by reader ilsm More reason to worry about the USA’s AAA bond rating. The Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, United Kingdom Joint Strike Fighter, F-35 Lightning II (see P-47 from WW II Army Air Force fame) is the latest capability dream whittling away US resources, and stopping any war machine corporate welfare worries about Obama […]

by cactus I had a few posts in which I noted that it appeared to me that corn ethanol (as opposed to the sugar cane variety) is a hoax being perpetrated on the American public. That conclusion came about as a result of my failure to see how the numbers could work out to make […]

rdan Bolinas goes from 400 gal./day household to 100 gal./day household use. Fresno has no meters. These are two anecdotal stories about water use that are interesting, revealing the variety of problems localities face. The stories reflect residential use only, which is about 12% of total water use in the US according to USGS.

Cassander, writing at Steve Keen’s Debtwatch,* puts the hammer to those arguing that the death of the patient had nothing to do with the doctor: What a load of bollocks. The “principles of economics” that [N. Gregory] Mankiw champions, and the “More economic research (and teaching)” that [Doug] McTaggart et al are calling for, are […]

by Bruce Webb The following piece is so bad that I won’t even put any of it above the fold, nor will I waste my time critiquing it. But people should know that the battle over Social Security is not over, crap like this is routinely delivered via our major media voices. Robert Samuelson in […]

Robert Waldmann In the post below, I totally humiliate myself by arguing that they way to appreciate “The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money” is to totally reject the idea that economists should aim for general theories. So which is it ? Do I reject “The General Theory …” or do I accept general […]

Robert Waldmann Oddly I imagine debating Niall Ferguson and manage to make a fool of myself.This requires genius in reverse, so I will post my thoughts as an example of what not to say. Brad DeLong quotes a “friend” who notes that Ferguson, lacking any valid arguments, attempted unsuccessfully to bait Krugman into losing his […]

Via Dr. Black, those RBC models may be missing a variable or two: In April, the rate in the United States rose to 8.9 percent. When the European figures are compiled, it seems likely that the American rate will be higher for the first time since Eurostat began compiling the numbers in 1993…. First, it […]

(Update: input numbers by Coberly the Office of the Actuary of SSA; calculations and output numbers by Coberly) Click to enlarge. This is what the result of implementing DI and OAS Triggers immediately would look like. 100% of scheduled benefits, no increase in retirement age, ending Trust Fund ratio of 123. This should be considered […]