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

Confusions and policies…let’s keep the players in mind all around

Chinese Confusions by Paul Krugman These days, China seems to play the same role in much of our discourse that Japan did two decades ago. We look at our own follies — which are immense — and then look at the Chinese, and ascribe to them all the virtues of foresight and determination we lack. […]

Health Care thoughts: Hysterical Reporting

by Tom aka Rusty Health Care: Hysterical Reporting Fox News ran a screaming intro and a scary bottom summary line on a story on some survey of physicians, claiming a majority of physician will quit, retire or work part-time. Link via Yahoo: http://news.yahoo.com/video/health-15749655/23362511 This is further proof that Fox News does not do journalism. The […]

Opportunities in Detroit?

by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Opportunities in Detroit? Detroit has lost about 60% of its population since the 1950s peak of about 2 million. About 50 square miles of Detroit is so thinly populated that the Mayor wants to pay for people to move to more densely populated neighborhoods so the area can be abandoned […]

Google wonkiness?

I have no idea what the advanced Google reader filter actually does. Yves has fun with it as do readers in comments. Here is ours.

Simon Johnson on the apparent new deal in politics

Baseline Scenario links to Simon Johnson’s thoughts on current practice of politics. Well worth the time to read and comment. Delusions Of Fiscal Grandeur by Simon Johnson If you honestly believe that investors will happily buy up any amount of US government debt (at low interest rates) for the indefinite future, then relax.  The tax […]

Thoughts on Detroit

by Tom aka Rusty Economics and Corruption Detroit and the Detroit metro area are a pathetic, decaying mess. The reasons are many, ranging from the decline of the Big 3 auto companies to rampant corruption. For almost 40 years corruption has been well known and wide spread. In recent years, the administration of former Mayor […]

JS-kit continues to mix things up

Sorry for the odd behavior of comments today. The Wed. report for instance says 13 comments but I can access only five. Igor, the head engineer, says there were several different kinds of problems, and maintenance and upgrade to servers. Apologies.

WTO upholds tire tariff

The Washingtington Post notes: The World Trade Organization has upheld the stiff duties that President Obama imposed on car tires imported from China last year, an important victory released on the eve of trade talks between the two countries. A panel at the Geneva-based trade group on Monday said it agreed that the United States […]

Calculated Risk commentary: Subprime Thinking

Commentary: Subprime Thinking from Wednesday morningre-posted with permission from the author When I started this blog in January 2005, one of my goals was to alert people to the housing bubble, and to discuss the possible consequences of the then approaching housing bust. Residential investment has historical been one of the best leading indicators for […]

Wednesday reports released

The NYT reports on the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. “The Republican members of the commission appointed by Congress to investigate the causes of the financial crisis plan to release on Wednesday a document that assigns government housing policies substantial blame for the origins of the 2008 financial crisis. “ Update from MG: Here is the […]