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

Americans Raid 401(k)s

Angry Bear has carried posts on this issue over the years. 1. 2008 and draining the 401k pool of money, 2. Draining 401ks, 3. 401k and Social Security, 4.. Kenneth Thomas and retirements money (Links), 5. A 1000/mo pension equals 300,000 in savings among others. Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism  makes an impassioned statement. (Re-posted with permission) Americans Raid 401(k)s, Replacing […]

Statistics and schools

Diane Ravitch in the NYT comments on the politician use of statistics to promote an educational policy and  program.  Of course there are several private figures promoting charter schools and pilot programs as well, and a well funded lobby for such.  I usually start with assuming it is a pitch…but not all records are public […]

A final comment on Scalia’s dissent in EPA v. EMA Homer City Generation

I haven’t read Scalia’s dissents–either one of them–in EPA v. EMA Homer City Generation, and don’t plan to. Nor did I plan to post more than I already have about it. But Kenneth Jost has read it, and at his blog Jost on Justice points out another line in the first of the two: In dissent, Scalia saw the EPA as making up the […]

George Will Comes Out for Single-Payer Healthcare Insurance! Again! (This time, though, it’s the Constitution’s ‘origination’ clause that made him do it.)

Updated below. —- If the president wants to witness a refutation of his assertion that the survival of the Affordable Care Act is assured, come Thursday he should stroll the 13 blocks from his office to the nation’s second-most important court, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. There he can hear an argument involving yet […]

Yes, Scalia Messed Up. But He Was Right. Sort of. (Although not about his claim that in 2001 the EPA was masquerading as a trucking association and arguing both sides of a lawsuit.)

(Important update below.) —- Well, I’m sure y’all have heard by now about Scalia’s hilarious confusion of the EPA with the American Trucking Association, even if you didn’t read this post of mine about.  The two cases at issue are Whitman v. American Trucking Associations., from 2001, and EPA v. EMA Homer City Generation, the case […]

America’s First Fracking Trial

Re-posted from Naked Capitalism (with permission from the author) comes a well written piece on an important court case concerning damages to health and property from fracking operations in Texas (hat tip Run75441): Texas Family Awarded $3 Million in America’s First Fracking Trial by Lambert Strether of Corrente $3 Million? More like this, please. Here’s some […]

Scott Brown Comes Out for a New Hampshire State Healthcare-Insurance Public Option. In the Name of Freedom. Cool!**

[Annotation added below.] I’ve written here on AB, extensively now, about the invidious co-opting of the word “freedom” by the political far-right.  I’ve addressed this mainly in the context of the conservative Supreme Court justices’ neat trick of disconnecting the word from any relation to actual physical freedom as long as it is a state court […]

“Independent” Foreclosure Review Error Rate Vastly Higher

Yves Smith points to more OCC serving bank interests (not a surprise) in “Independent” Foreclosure Review Error Rate Vastly Higher Than Previously Admitted and well worth reading as usual: At this point, it seems hard to add insult to injury, given the terrible track record of the OCC Independent Foreclosure Reviews. But it’s nevertheless been […]

Kudos to Ross Douthat for his rebuttal to David Brooks on Piketty. Now, who will rebut Douthat about recent tax-policy history?

It turns out that Paul Krugman is not the only NYT columnist/blogger who reads Angry Bear. Ross Douthat does, too! Okay, seriously: Douthat’s delicate-ballet filleting of Brooks’s take on Piketty is priceless. Now, maybe someone can fillet Douthat’s take on tax-rate increases for “Americans making (or inheriting) in the $100,000-$500,000 range,” which, he says, “is […]

Gail Collins (and me): Free Us From ‘Freedom’

To be fair, I don’t think Hannity had any idea about Bundy’s racial theories. However, it’s generally a good idea to be wary of lionizing people who go around saying: “I don’t recognize the United States government as even existing.” Anyhow, Cliven was toast, although he did make an appearance on CNN, in which he […]