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

Propane, drying corn, and cold winter

RB Energy describes the problems with commercial and residential propane markets: We’ve been talking a lot over the past year about the need for increasing exports to balance the U.S propane market as growth in production from gas processing plants outruns domestic demand.  U.S. propane production from gas processing has increased by over 100 Mb/d […]

Guest post: Affairs, Domestic and Foreign

by Joseph Joyce Affairs, Domestic and Foreign Raghuram Rajan, ex- faculty member of the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago, ex-head of the research department of the IMF research head, and currently Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (its central bank), set off a storm of comment when he warned of […]

Just Go Read

As I said on Facebook, it appears that Tim Armstrong—who got paid $12 million last year alone as CEO of the dead-on-its-feet AOL—is even more of an asshole than anyone previously believed. The pull quote: Until the morning I woke up in labor, every exam indicated that our daughter was perfectly healthy. In fact, had […]

Apple has some money burning a hole in its pocket

Getting real about Apple’s $100 billion stock buyback.  Updated* So I was hearing some where that Apple has a lot of money just burning a hole in it’s pocket. Seems there’s an arson named Carl Icahn trying to really ignite it by using twitter. Apple has implemented a plan to spend $100 billion of it’s […]

More national income diverted to capital in 2013 than 2012…

Let’s compare 2012 to 2013. From 4th quarter 2011 to 4thQ-2012, real GDP rose $294 billion. During that time, capital income fell $225 billion, while labor income grew $519 billion. From 4thQ-2012 to 4thQ-2013, real GDP rose $432 billion. During that time, capital income grew $444 billion while labor income fell $12 billion. Granted there […]

Republicans and Dana Milbank Solve the Unemployment Problem in Germany, Canada, Taiwan and Australia: Those countries just need to repeal their universal-healthcare laws and tie healthcare insurance to full-time employment at large corporations!

It’s worth appreciating the perverse nature of the [Republicans’] lie on display [in a new web ad against North Carolina Sen. Kay Hagan here. Because Republicans are absolutely wedded to their “Obamacare is a job killer” talking point, the CBO report’s findings are being distorted into proof that the law will inflict job losses on […]

Dana Milbank and the "Fact Free Zone"

by Robert Waldmann Dana Milbank and the “Fact Free Zone” I expected to enjoy Dana Milbank’s article entitled “From Obamacare to the IRS scandal, Republicans are ignoring the facts” But Milbank decided that he should Ballance his observation that Republicans are indifferent to facts with the following paragraph. Rubio’s fact-free approach to Obamacare is puzzling […]