rdan Reuters carries a story on the continued use of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency: A U.N. panel will next week recommend that the world ditch the dollar as its reserve currency in favor of a shared basket of currencies, a member of the panel said on Wednesday, adding to pressure on […]

cross posted with Howard Richman of Trade and Taxes We should be fighting a trade war with China, not Mexico Country U.S. Exports 2008 U.S. Imports 2008 Export/Import Ratio Mexico $176.2 billion $235.3 billion .75 China $87.4 billion $347.9 billion .25 In the 2009 appropriations bill, just signed by President Obama, Congress terminated the pilot […]

Cross and guest post by Raymond L. Richman ofTrade and Taxes Greenspan Protesteth Too Much Raymond L. Richman Alan Greenspan in his op-ed in the Wall Street Journal 3-11-09 entitled “The Fed Didn’t Cause the Housing Bubble” denies that the “easy money” policies of the Federal Reserve produced the U.S. housing bubble “that is at […]

by cactus Wasting the Plenty Via Atrios, this piece of bad news from Michael Kranish at the Boston Globe: The federal agency that insures bank deposits, which is asking for emergency powers to borrow up to $500 billion to take over failed banks, is facing a potential major shortfall in part because it collected no […]

by cactus The AIG Bonuses… A Letter to Our Leaders Back when the TARP was being passed, I noted among other things that a) it wouldn’t work, b) it would be gamed, and c) it would just serve to further enrich the same clowns who got us into this. I further suggested the obvious solution […]

rdan Limiting executive pay after bailouts is an Angry Bear post from last November. Seems to be relevant to the AIG and future Wall Street pay raises.

rdan Baseline Scenario adds their thoughts to the trade policy debate: A fundamental principle that we all hold dear is: in industrialized countries, with relatively high income levels, the government can’t be completely out to lunch. After all, we reason, there are democratic processes, watchdogs of various kinds, and we can safely delegate monitoring of […]

by Rusty and cross posted from Health Care Think Tank Latest in Physician Office IT Who will lead the charge to install IT in physician offices? Sam’s Club and Dell. Huh? Sam’s Club will partner with Dell and eClinicWorks for software, hardware, training and maintenance. No joke. The system will integrate patient appointments and billing […]