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

The shutdown is over, but the austerity fight continues

One thing that several people have requested (including Mrs. Rdan) is more easily read material more accessible to non-finance readers, or with our AB audience also people well versed in finance and macro, without dumbing down the issues into ideas that have no context nor links to what actually happens in the world.   We […]

Damon Silvers Smackdown of CNBCs Kelly Evans and Simon Hobbs on Social Security

Damon Silvers appears to have his wheels on correctly answering two CNN talking heads on their version of Social Security. Kelly Evans: “Of course people want to make sure that our citizens are taken care of. But that’s almost not the point.” (It’s not?) Evans proceeds to assail Silvers and the AFL-CIO for refusing to […]

Median wealth increases, but U.S. still stuck at #27 in world

The new Global Wealth Report and Global Wealth Databook from Credit Suisse were released last week. According to the Report (p. 3), Global wealth has reached a new all-time high of USD 241 trillion, up 4.9% since last year and 68% since 2003, with the USA accounting for 72% of the latest increase. Average [mean] […]

Health Wonk Review – Rich and Varied Offerings

Maggie Mahar reviews other blogs on healthcare within the blogosphere   Joe Paduda has hosted the newest edition of Health Wonk Review, a bi-weekly roundup of some of the best healthcare posts in the blogosphere. You will find it at Joe’s blog, Managed Care Matters.: Here are just a few highlights: Health IT is still […]

More on Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action–this time from a reader who is a U-Mich. undergraduate alum and currently a Ph.D. candidate there in Sociology*

Reader Dan Hirschman, a U-Mich. undergraduate alum and currently a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology there, wrote the following comment to my post here yesterday titled “What I agree with Richard Kahlenberg about on Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action.  And what I don’t.”: Dear Beverly, Thank you for the fantastic analysis of this case […]

Scalia Changes His Mind … About the Purpose of the Equal Protection Clause.

Wow.  It looks, from SCOTUSblog’s Lyle Denniston’s report on the argument this afternoon in Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, that I was, um … right in saying yesterday and again earlier today that this case is not, at heart, an affirmative action case.  The case is really about when a voter referendum can […]

What I agree with Richard Kahlenberg about on Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action. And what I don’t.

As Dan Crawford posted below, SCOTUSblog linked in its daily Round-up feature this morning to my AB post yesterday about Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, which is being argued at the Supreme Court this afternoon. Dan posted the Round-up paragraph in which the reference appears.  It says: Commentary on Schuette comes from Richard […]

What is the POINT of this?

WASHINGTON — House Republicans on Tuesday put forward the outline of a response to a Senate proposal that would end the government shutdown and raise the debt limit into next year, but would also make some changes to the health care law. Under their plan, members of Congress and the cabinet would be compelled to […]

The Way to Stop Discrimination on the Basis of Race Is To Stop Discriminating on the Basis of Race. (Except, that is, when the discrimination favors whites over racial minorities.)

  The Way to Stop Discrimination on the Basis of Race Is To Stop Discriminating on the Basis of Race. — Chief Justice John Roberts, Jun. 28, 2007, writing for a four-justice plurality in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1. Given that statement of his own belief, and his concomitant […]