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

CBO on Health Care: July 14th to 20th & MSM Distortions

by Bruce Webb Last week was kind of a busy time for CBO scoring with the result that some stories got over-reported and others not reported at all. So lets back up a little. Tuesday July 14. CBO scores the coverage costs of HR3200, the House Tri-Committee Bill. The CBO Director’s Blog puts this announcement […]

Fixing the fixing. Health care Deja vu

by divorced one like Bush Responding to a couple of comments to my post yesterday, I want to present some history. PARCA. Patient Access to Responsible Care Act. 1997 by Alfonse D’Amato (R-N.Y.) and Rep. Charlie Norwood, a Georgia Republican and licensed dentist who argues: “If we can protect trees and animals, why can’t we […]

CRA and Ritholtz

by cactus Since I just had a post on Bailout Nation, the book Barry Ritholtz co-wrote with Aaron Task, I figured, why not have another post about Ritholtz. See, something I read on his blog has been botheirng me for a few weeks now. Ritholtz has done a great job pointing out over and over […]

PSA: WorldCon with an Economist

The first item on Charlie Stross’s World Science Fiction Convention schedule: Thursday August 6th, 5pm (Location: P-511CF)Title: In Conversation: Paul Krugman and Charles StrossDescription: 90 minutes of Charles Stross discussing SF, economics, and other topics with Paul Krugman. [link in original] Those who might wonder why Krugman would be an appropriate guest at Anticipation (this […]

This May Make Robert Shiller and SocSec recipients happy…

but it doesn’t do that much for the rest of us. Via The Ambrosini Critique, Scott Sumner discovers there was no housing crash: The BLS claims that housing prices are up 2.1% in the last 12 months….According to the BLS, housing makes up nearly 40% of the core basket of goods and services. Further reading […]

Consumer Financial Product Agency

from Baseline Scenario Three myths about the consumer financial product agency by Elizabeth Warren is well written and timely at Baseline Scenario. I’ve written a lot about the creation of a new Consumer Protection Financial Agency (CFPA), starting with an article I wrote in the Democracy Journal in the summer of 2007. My writing has […]

Massachusetts is fixing the fixed health care system: more administration?

by divorced one like Bush In this debate on how to finance health care, we are hearing about the costs to deliver health care and how to bring them down. Mass is now proposing a capitated payment system that will be government created. It is the latest fix to a herald “fixed” problem. Which begs […]

C Street

rdan Jeff Sharlet and The Family from a Salon post: Today’s roll call is just as impressive: Men under the Family’s religio-political counsel include, in addition to Ensign, Coburn and Pickering, Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Jim DeMint and Lindsey Graham, both R-S.C.; James Inhofe, R-Okla., John Thune, R-S.D., and recent senators and high officials […]

Wingnut 102A: When private insurance is outlawed only outlaws will have insurance

OR; HR3200 Sec 102 revisited. by Bruce Webb We first visited the health care reform meme sweeping the right wing of the Blogosphere with this post HR3200 abolishes private health insurance. This seemed at first to be a simple confusion of the limits of the following from Sec 102 of the legislation: 1) LIMITATION ON […]