The GOP’s extortion demands: cut Social Security or we’ll shoot the country in the foot The GOP created the fiscal cliff beginning with the “temporary” tax cuts passed in 2001, 2003 and 2004 under the Bush administration, all as purportedly temporary provisions with sunset dates. They hoped that the passage of the tax cuts would, […]
by Robert Waldmann What has Nate Silver done for us lately ? This isn’t really about Nate Silver. It is about poll aggregators in general and just as much about the Huffington Post pollster, Real Clear Politics and Talking points Memo as about Silver, Wang Linzer and others who try to estimate outcome probabilities […]
by David Zetland David Zetland is a senior water economist at Wageningen University in the Netherlands and maintains a blog on water issues at Aguanomics Hurricane Sandy and choices for the future I live in the Netherlands, where living below sea level for many years has driven the Dutch to take flooding and storm surges […]
by Linda Beale Tax Relief for Victims of Sandy The IRS released several bulletins this week providing relief for victims of Hurricane Sandy.IR-2012-83 extends the return filing and tax payment deadline to Feb. 1, 2013 for hurricane victims in Connecticut (Fairfield, Middlesex, New Haven, and New London Counties; the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and the […]
by run75441 Will the Reign of Witches end January 1st?(hat tip to Maggie Mahar at Health Beat blog) A little patience,” Jefferson wrote, “and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolved, and the people recovering their true sight, restoring their government to its true principles. It is true, that in […]
A short video worth watching: (hat tip David Zetland)
Three writers point to the need to maintain energy and attention to the Obama Grand Bargain. Mark Weisbrot at The Guardian writes on Barack Obama’s carefully crafted economic populism carries the day: The media are a huge factor in most elections in the US, and outside of Fox News and the rightwing press, most of the […]
By Jeff McCord of The Investor Advocate USA: History’s Largest Free Port for Financial Freebooters? The term “freebooter,” derived from the Dutch vrijbuiter, means one who openly steals property. Once freebooters sailed the coasts of the Carolinas, Florida and Caribbean isles from free ports such as Port Royal, Jamaica, taking what they wished with little […]
For anyone who ever thought they were too busy to vote, meet 21-year-old Galicia Malone. The south suburban Dolton mom-to-be was spotted at her polling place Tuesday morning on her way to give birth at a local hospital. Cook County Clerk David Orr said Malone’s contractions were five minutes apart when she showed up around […]
Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism brings us news of an important study addressing the issues of determining the costs of medical care, delivery, and insurance: A remarkably important and persuasive paper that calls into question the need for “reforming” Medicare has not gotten the attention it warrants. “An Examination of Health-Spending Growth In The United […]