by reader Ilsm Restoring AffordabilityWaste, Unneeded Programs Hinder ModernizationBy ASHTON CARTER Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition Technology and LogisticsPublished: 19 July 2010 Read the whole article at Defense News Ashton Carter says: “The department spends approximately $700 billion annually for our country’s defense. About $300 billion of this is spent inside the department, on […]

by Mike Kimel The Non-Relationship Between Interest Rates and the Money Supply, Part 2Cross-posted at the Presimetrics Blog. This post is a bit less about Presidents than usual, but its a follow-up to last week’s post on the non-relationship between the money supply and interest rates. (That post appeared both at the Presimetrics and Angry […]

Marshall Auerback is a Senior Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, and a market analyst and commentator.crossposted with New Deal 2.0 Welcome to the World of the “New Normal”, UK Style Calling high unemployment the “new normal” is a lazy way to cover up poor fiscal policy. We are now starting to see the economic impact […]

H.R.6010 To prohibit the extrajudicial killing of United States citizens, and for other purposes proposed by Rep. Dennis Kucinich and only five others. The bill seems reasonable…does the executive branch, and more probably intelligence branch of the executive branch, have the explicit permission to assassinate US citizens on its own authority, without review of Congress? […]

Robert Reich lays out some figures for the military jobs programs both in manpower and hardware: America’s biggest — and only major — jobs program is the U.S. military. Over 1,400,000 Americans are now on active duty; another 833,000 are in the reserves, many full time. Another 1,600,000 Americans work in companies that supply the […]

by reader Ilsm “No, Again, To F-35 Alt-Engine: Schwartz”, John Reed, DefenseNews.com August 4, 2010 The U.S. Air Force’s top general reaffirmed his opposition to the GE-Rolls Royce’s alternative engine for the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter this week, saying that spending billions on the backup engine does not make sense in today’s fiscal […]

by Beverly Manncross posted with The Annarborist Ross Douthat To the Rescue If you can’t base a gay-marriage ban in tradition or in a religious objection—because laws have to have a secular purpose—and you also can’t ground it in the claim that children raised by same-sex couples are worse off, because the research shows just […]

Rdan here…Rebecca just emerged from the bottom of the Grand Canyon on her way to a massage somewhere in the Southwest. Hence for some reason she is not publishing much at the moment.:) This one is late to AB, but still intersting. by Rebecca WilderConsumer confidence: that extremely coincident, but often cited as leading consumer […]

Hat tip Calculated Risk: •From the BEA:Personal Income for Metropolitan Areas, 2009 Personal income declined in 2009 in most of the nation’s metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), according to estimates released today by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.The per capita income in my MSA fell 3.8% last year.

by reader Ilsm It is now Empire Security“Defense Plan For The 21st Century”, Washington Post 1 August ’10, Pg. 19By Stephen J. Hadley and William J. Perry This article is another salvo in the military industrial complex war on the taxpayer to keep the pentagon rolling in money at the expense of the needs of […]