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

OMB Watch has an opinion

OMB Watch has an opinion piece worth review no matter ones notions of regulation in abstract. The science is getting better at detecting and evaluating trace and small amounts of chemicals affecting hormones and development. This is not a Bush Administration only issue….whoever wins the elections needs to take a hard look at public health […]

Buffet begins pull out of bank insurance

The WSJ reports: Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has told one of its subsidiaries to stop insuring bank deposits above the amount guaranteed by the federal government, dealing a fresh blow to the financial-services industry as it tries to assuage anxious customers. The subsidiary, Kansas Bankers Surety Co., is notifying about 1,500 banks in more […]

Spend the billions on F and F a different way?

Reader OSO has a slant on Freddie and Fannie: As far as I can tell, GSEs of the size and purpose of Fannie and Freddieare missing from more “socialist” economies than the US. It seems thatthey are an aberration in both free-market economies and social democracies. The nationalisation of Freddie and Fannie was not the […]

Quotes and taxes

by cactus What with the new CBP Report showing the growing deficit (warning: PDF file!!!), I thought I’d update a post I wrote a few months ago. Here’s the post in its entirety: Here’s a short collection of White House quotes on taxes and the budget – one for each year of the Bush Administration. […]

IN COVENTRY designation on the sidebar

Please note that any name in the jail has lost the right to participate in Angry Bear discussions, as agreed by a coalition of left, center, and right groups on the blog. Please do not respond to persons in jail…these persons refused to respond to reminders for hostility and rude statements.

Op-ed on what Social Security is for: plain bread not cake and good enough if you retired now

op-ed by reader coberly A MODEST NOTE on the use of Present Value in Social Security propaganda I should begin by saying that I have nothing against the use of present value (PV) calculations being used to make honest comparisons between various options across time. What I am concerned with here is that they can […]

Dueling Mooses

by reader noni mousa Dueling Mooses — Kristol tries to confuse the issue — FAIL! William Kristol (NYT today) defends Palin as a VP pick. Are we convinced? Here, see what he says: Should voters be alarmed by a relatively young or inexperienced vice-presidential candidate? No. Since 1900, five vice presidents have succeeded to the […]

Economic trouble

by cactus Back in January, I had a post entitled Why is the Economy in Trouble? Seriously, Why is the Economy in Trouble?. If I may quote myself extensively (and I may!!): [W]hy is the economy in a state where even rational people are talking about the need for stimulus only a few years after […]

Compare and Contrast

by CoRev and Rdan Let’s compare the two candidates policies, major component by major component. It will not be easy because they are both extensive but modestly detailed. Furthermore, you the reader will have to do some work by reading their plans. So let’s get started with “Energy” because it is, to my mind the […]