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

How Wall Street Stole Main Street

This graph speaks volumes: Profits as a Percent of GDP: Financial Corporations vs. Nonfinancial Corporations We saw a big decline in real businesses’ profit share in the 40s, then a slower semi-steady decline through the 70s, as wages constituted a larger share of GDP. Financial corps doubled, expanding and increasing profits, but they remained small […]

Orrin Hatch on tax reform at the ABA–a predictable right-wing rant

by Linda Beale Orrin Hatch on tax reform at the ABA–a predictable right-wing rant Orrin Hatch was the keynote speaker for the ABA Tax Section luncheon today in DC. Having never heard the man in person, I was surprised at the bumbling nature of his speech. He came across as an old man reciting a […]

Reader (and Statistician) Jan Galkowski’s Quick Primer on CO2 and Climate Change

This weekend’s open thread here on AB produced an awesome post by reader, statistician and obvious genius Jan Galkowski on the significance of last week’s report on the level of CO2 now in the atmosphere.  Here’s part of the thread, including Mr. Galkowski’s post: Rjs / May 11, 2013 4:54 am in case you missed […]

Medicare Claim Costs Growth Under 1% in 2013??? Why?

“All nine of S&P Healthcare Economic Indices showed slower annual growth rates for February 2013 compared to January 2013. As measured by the S&P Healthcare Economic Commercial Index, healthcare costs covered by commercial insurance plans rose by 4.62% in February, down from +5.41% reported for January. Annual growth rates in Medicare claim costs increased by […]

Here we go again and again!

Rjs sends a link filled note on the ongoing federal financial merry go round: It’s been a pretty slow week, with neither major monthly economic reports nor widespread kerfuffles in the blogosphere…as we figured, all the budget proposals floated earlier this year have gone nowhere, and it now appears that the republicans wont negotiate on […]

Senate did the right thing–will the House?

by Linda Beale Senate did the right thing–will the House? Most are aware that online businesses have an unfair tax advantage. Under the 1992 Quill Supreme Court decision, states cannot currently require online retailers without physical presence in the state to collect applicable sales taxes. Although customers are supposed to save receipts and then pay […]

Health Care Thoughts: Welcome to The Matrix

by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt    from a commentary I am writing…… Health Care Thoughts: Welcome to The Matrix Big Data, Data Mining, Data Analytics Health care providers create and store massive amounts of data generated by clinical and business functions. This hot new term for this mass of data is “big data.” Until recently, the […]