It’s critical to understand that Third Way presents itself as “centrist” and a think tank: Third Way Via Huffington Post Bill Black summarizes the profiles of the trustees: Twenty of the twenty-nine trustees come from finance (counting the lawyer whose specialty is representing private equity firms). Their most common background is Mitt Romney’s — private […]

(Reuters) – Employers tried the carrot, then a small stick. Now they are turning to bigger cudgels. For years they encouraged workers to improve their health and productivity with free screenings, discounted gym memberships and gift cards to lose weight. More recently, a small number charged smokers slightly higher premiums to get them to quit. […]

Via Economist’s View, Paul Krugman notes a pattern in out post racial rhetoric: So what’s this all about? One reason…, Daniel Little suggested in a recent essay, is market ideology: If the market is always right, then people who end up poor must deserve to be poor. I’d add that some leading Republicans are, in […]

The first letter from Ireland is here Update on conditions in Ireland…a second letter from Ireland Ireland, Land of Thieves, Charlatans and Sodomites… Zeus-Boy We’re forced to do silly things out of desperation, things that other nations don’t have to resort to. For instance, we’ve the lowest corporate tax rate in Europe at 12.5%. Sarkozy […]

guest post by run75441 While the American Banking Association (ABA) held their “Roaring Twenties” party to kick off their annual meeting, people from 20 different states, as far away as California, came together to kick off “Showdown Chicago” protesting the loss of jobs and the harsh and speculative practices put in place by banks and […]

rdan Dean Baker suggests some action in the form of a demonstration at the Chicago Bankers Association meeting October 25-26, 2009. Yves at Naked Capistalism recommends going, and Slate open forum contains comments. Several readers who live in the region have indicated they will be going. Perhaps we will get reports. Do you think they […]

by cactus A Question About Gaza I’m trying to understand the situation in Gaza. I understand that Israel manages to exert some control over Gaza’s borders and airspace. Israel has also tried to choke off the flow of weapons into Gaza and this embargo is being blamed for much of the hardship that residents of […]

Kevin Drum incidentally mentioned the Nov 1940 collapse of ‘Galloping Gertie’, otherwise known as the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, in a post about a new technique about generating electricity from river or ocean currents. Which led me to pull up some footage and figure out how to embed it. (No it is not hard. But Old […]

First off, apologies to everyone for my extended hiatus. It’s been almost four weeks since I’ve posted, which is the longest stretch that I’ve been missing since I starting writing on Angry Bear nearly three years ago. But the past few weeks have been a pretty busy time for me in more than the usual […]

Byron York has been trying to argue for months that Valerie Plame was not undercover. Read his latest where he claims it was Joe Wilson that told the world his wife was a CIA agent. Memo to Mr. York: Brad DeLong has already awarded that Stupidest Man Alive trophy. Update: God bless Jane Hamsher! While […]