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

Is trade zero-sum between workers in different countries?

Vox.com had a long, interesting interview with Senator Bernie Sanders covering a large number of political and economic issues. In this post, I want to focus on just one issue he raised: Whether rising incomes for Chinese workers have to come at the expense of U.S. workers. Here is what Sanders told Vox’s Ezra Klein: […]

Shopping Around . . .

Quite a few blogging PPACA naysayers are out there advertising the 25 to 50% increases in premiums for healthcare plans under the PPACA. Charles Gaba@ACA Signups blog points out it is just an opportunity to “shop around” and the premium increases may not be big anyway in dollars and cents. “Looking past the scary headlines” […]

Have you noticed your Home owners insurance? Clean energy news and lots of water.

A year ago I noticed my property owners insurance has been rather high.  I say property because some is home, some is business.  So, being that have been using accounting software since 1991, I went back a few years to see how much.  In 2003 the house was $454/year.  This year it will be $1543.  […]

Right Wing Slant to Non-Partisan Progressive Think Tanks

With the Koch Brothers donating to Center for American Progress and funding studies on Incarceration, one might wonder what changes might occur at CAP due to the financial support of studies by the Koch Brothers. CAP is not the only one to begin to solicit or accept funding from major corporations or interests. Brookings has […]

It is Ok to Attack a Democrat’s Military Service . . .

It is just not ok to attack a Republican’s Military Service This Sunday, Jack Tapper on CNN “called Republicans who were outraged over attacks on Sen. John McCain’s war record to the table to explain themselves on past attacks on Democrats. Jack reminded the Republicans of their Swift Boat smear of then 2004 Democratic presidential […]

The Oklahoma Republican Party calls Walmart and the mega-corporate fast-food and hospitality industries animals dependent on food stamps. And its chairman wants a national discussion about it. Oblige him, Democrats.

In any event, it’s completely unclear where people will stop in for hamburgers and fries, and where they will buy extremely cheap household items, once the fast food industry and Walmart have ceased to exist because there no longer are Americans who lack the skills and qualifications for good jobs and they’ve all found good […]

Scott Walker vs. the Walton Family and McDonald’s’ CEO

The left claims they’re for American workers, and they’ve got lame ideas, things like minimum wage. Instead of focusing on that, we need to talk about how we get people skills and qualifications they need to get jobs that go well beyond minimum wage. — Scott Walker, yesterday Yep, raising the minimum wage and instituting […]

Okay, so Douglas Holtz-Eakin thinks that proposing policies that have been proposed before but have not been adopted (or are no longer in force) is the same as proposing policies that have been adopted and are still in place. Seriously, he completely conflates the two.

Many conservatives breathed a sigh of relief after the speech, having feared a fresh set of innovative proposals that might have required serious responses. “I think it’s a horse race between what’s more tired, her or the material,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin of the conservative American Enterprise Institute. “There really isn’t anything new here. It’s really […]