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

Water economics for beginners

From David Zetland (Aguanomics) comes this note… Marginal Revolution University [free, online] has released 14 lessons (2-7 min, each) on water economics as part of its development economics unit. They give a decent introduction to several issues. I am going to contribute a few lessons. The series has a point of view about an economic […]

Mark Thoma presses the issue of increasing income inequality

Mark Thoma  presses the issue of increasing income inequality: Via an email from Lane Kenworthy, here’s more research contradicting the claim made by Kevin Hassett and Aparna Mathur in the WSJ that consumption inequality has not increased (here’s my response summarizing additional work contradicting their claim, a claim that is really an attempt to blunt […]

Dean Baker ponders the lack of focus on Social Security

Dean Baker ponders the lack of focus on Social Security via Alternet: It is remarkable that social security hasn’t been a more issue in the presidential race. After all, Governor Romney has proposed a plan that would imply cuts of more than 40% for middle-class workers just entering the labor force . Since social security […]

Off-topic again: All dogs go to heaven

On Wednesday I posted here about Bella, my friend’s daughter’s three-year-old German shepherd/collie mix who suddenly started experiencing severe pain near the back of her spine last weekend and a day later became paraplegic.  A wonderful lady who’s active in animal shelter work took Bella this morning to see a highly-regarded vet who works closely […]

Bounce and momentum

Lifted from Robert Waldmann’s Stochastic thoughts: Brendan Nyhan autopsies the mittmentum narrative here. I comment. Thank you for this very good post.  I had been puzzled by the “bad narrative about momentum” narrative on progressive blogs (largely because I interact with the rest of humanity largely by reading progressive blogs).  You demonstrate that there was […]

So this IS how Romney’s miracle Caymans IRA metastasized! And we also know now how he plans to help the 47% take responsibility for their lives: Nu Skin samples!

Okay, all.  Remember all the speculation last summer about how Romney managed to parlay an IRA in a Cayman Islands bank into an account worth between $20 million and $101 million?  Much of the speculation concerned whether Romney stacked the account with Bain shares and significantly undervalued them as worth less than the maximum yearly […]

Romney, Family Business, Carried Interest, and potential conflicts of interest

by Linda Beale Romney, Family Business, Carried Interest, and potential conflicts of interest Just a quick note this morning on an interesting article in the October 29, 2012 edition of The Nation magazine, Lee Fang, Romney Family Business: Investors in Tagg Romney’s firm, Solamere Capital, could hit the jackpot if his father wins, The Nation […]

Grand Bargain by the President

From the Washington Post At the top of the priority list: a promise to forge a bipartisan compromise that reduces rampant government borrowing and makes long-postponed decisions about taxes and spending. In the interview, Obama called a budget deal “one of the best things we can do for the economy.”“We’re going to be in a […]