These two articles were juxtaposed in the NYT today.  At a casual glance they look contradictory, and in my experience in my personal sphere no one has asked for this to be explained in the political arena.  Maybe because I have a porcupine sort of personality.  We are apt to discuss parts more deeply but […]

by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Health Care Thoughts: Cardiologists Gone Wild I have been waiting……. for a major federal investigation into unnecessary cardiology interventions. According to the NYT a major target are some HCA hospitals in Florida. The NYT focuses on HCA and for-profit, but I think this is a much broader problem. Unlike some […]

Eric Larson is interviewed about Social Security and his new book The People’s Pension: The War Against Social Security from Reagan to Obama (AK Press, Spring 2012): Eric Laursen is an independent journalist who’s been covering political and financial news for more than a quarter-century. He’s been studying Social Security for the past 15 years, […]

I noticed in comments on Spencer England’s post for this month’s Employment Situation that the 1.2 million jobs lost number was put forth as fact and a reason to dismiss BLS numbers outright. Links to a more careful and complete look at the numbers follows: Brad Plummer at the WaPo discusses two issues with employment […]

Some other insights on the data in addition to Angry Bear Spencer England: Mixed Message on the Labor Front BLS released its Employment Situation Summary for July. The payroll survey showed an increase in employment of $163 thousand but that unemployment rate rose to 8.3%. So what was the deal from the household survey? Actually […]

Via Mark Thoma comes this study of the financial status of many Americans in the last part of their lives: Social Security works: Study: Many Americans die with ‘virtually no financial assets’, by Peter Dizikes, MIT News Office: It is a central worry of many Americans: not having enough money to live comfortably in old […]

PGL at Econospeak begins an analysis of the economists and economics of election promises of Romney’s economic ‘plan?’: Jon Ward reports that Glenn Hubbard, Greg Mankiw, and John Taylor joined with Kevin (DOW 36000) Hassett to produce white paper that should be fun reading for us of all: Mitt Romney’s campaign released a paper by […]

Euro Area Retail Sales Portend Negative Quarter of Real Consumption by Rebecca Wilder Today Eurostat released its June estimate of real retail sales for the Euro area. On a month/month basis, real retail sales increased at a rate of 0.1%. However, on a trended basis, the 3-month/3-month average growth rate was down 0.7% in the […]

by Dale CoberlySocial SecurityThe Fundamental TruthIf you don’t understand this, you don’t understand Social Security. If you do understand it, all the rest is minor technical detail… or utter nonsense. Social Security is not welfare. Social Security is not an investment plan. Social Security is insurance… to avoid welfare if your investment plan doesn’t work […]

by Linda Beale Corporations Don’t Need More Tax Breaks If you listen to the corporate lobbyists, and the right-wingers who plead their cases for them in Congress and in the media, you’d think that corporations are so heavily taxed that it is threatening their ability to continue to conduct business and be competitive in world […]