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

Some Great Reads on a Wintery Night

Been taking some time to recoup from back surgery (8 inch gash Lumbar area), catch my breath, and find some more interesting topics on which to write. There are some awesome reads out there if you just take some time to search for them. – Another Christmas gift from Dean Baker; The Effort to Divert […]

How prefunding retiree health benefits impacts the Postal Service’s bottom line – and how Brookings got it wrong . . .

The author Steve Hutkins is a literature professor who teaches “place studies” at the Gallatin School of New York University. He has no affiliation with the U.S. Postal Service—he doesn’t work for it, nor does anyone in his family. Save The Post Office (his website) provides information about the post office closings and consolidations that […]

How Probability Is Perceived . . .

I ran across this explanation of Probability as seen by different professions at Sam Wang’s Princeton Consortium and tracked it down to Ben Orin’s Math with Bad Drawings blog. A little about Ben and his blog as told by himself: “This blog is about the things I like. It’s also about the things I can’t […]

CBO’s 2015 Long-Term Projections for Social Security: Additional Information

CBO’s 2015 Long-Term Projections for Social Security: Additional Information The Social Security Policy Options, 2015 was not the only report released by CBO yesterday. You have this one filling out the details in the Long-Term Budget Outlook Haven’t read this one either. So you all get first shot at framing the debate! Go get ’em […]

Conservative Legal Movement Week at the Supreme Court

This is Conservative Legal Movement Week at the Supreme Court.  (Okay, even more so than most weeks.)  Things really get going tomorrow, when the court will hear argument in two legislative-redistricting cases at the behest of (surprise!) Conservative Legal Movement voters represented by Conservative Legal Movement lawyers whose names on a petition for review (a […]

What to do with $45 billion? Giving it to charity is too cliche. So old hat.

Facebook founder and his wife have decided to give away 99% of their fortune.   That is $ 45 billion. Now, I know many will heap praise upon them for their generosity.  Same deal when the Gates and Buffet did their give away announcement.  But, I’m not so keen on this.  I know, how heartless of me.  […]

The REALLY ANNOYING Don’t-Wanna-Subsidize-Wealthy-Kids’-College-Tuition Canard [With fun update!]

Hillary Clinton’s performance wasn’t as clean or as crisp as her last one. Among other things, she invoked 9/11 in order to dodge a question about her campaign donors. But she effectively made the case that, though Sanders speaks about important questions, his solutions are ultimately simplistic and hers are better. Instead of railing about […]

Clinton Campaign Spokesman Brian Fallon Says Healthcare Insurance Premiums Aren’t Paid by Families and Employers, Because They’re Paid to Private For-Profit Insurers. Seriously.

“Bernie Sanders has called for a roughly 9-percent tax hike on middle-class families just to cover his health-care plan,” said Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon, referring to legislation Sanders introduced in 2013, “and simple math dictates he’ll need to tax workers even more to pay for the rest of his at least $18-20 trillion agenda. If […]