Dylan Matthews reports fascinating research which contrasts state legislators’ estimates of their constituents views on some key issues with polling data on those views.  David Broockman and Christopher Skovron find that liberal politicians overestimate their constituents conservativeness and conservative politicians vastly overestimate their constituents conservativeness.  The post is too good do summarize so just click […]

Today, in the New York Times: With the Dow Jones industrial average flirting with a record high, the split between American workers and the companies that employ them is widening and could worsen in the next few months as federal budget cuts take hold. … “So far in this recovery, corporations have captured an unusually […]

Both Romneys said he would be more effective at navigating the current political moment. “I’ll look at what’s happening right now, I wish I were there,” Mitt Romney said. “It kills me not to be there, not to be in the White House doing what needs to be done. The president is the leader of […]

Guest post:  From reader McWop who has been a constant for a number of years, aka Matthew McOsker, writes on: How money enters the economy through deficit spending. A simple model for discussion. When the government deficit spends here are the mechanics: a) Government buys goods from some private entity, let’s say $1,000 worth. The […]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/04/business/economy/corporate-profits-soar-as-worker-income-limps.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130304&_r=0   But although experts estimate that sequestration could cost the country about 700,000 jobs, Wall Street does not expect the cuts to substantially reduce corporate profits — or seriously threaten the recent rally in the stock markets. “It’s minimal,” said Savita Subramanian, head of United States equity and quantitative strategy at Bank of America […]

Lifted from comments from Christina Romer’s post at Economist View http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2013/03/christina-romer-the-business-of-the-minimum-wage.html In response to a previous comment, Mark Sadowsky states: “On a global basis our low wage folks are vastly overpaid.” Most low wage workers in the US are employed in food preparation, personal care, farming, building maintenance and health support: http://www.newyorkfed.org/research/current_issues/ci18-7.pdf Other than farming, […]

With all this stalemate posturing in Washington, today Chris Hayes has come up with the best idea I have heard yet to move the players. And, in my opinion actually solve our economic depression.   One trillion dollars to be spent on direct hiring by the government along with debt forgiveness.  A solution right out […]

From the MSBN comes this announcement from President Obama on agenda for reform of the social safety net. President Barack Obama raised anew the issue of cutting entitlements such as Medicare and Social Security as a way out of damaging budget cuts, a White House official said Sunday, as both sides in Washington tried to […]

Unmentioned in the recent Good Jobs First report on job piracy, it turns out that both relocation subsidies and retention subsidies are commonplace in Alabama. Greg Varner (@varnergreg) directs me to this report on how a Birmingham auto dealership, Serra Automotive, is demanding a multimillion incentive deal to keep it from relocating to another municipality […]