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

Coberly replies:

absolutely right. no one ought to try to live on SS who isn’t already pretty good at living on nothing. but that’s pretty much the point: SS is insurance… you set aside the least amount of money you can in order to guarantee at least the lowest possible standard of living you can stand “if […]

Vtcodger says Soc Sec fuss is…

Lifted directly from comments cactus style: Vtcodger says: 1. Social Security is adequate only if you plan to spend your golden years in a poorly heated hovel dining on macaroni and cheese. I’d be OK with that myself, but a lot of folks wouldn’t. Most people need additional savings. That’s where 401K, IRA, et al […]

Can we trust climate models?

Reader Andrew sent this link on statistics and climate modeling: Can we trust climate models makes a stab at figuring out what is valuable with the models and what is not. It also points out the fact the the commonality in models of the impact of “greenhouse” gases, and why these appear important. Perhaps an […]

Sorting it out in Iraq

McClatchy Washington Bureau reports a possible agreement between the militias, and with the Iraqi government: Followers of rebel cleric Muqtada al Sadr agreed late Friday to allow Iraqi security forces to enter all of Baghdad’s Sadr City and to arrest anyone found with heavy weapons in a surprising capitulation that seemed likely to be hailed […]

Fragile…

Some readers resented The Washington Post for publishing an Associated Press photograph of a critically wounded Iraqi child being lifted from the rubble of his home in Baghdad’s Sadr City “after a U.S. airstrike.” Two-year-old Ali Hussein later died in a hospital. As the saying goes, the picture was worth a thousand words because it […]

Swiss Bank UBS settles losses to towns

The Dailey New Transcript reports: Dedham Town administrator William Keegan says a $120,000 settlement Dedham will receive from Swiss bank UBS for an investment that failed will cover the town’s costs in that deal, but no more. Nineteen Massachusetts municipal governments and public agencies will recover more than $35 million from UBS in the settlement […]

Not sure of this cartoon either…

Is he talking CPI substitution and quality of goods, or just the difference in work ethic, or elimination of jobs by technology? Or is this BW explaining the intricacy of modern economic forcasting with Social Security? Or a Vermont economist passing down wisdom?

Not sure what the cartoon is about…

Is this about devaluation and inflation of the US dollar? Or is it about gas prices and robbers? Or just commodities as the new medium of exchange (slosh is the technical term I believe) of value? As if life is not hard enough to interpret. Update: Just a little bit of rhetorical fluff on my […]