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

AMERICAN INEQUALITY WITH SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN and ECONOMIST THOMAS PIKETTY

AMERICAN INEQUALITY WITH  SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN and ECONOMIST THOMAS PIKETTY Boston, MA: This Saturday, The Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength will sponsor a landmark dialogue between Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and economist Thomas Piketty. Senator Warren is one of progressivism’s most admired and powerful leaders and–despite her “I’m not running” assertions–a top presidential pick for many […]

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 […]

Fred Hiatt Thinks Obama Not War whooping Enough

by Barclay Rosser (reposted from Econospeak with permission from the author) Fred Hiatt Thinks Obama Not War whooping Enough In today’s Washington Post, editorial page editor, Fred Hiatt, has a column under his own name entitled, “A critique of Obama catches on.”  The critique amounts to Obama being “too passive” in foreign policy, with this […]

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 […]

Waldmann V Waldman

I was reluctant to read this post by Paul Waldman Obama must fix VA scandal to redeem liberal vision of government. In general, I think very highly of him and think he does our [n]name proud. The post is OK, but I will criticize it. My reaction to the Veterans’ Administration scandal was first to […]

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 […]

A Patient’s Story–How Much Can or Should– Your Doctor Tell You About Potential Risks?

AB Introduction: For a while now, Angry Bear has been featuring some of Maggie Mahar’s articles about Healthcare, the PPACA, and costs. Besides being a former 20th Century Foundation Fellow Maggie’s has also written as a financial journalist for Barron’s, as well as articles for Time Inc., The New York Times and other publications. Her […]

Longevity and Long-Term Care: The Medical Crisis of the 21st Century : Part 2 Update: Maggie Mahar will be doing a radio interview at 12:30 PM The Attitude with Arnie Arnesen 94.7 FM WNHN Concord NH

Maggie Mahar at The Health Beat Blog discusses Alzheimer’s care and the alternatives. Throughout the 20th century, most Americans saw “longevity” as a goal. If we took care of our bodies, we reasoned, we could “live longer and better.” But in the 21st century, I suspect that some of us will learn to fear “longevity” […]