by Daniel J. Becker Back in June of ’08 I asked regarding Jason Furman’s appointment by Obama: Is this the concession the Clinton/Blue Dog group was looking for? The DLC still keeps control of the money issues? I asked because of his connection to the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institute: Hamilton Project, a small […]

“The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can throw the rascals out at any election […]

by Bruce Webb (UPDATE: Digby readers, I want to make it clear that I am not NewDealDemocrat, I just got permission to cross-post this important compilation from NDD.) Blog friend NewDealDemocrat has a recommended diary up on dKos called Mr. President, No Real Democrat is agnostic about Social Security. NewDeal gave me an advance look […]

I was going to post something a couple of days ago on Greece’s derivatives deal, but knew I was missing a key piece. It became prominent yesterday, and Felix’s summary today gets it spot on: So while it’s entirely fair to blame Greece for trying to hide its debt, and to blame Eurostat for letting […]

Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt The Independent Contractor Problem Continues and Grows HT: Associated Press The IRS and many state governments are stepping up enforcement of the use of “independent contractors” who are actually employees. While there are plenty of legitimate business-to-business independent contractor arrangements, other businesses sidestep the law by misclassifying employees as ICs. (lay […]

What is a good approximation ?The word good is important but very general. One (long long ago) I pulled a hair out of my scalp and told Elisabetta Addis (we’re married) “look my first white hair.” She replied “you have a very good wife and a very bad mirror.” Odd the same event, failure to […]

Marshall Auerback responds to Rebecca’s “I have to side with China on this one”. There’s another factor as well. There’s been an enormous increase in money and credit in the past year. In fact, it seems to be as great as 5 years’ growth in credit in the previous Chinese bubble. What happens is that […]

Tamyra d’Ippolito has suddenly become a Very Important Person. She needs signatures primarily in Indian’s Eighth District (currently represented by Brad Ellsworth, who would be the Party’s pick to replace Evan Bayh), Evansville, and Terre Haute. She has a background to make a Tea Partier proud: I was born in Worthington, Indiana and raised in […]

by Rebecca Wilder China,China.China! Why does the world care about Chinese monetary policy? In short, the ten countries below enjoy 60% of China’s import demand ($1.3 trillion annualized in December 2009), where the % are listed in the legend. The globe is watching Chinese policy. The People’s Republic of China raised bank reserve requirements another […]