitely knew about hacking — did they benefit too?

Via Salon, Digby writes: GOP leaders definitely knew about hacking — did they benefit too? McClatchy also reported that the Justice Department is looking into “whether Trump’s campaign pointed Russian cyber operatives to certain voting jurisdictions in key states – areas where Trump’s digital team and Republican operatives were spotting unexpected weakness in voter support […]