Guest post by Kenneth Thomas Top 1% Reduced Taxes in Last 3 Years but Probably Gained Income Share Citizens for Tax Justice came out with a nice report today showing that the overall U.S. tax system is just barely “progressive,” which is to say that as your income goes up, so does your tax rate. […]

by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Health Care Thoughts: Physicians “Rationing” Health Care   Nine physician panels have recommended less testing of patients presenting with various conditions and diseases and less treatment for some diagnosis.   For Details: New York Times Much of this is low hanging fruit, such as using less antibiotics for sinusitis. Some of this […]

This post is not very economic oriented except indirectly, but I felt a need to mark the extraordinary temperatures of high and some low 100 year records.  Lifted and edited for readability in blog format from an e-mail newsletter sent by reader rjs come examples and links for both record setting high temperatures and consecutive days of high temperatures this March. […]

Guest post by Kenneth Thomas America Shows No Increase in College Graduation Rates over the last 30 Years Jared Bernstein (via Paul Krugman) highlights an amazing breakdown in the prospects for reducing economic inequality any time soon. Over the last 30 years, the U.S. has made no progress whatsoever in increasing college graduation rates. To […]

by Rebecca Wilder ECB Rates Policy is Clogged in Key Periphery Markets How the Euro area (EA) will grow, according to Mario Draghi: The outlook for economic activity should be supported by foreign demand, the very low short-term interest rates in the euro area, and all the measures taken to foster the proper functioning of […]

by Mike Kimel Explaining Why Low Tax Rates are Correlated with Slower Economic Growth, Once Again One of the regular mysteries facing economists is why the US economy fails to display evidence of a relationship that everyone seems to accept implicitly, namely that lower taxes lead to (or even are correlated with) faster economic growth. […]

by Jeff McCord of The Investor Advocate “Fear and Loathing” of Wall Street, 2012 To-date, the presidential primaries have studiously avoided reference to the unfolding catastrophe brought to the American public just four years ago by the financial services industry. The political issues contested thus far bring to mind Hunter Thompson’s reporting of the 1972 […]

The Supreme Court has chosen to be involved in many of the major issues during this election campaign.  From the NYT: … the court will hear arguments in a challenge to Arizona’s tough immigration law, and it will soon confront cases concerning affirmative action in higher education and a request to reconsider the Citizens United campaign finance decision. Cases […]