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

Huffington Post Editorial Standards

Robert Waldmann The Federal Reserve, through its extensive network of consultants, visiting scholars, alumni and staff economists, so thoroughly dominates the field of economics that real criticism of the central bank has become a career liability for members of the profession, an investigation by the Huffington Post has found. [skip] at the Journal of Monetary […]

In Partial Defence of Joe Wilson (R-Crazy)

Robert Waldmann OK not really. Really I’m semi disagreeing with Steve Benen’s denunciation of Rep[rehensible] Wilson. The guy who shouted “you lie” when Obama said something true. He does seem to be a very special piece of work, but the consensus reality which he rejects is rather distorted on one particular topic — US arms […]

Worst Tax Ever Update

Robert Waldmann is going to obsess about one sentence in Obama’s vital health care speech “Likewise, businesses will be required to either offer their workers health care, or chip in to help cover the cost of their workers.” This doesn’t say anything new, but it worries me. The problem is that it sounds vaguely like […]

CBPP Yesterday Angrybear July 27

Robert Waldmann The Baucus plan would give employers an incentive to discriminate against workers from lower income families. The incentive is to not give a job to someone who needs a job. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities noted this yesterday. This blog noted it on July 27. CBPP has argued this already but […]

Public Option Harder Ball

Robert Waldmann McClatchyVia Jed Lewinson. Instead of a nationwide government insurance program, [House Majority Whip Jim] Clyburn is urging other Democrats to accept a scaled-down public option that would be tested as a pilot program in several parts of the country. That’s it ! I have a proposal. Tell reluctant senators and representatives that, if […]

Medicare Bleg

Robert Waldmann finds himself more than usually ignorant about a topic which interests him (hard as that is to believe). Medicare has a budget shortfall of present value of a whole whole lotta dough. This tends to make people worry, and makes many believe that benefits will be cut by the health care reform bills. […]

Why Is The Placebo Effect Getting Stronger ?

Robert Waldmann An article with that title by Steve Silverman in Wired is getting a lot of attention. I actually know a little bit about the placebo effect and depression. Lo and behold, Silverman’s key example is the effect of placebos on depression. He briefly mentions two issues which I would like to discuss at […]

Insanity in the White House

Robert Waldmann Or are they crazy like foxes ? I think Ezra Klein is being played. At least I sure hope he’s being played. Klein is in contact with the White House. Unsurprisingly, he reports that there is a bitter debate over health care reform inside the Obama administration. There are clear hints of this […]

Health Care Hardball II

Robert Waldmann (who deeply respects our nations senior citizens) has probably written this post already but he forgot. I had a concern about the proposal to split health care in the Senate into 2 bills one to be passed as budget reconciliation (the 50 votes bill) and one not about the budget (the 60 votes […]

Clean Coal and Cap and Trade

Robert Waldmann Joe Strawman argues that the solution to global warming is clean coal technology and in particular sequestering C02 from exhaust from coal fired power plants. Therefore cap and trade is a bad policy, because technology will solve anything soon. In fact, if “clean coal” is not a contradiction in terms, the case for […]