by Dale Coberly SOCIAL SECURITY, OBAMA, and the CRFB Obama once offered to cut Social Security as part of a Grand Bargain with the Republicans.  Now he says he thinks Social Security ought to be expanded. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) answers him with their usual list of reasons why Social Security […]

I believe the fully and completely ignored danger in this election is believing Trump is just a flash in the pan and he will never win against HRC regardless of how much she is denigrated by Republicans trying to prove Bengahzi or DEMS who believe Bernie is their candidate. It is not a good time […]

[The left’s] belief that Trump’s success is primarily a media failure has a parallel in the way conservatives have always explained their own defeats. We would have won, they insist, if only the media hadn’t been against us! If only they had told the voters just how much Barack Obama hates America, or if only […]

Brad DeLong (via Mark Thoma, since my desktop is dead and I saw Mark’s post first): I question Noah [Smith]’s description of the people as “brightest”. If you insist on trying to understand business cycles by requiring a single consumption Euler equation (rather than, say, risk-averse rich 70-somethings with short horizons; myopic middle-class 40-somethings, and […]

I think this post by Dylan Matthews is brilliant and a must read. He says we should focus less on equality of opportunity and more on average outcomes and equality of outcomes. When you say Dylan he thinks you’re talking about Dylan Thomas (whoever he was), man he ain’t got no respect for posts on […]

Time Magazine serves up a fascinating look at Donald Trump’s evolving campaign strategy, in which Trump and his top advisers leave little doubt that they think they can win mainly by dominating the media environment, in a way that will smash all the old rules of politics. The piece recaps several recent episodes in which Trump […]

According to the New York Fed Reserve Bank the PPACA appears to be doing what it was intended to do besides grant more people healthcare. States that opted into the Medicaid expansion and the PPACA have experienced a decrease in the number of billings going to collection agencies. “We see that between 2009 and 2015, […]

THIS makes me VERY happy. I go to fairly extreme lengths to avoid buying products from companies that do testing on animals. Ology bar soap and liquid hand soap, which I get at Walgreens, is a favorite, but also Alberto Culver products and a shampoo brand I pick up at Dollar Tree (my mind is blanking […]