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

A USER FRIENDLY GLOSS ON THE CBO REPORT "Social Security Policy Options” JULY 2010

by Dale Coberly “SOCIAL SECURITY POLICY OPTIONS” JULY 2010 A USER FRIENDLY GLOSS ON THE CBO REPORT The first thing that strikes me about the CBO report is that the language is unnecessarily negative. They tell you that Social Security is running out of money. They tell you this three times in three ways. They […]

Goldman’s Settlement with the SEC

by Linda Bealecrossposted with Ataxingmatter Goldman’s Settlement with the SEC On July 15, it was announced that Goldman had reached a settlement of the SEC’s charges regarding material misrepresentations in an Abacus CDO deal, acknowledging that its materials were “incomplete”. See Chan & Story, Goldman Pays $550 Million to Settle Fraud Case, NY Times (July […]

Overpaying CEOs

by Linda Bealecrossposted with Ataxingmatter Overpaying CEOs The Wall Street Journal reports today on a study by three academics on CEO pay. They are Streedhari Desai (Harvard), Jennifer George (Rice) and Arthur Brief (Utah), and their study is “When Executives Rake in Millions: Meanness in Organizations” (available on SSRN). Here’s the abstract: The topic of […]

US Federal deficits

Mark Thoma posted yesterday Is Galbraith Right that Deficits are Never a Problem? on Paul Krugman’s NYT piece I Would Do Anything For Stimulus, But I Won’t Do That (Wonkish) on MMT and soveriegn debt (using Angry Bear’s posting of Jamie Galbraith’s testimony to Congress as a link), and has included Jamie Galbraith’s response. It […]

Tax extenders legislation

by Linda Bealecrossposted with Ataxingmatter tax extenders legislation As most everyone knows, the Bush tax cuts were passed as temporary measures, with a provision sunsetting the cuts at the end of 2010. Back when the GOP controlled Congress passed the series of Bush tax cuts, they knew that they were creating a whopping deficit but […]

Senate passes HR 4173 finance reform conference report

by Linda Beale crossposted with Ataxingmatter Senate passes HR 4173 finance reform conference report[updated to add information on Geithner’s opposition to Warren 7:12 pm] On a 60-39 vote, the US Senate passed the Dodd-Frank H.R. 4173 financial reform conference report today. While the bill imposes some new restrictions and creates a consumer protection agency, most […]

Tenneco CEO’s Wall St. Journal on "American Capitalism"

by Linda Bealecrossposted with Ataxingmatter Tenneco CEO’s Wall St. Journal on “American Capitalism” Gregg Sherrill, the CEO of Tenneco, Inc., seems to think that Capitol Hill and the White House are “bashing” the “entire free enterprise system”–saying that the business world has “taken a pounding on Capitol Hill and at the White House” but except […]