Peter Beinart in The Daily Beast points us to the crazy nature of our current attitude regarding attacking Iran in The Crazy Rush to Attack Iran. He lists and quotes an impressive series of experts familiar with the the last decades wars, and finally asks: Can you find former military and intelligence officials who are […]
by Linda Beale Politicians’ wealth and the tax policies they support A story in the Boston Globe by Britt Peterson on Feb. 19, 2012 explored “Why it matters that our politicians are rich” (available here on Boston.com). A key point–the four remaining GOP presidential candidates all are millionaires, with most making more than a million […]
Whats the matter with Chisago county? One look at the NYT’s article on how and why people who receive benefits from the government think they don’t, and considers the ’causes’ slid into the article as ‘fact’. Payroll tax cut undermines Social Security An article in the LA Times that considers the messages involved in using the […]
Yves at Naked Capitalism comments on this Bloomberg article about the Eaton v. Federal National Mortgage Association case before the MA Supreme Court in the article Massachusetts Home Seizures Threatened in Loan Case: Mortgages: This is super important … The highly respected Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is going to rule on whether the mortgage (the lien) can be […]
Health Care Thoughts: Here We Go Again – SGR Edition Congress has passed a ten month patch of the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula by which Medicare reimburses physicians. I have lost count, but I believe that is the 11th or 12th year since creation of the formula which has never been put into full […]
by Rebecca Wilder Does Latvia Give Us Any Clues? Short answer: yes, as long as global trade growth is negligible. Over the weekend I came across a December CEPR paper about the Latvian economy. Authors Mark Weisbrot and Rebecca Ray highlight the Latvian experience with internal devaluation, which may prove to be a case study […]
by Linda Beale Links worth noting Lynn Parrymore (Alternet, Naked Capitalism) on the difficulties in putting a stop to congressional insider trading: Can Rep. Bacchus and his money-crazed congressional colleagues be stopped from insider trading? OMB Watch BudgetBlog, Small Biz Owners: Big Businesses, Millionaires Not Paying Fair Share (showing that small businesses are more aware […]
by Linda Beale Former Sen. Gramm retires from UBS Let’s see. Gramm pushed through the Commodities modernization act in Dec 2000–the thousand pages that nobody read but that made sure that credit default swaps (CDS) stayed unregulated. CDC then went on to form one of the pillars of the financialization of the economy–as they mushroom […]
by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Health Care Thoughts: Recommending Brad Delong When he is not snarking up a storm on his blog or educating Berkeley’s young skulls full of mush Brad does some solid academic work. In concert with Prof. Ann Marciarille (Mrs. Delong if I remember correctly) Delong has posted an interesting piece to […]
This article Billionaire Romney donor uses threats to silence critics by Glenn Greenwald caught my attention given the amazingly quick reaction (in my opinion) to Beverly Mann’s post Breaking news: Bain Capital wanted to lend money to GM and Chrysler for managed bankruptcies. Beverly mentioned Bain Capital instead of Bain Consulting in the title. Also […]