by Linda Beale Gingrich tax ‘plan’ starves government, feeds the wealthy, rests on flawed assumptions In case you hadn’t heard about it, Gingrich would offer taxpayers a choice to pay tax under current policy or at a 15% rate, with zero taxation of capital gains, dividends and interest that accrues mostly to the rich and […]
By Rebecca Wilder EA Spreads: Why Should the Trend Change? They changed the title; but originally the NY Times reported “Euro Zone Agrees to Reinforce Maastricht Rules“. That’s exactly what EA policy makers agreed to last week – not much to bring home. The real shift in policy came from the ECB. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard highlights […]
by Mike Kimel American v. Brazilian Healthcare, a Continuing Series I spoke to my sister on Skype last night. She’s been in Natal, in Northeastern Brazil, for the past few months. Last week, she noticed a couple small warts growing on her leg. So she wandered down to a government run hospital and and had […]
Lifted from Robert’s Stochastic Thoughts: All evidence from the debates notwithstanding, there is a Republican with a brain. Asif Mandvi, reporter for the “Daily Show,” tried to prank Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, asking for a sample of her urine. She immediately forked it over, though it was only apple juice — yazakchattiest. I want […]
Note: I wasn’t going to post this, but after all the flack Willard Romney is receiving about offering to bet his fellow millionaires $10,000, I find myself in the unusual position of being sympathetic to him. Therefore, the story of the day in early November of 1992 on which I offered to bet $10,000: UPDATE: […]
Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) poses a question that needs a careful look and response: In its top of the hour news segment NPR reported that President Obama hoped that voters would give him credit for avoiding a second Great Depression. If this is an accurate representation of what President Obama said then […]
By Jeff McCord of The Investor Advocate Impending SEC Recommendation on Anti-Investor Supreme Court Decision a Bellwether on Regulator’s View of “Public Interest” In one of its filings prior to U.S. Judge Jed Rakoff’s celebrated November 28th refusal to rubber stamp an SEC-Citicorp deal allowing the bank – a “recidivist offender” — to escape significant […]
Mike Kimel to the blue courtesy phone 6:05 PM PT: Newt Gingrich begins by taking credit for creating 36 million jobs, 25 under Reagan, he says, 11 under Clinton. My problem isn’t Newt claiming credit for everything good which happened before he resigned in disgrace, it’s the numbers. Employment increased by less than 17 million […]
by Mike Kimel Holiday Gift Guide Advice Megan McArdle just put out what she calls the “Holiday Gift Guide 2011: Kitchen Edition. Not surprisingly, it doesn’t contain the sort of things that I (or I think, most Americans) would likely buy. A Chinois, a KitchenAid KICA0WH Ice Cream Maker Attachment (which apparently is only useful […]