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

The Short Version–Piketty

June’s issue of Atlantic Monthly brings to the reader a series of graphs as presented by Derek Thompson’s “How the Rich Shall Inherit the Earth”. The article gives a pictorial representation of what has taken place since the eighties in skewing income to a small, very small group of individuals numbering < than a hundred […]

Quelle Surprise, Labor Productivity is Up while Labor Wages are Still Down!

BLS economist Shawn Sprague writes What Can Labor Productivity Tell Us About the U.S. Economy? Labor worked the exact same number of hours in 1998 as they did in 2013 or ~194 billion hours. While there was no growth in the number of hours worked, the Non-Institutional Civilian Population grew by 40 million people, and […]

The War on Private Citizens and Organizations Feeding the Homeless

It has been the political right’s mantra of welfare and charity being best done by private organizations rather than be government sponsored. 50 years have passed since President Johnson declared war on poverty. It was declared an abject failure by the right as it did not make people independent nor did it make people want […]

Thanks, But We Still Hate Obamacare!

Greg Sargent gets a great nugget from Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, who “recently conducted a statewide poll in Kentucky for an unnamed client and found that Kynect polls very positively, in contrast to Obamacare, which is underwater.” Kynect is the Kentucky version of the Affordable Care Act exchange. To the extent the polling is correct, […]

“The US Labor Market is Not Working;” Antonio Fatas “On the Global Front”

This particular post was first picked up at Economist’s View and fits with Sandwichman’s posts on Labor. I have been watching Participation Rate in conjunction with U3 since 2001 along with others such as Laurent Guerby and while the US has decreased in the numbers of people in the Civilian Labor Force, our counterparts in […]

Cheese-eating Job Creators (and the lump-of-labor fallacy)

I have been following Sandwichman for a long period of time. Since I do shop floor throughput exercises which no economist appears to understand in a micro sense, Sandwichman comes the closest to what I deal with on a day to day basis. Paul Krugman in 2003: “Traditionally, it is a fallacy of the economically […]

The Hill – “GOP struggles to land punches at ObamaCare insurance hearing”

HT :Washinton Monthly, Ed Gilgore: “House GOPers Face to Face With Unfriendly Facts on Obamacare” Democratic lawmakers were emboldened to defend the Affordable Care Act with renewed vigor and levity, creating a dynamic rarely seen in the debate over ObamaCare. Adding to the irregularity, exits on the Republican side at a subcommittee hearing led by […]

Roberts: Don’t Leave Home with Two Phones on Your Person; Dems and White Males; Executions, Prison, and Sentencing Costs; and WS Quotes

– I have my own personal phone and also a business phone. I am also a straight up guy, former Marine Sergeant, Scout Leader, VP on a Planning Commission for the Township, etc. etc. etc. I travel a lot and I do get out and walk the streets of the cities I visit for exercise […]

Wasting One Life Away

A while back, I had written this: “One in 31 Adults”. As this was one of my first posts, Dan was kind enough then to post it on Angry Bear. “One in 31 Adults” (~2.3 million) are under the control of the correctional system according to a March 2009 Pew Center Report of the same […]