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

Looks Like It’s All Over But the Shouting.*

The New York Times’ report today by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Martin on Clinton’s, Sanders’s and O’Malley’s speeches last night at the annual Iowa Democratic Party Jefferson-Jackson Dinner includes this: “I’ve been told to stop shouting to end gun violence,” [Clinton] said, repeating a line she has begun using since Mr. Sanders said in the debate that “all […]

Hillary Clinton Says the NRA’s Leadership is Comprised Entirely of Women. Seriously.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called out Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) on Friday over his request that politicians “stop shouting” about gun control. During a speech at the Democratic National Committee’s Women’s Leadership Conference, Clinton implied that Sanders’ comments may even have had a sexist tinge. “I’ve been told to, and I quote, ‘stop shouting’ […]

Hamlet’s Decision is Bad News for Janet Napolitano

Okay, I get Joe Biden’s extreme, unabated grief over the death of his son last May.  But there are, in my opinion, no circumstances under which the Hamlet pose, with its many, many leaks from friends, should have gone on beyond Labor Day.  There are, after all, (or should have been, anyway) some important considerations […]

Yet another mindless canard re ‘Denmark’, this one offered by MIT economist Daron Acemoglu: That the U.S. was less innovative during the postwar decades, because of, y’know, those high tax rates on high incomes.

The sophisticated safety net that ensures few Danes ever experience poverty, fear hunger or lack in health care does not come cheap. The Danish economy may be the most heavily taxed in the world, with rich Danes paying over 55 percent of their total income in taxes to support generous social services. Even if high […]

The mindless canard stating as unexplained fact that it would be worse to expand the federal government by a third in order to accommodate single-payer healthcare insurance than it is to have private, for-profit health insurance companies playing this role instead

No one would ever accuse Bernie Sanders of thinking small. The senator from Vermont and Democratic presidential candidate wants to transform one of the world’s most boisterous free-market economies into an exemplar ofScandinavian-style “democratic socialism.” He wants to jail Wall Street executives and double the minimum wage. And he wants to spend taxpayer money, lots of it. According to an estimate by The Wall […]

Did Clinton Really Agree That Denmark Is an Inspiring Example for Democrats to Cite?

Denmark isn’t a middle-class, capitalist, entrepreneurial country?  Because it has universal healthcare, free college, free day care, and guaranteed family and medical leave?  Really, Secretary Clinton?  Really? — Me, here, Oct. 14 No doubt surprising many of the people watching the Democratic presidential debate, Bernie Sanders cited Denmark as a role model for how to […]

Other People Paying for What is Described as Unaffordable

In a comment to this post of mine from yesterday in which I used the phrase “affordable daycare,” reader Eric377 posted this comment: Eric377/October 18, 2015 7:50 am Leaves I understand as policy. Affordable daycare a whole lot less. Affordable daycare is not what is meant here. States could change regulations to allow lower cost daycare. Is […]

Does Clinton think some workers are lazy and shouldn’t be entitled to, say, family and medical leave or affordable daycare? That sure is what she seems to suggest. Again and Again.

Hillary Clinton never, ever says the word “families” without prefacing it with the adjective “hardworking.”  It’s downright Pavlovian.  And every time I hear her say “families”—which is often—and therefore “hardworking” in reference to families, I wonder whether she’s dividing workers into hardworking ones and ones who slough off their work onto their colleagues, or something. […]

John Boehner’s Student Loan Legacy

Guess Post by Alan Collinge, Founder of The Student Loan Justice Organization When I first started researching the student loan issue over a decade ago, it quickly became obvious that there was one congressman the student lending industry loved more than anyone else: John Boehner. Sallie Mae (the nation’s largest student loan company), through its […]

Why does Clinton keep getting away with saying that gun manufacturers are the only industry in America that is immune from being held accountable for criminal acts by the purchasers of their products? Almost NO manufacturers are, by law, accountable for criminal acts by purchasers of their products. Someone should ask her to name one that is.

Senator Sanders did vote five times against the Brady Bill. Since it was passed, more than 2 million prohibited purchases have been prevented. He also did vote, as he said, for this immunity provision. I voted against it. I was in the Senate at the same time. It wasn’t complicated to me. It was pretty […]