Dahlia Lithwick writes about the masterful attention Republicans have given to the judicial system in The Washington Monthly: For anyone considering the 2012 election’s importance to the future of the American judiciary, one fact stands out: next November, Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be seventy-nine years old. If a Republican wins the presidential election, he or […]
Yves Smith continues to follow the progress of investigations in More Caution and Skepticism About Federal Mortgage “Investigation” While a large number of “liberal” groups, ranging from the official Democratic party outlets (the Center for American Progress) to ones that sometimes cross swords with the Administration (MoveOn, the Working Families Party) praised the Tuesday evening […]
I want to point to John Cassidy’s notion in the New Yorker that Twitter could serve as an adequate platform for electioneering candidates… …What if, rather than presenting a long and tedious speech that would constantly be interrupted by senators and congressmen mugging for the cameras, the President sat in the Oval Office, or anywhere, […]
by Linda Beale Obama’s State of the Union vs Romney’s Tax Returns Obama took the high ground in his state of the union address, where he pointedly noted the importance of applying fair tax rules to ensure that millionaires pay taxes at rates more similar to those paid by secretaries and firefighters. He wants a […]
by Rebecca Wilder Japan’s Lopsided Financial Balances Tim Duy and Paul Krugman discuss the merits and failures of Japanese policy. The sectoral snapshot of the economic financial balances shows that Japanese policy was indeed a success but also a failure. First, policy was a success, given the private sector was recuperating from the bursting of […]
by Linda Beale Gingrich’s 2010 Tax Return: what it does (and doesn’t) tell us In last Thursday’s debate, Newt Gingrich released his 2010 Gingrich Foundation tax return and the Gingrich Joint Tax return. See Kim Dixon & Marcus Stern, Gingrich tax return out, but much remains unseen, Reuters (Jan. 20, 2012); Paul West, Gingrich tax […]
As (mis)conceived by most economists, money (which they confute here with currency) emerged as a solution to the time problem of barter economies: my spinach is ready now, but your apples won’t be ripe for months. How can we trade? Answer: you give me money for my spinach, and I give it back to you […]
In Part I we saw that labor’s earnings have lagged far behind GDP growth. (More on earnings stagnation here) Meanwhile, corporate profits have grown at a rate that, until recently, increased over time, and they are now at a historically high fraction of GDP. Here is a specific look at the Finance Sector. The graph […]
What is a small amount of money ? The extremely excellent Josh Marshall typed We’ve got the first report about Romney’s 2010 taxes. His effective tax rate was 13.9%, just below the 15% he estimated last week. More shortly. 44 minutes ago (eek I just typed “just typed” then noticed the irony). The tiny difference […]
by Linda Beale Romney to release tax returns Tuesday (finally) Romney’s bitter loss to Newt Gingrich in the Republican primary in South Carolina demonstrated that playing the patrician elite above the fray has its limits as a campaign strategy. Romney’s strategists had apparently thought that they could get away with not releasing tax returns–at least […]