From the NYT …the Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear a new campaign finance lawsuit that challenges long-established federal caps on the total amount an individual can contribute to federal campaigns in a two-year cycle. In a ruling last year, a special court in Washington correctly upheld those limits, which in some form have been […]

by Linda Beale Right-Wing Mythology 101: the myth of the rich fleeing taxes One of the right-wing’s most cherished myths is that highly progressive taxes will kill state revenues, since the rich who have the money to pay them will simply move to a more accommodating jurisdiction.This is repeated in most conversations I’ve had with […]

by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Health Care Thoughts:  Obamacare Updates The slow march toward full implementation continues. Exchanges – As of today 17 states will create their own exchange, seven states will partner with the government, and 26 states have defaulted to the federal program (if anyone asked me I would suggest defaulting in order […]

President Obama’s proposal to raise the minimum wage to $9.00 per hour puts the Republicans between a rock and a hard place politically. Paul Krugman echoes the point that a big majority of the population supports a minimum wage increase, including a majority of Republicans (his linking to the original poll source appears to have […]

Here is a link filled update on the rise of atmospheric methane and a decrease in volume of Arctic sea ice from reader rjs. Today we’d like to make note of an interesting development in the arctic during January. Below we have 3 images of methane concentrations above the Arctic Ocean from 3 ten day […]

by Mike Kimel Reproduction, Income, and the Future A comment on a post at EconLog, a very libertarian website… I can say that in my lifetime, I have not earned enough money for me to have kids. I’m 36. I know some have had kids on my income or less but it certainly is not […]

James Wagner, President, Emory University has offered the idea that compromises for a ‘more perfect union’ comes in many forms. The link presents Mr. Wagner’s reply to the storm of comment to the original, which follows. Here is an excerpt: One instance of constitutional compromise was the agreement to count three-fifths of the slave population […]

From Huffington Post comes this example of prosecutions of fraud and malfeasance (well, tongue in cheek if the pain was less, but 22 trillion IS a lot of money): The bank fired Richard Eggers from his job of seven years as a customer service representative after the company found out about a decades-old run-in with […]

Adair Turner, chairman of Britain’s Financial Services Authority offers his take on government policy and “spending” side of policies. From Reuters comes this comment on the speech.  I haven’t seen much coverage. Wednesday night may have marked the “emperor’s new clothes” moment of the Great Recession, in which the world suddenly realizes its rulers are […]