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

10 best gloom and doom sites

Hat tip to Barry Ritholz at the Big Picture for this link listing the 10 best gloom and doom sites. 1. Daily Reckoning2. Clusterfuck Nation3. The Big Picture4. DollarCollapse.Com5. Angry Bear6. Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis7. Naked Capitalism8. Peter Schiff9. GREG MANKIW’S BLOG10. The mess that greenspan made Barry had a note about Greg Mankiw […]

Firearms ready to use or simply owned and stored when on the move

PEER notes that: On April 30, 2008, the U.S. Interior Department proposed to repeal nearly century-old national park rules requiring that firearms be unloaded and unavailable for ready use. In its place, the Bush administration would substitute the various laws governing “any state park, or any similar unit of state land, in which state the […]

Going after efficiencies

The NYT has an article of interest on creating new efficiencies not often discussed as policy. I think a savings of 10% (20%?) or more is significant. With the new refrigerators with the shelf in the door, these fit nice,” said April Buchanan, who was shopping at the Sam’s Club here. Others, even those who […]

The Race is on?

Will post-autistic economics review (who have, sadly imnvho, renamed themselves “real-world economic review) or The Economists’ [sic] Voice be the first to publish Robert Waldmann’s paper (a readable version of this blog post, which now also links to the paper)? Only Brad DeLong may know for certain. But you should read it now.

Oil shale and solar status

Update: Shell’s in-situ R&D Update 2: One description of the process, with attendant energy costs. Update 3: Then of course the Oil Drum analysis takes time to read. Update 4: Vtcodger sends this cool link giving us some history, geology, and current synopsis of processes at extraction. Update 2 describes Shell’s attempts in more detail. […]

Infrastructure – the next big deal?

The Economist reported this article on forthcoming issues gaining momentum: For the past few years it has been hard to ignore America’s crumbling infrastructure, from the devastating breach of New Orleans’s levees after Hurricane Katrina to the collapse of a big bridge in Minneapolis last summer. In 2005 the American Society of Civil Engineers estimated […]

Broken Clock Day

Yves Smith quotes Thomas Friedman accidentally telling the truth: Since President Bush came to office, our national savings have gone from 6 percent of gross domestic product to 1 percent, and consumer debt has climbed from $8 trillion to $14 trillion. Please explain this in the context of the “savings and investment boost” that was […]

Energy as a share of nominal consumer spending

Just to put things in perspective. This is through the first quarter so it does not reflect the last pop in energy prices. It is now 6.6% as compared to a low of 4.2% at the double bottom and the 1970s low of 6.2%.The peak was 9.3%.

Soc Sec XXVII: Robert Myers and Prefunding Social Security

Who is Robert Myers? Well prior to this morning I couldn’t have told you. But here is an abbreviated job history. Junior Actuary, Committee on Economic Security 1934-35Various Actuarial Positions, Social Security Board 1936-46Chief Actuary, SSA 1947-1980Member, National Commission on Social Security 1978-81Deputy Commissioner, SSA 1981-82Executive Director, National Commission on Social Security Reform 1982-83 That […]