Who are the 53% ? Erick Erickson claims that they are the 53% who pay positive income taxes which, he suggests, are the same people who disagree completely with the occupiers of Wall Street The Bloomberg poll says they are the fraction of self identified Republicans who support raising taxes on family income over $250000 […]

by Rebecca Wilder Expect Neither ‘Sustainable’ nor ‘Comprehensive’ From Euro Area Leaders On Sunday, Merkel and Sarkozy promised a “sustainable and comprehensive” solution to the euro debt crisis ahead of the November 3-4 G20 meeting. Along with this rather grand announcement are absolutely no details on their plan. However, Van Rompuy today pushed back the […]

by Linda Beale More on Repatriation–WIN America corporatist lobbying group’s strike back on Heritage In a recent posting, I commented further on the lack of arguments supporting the corporatist lobbying drive for another “repatriation tax holiday” for multinational corporations that have stashed more than a trillion abroad (often through gimmicky transfers of intangible property such […]

Via Barry Rithholtz, I see that Martin Feldstein has not yet finished with his Atonement. I think I’ve posted a variation of this before, but apparently I’ll have to keep screaming, at least throught Simchat Torah (and, I suspect, beyond). Anyone have Feldstein appearances or editorials from early 2004 talking about how badly the economy […]

The Swedish Lottery at Sveriges Riksbanken reminds us that it has a sense of humor, doubling down on austerity. In other news, the Chris Sims who won is not Phil’s son.

by Dale Coberly INTELLIGENCE SQUARED DEBATE OFFERS LITTLE IN THE WAY OF ACTUAL INTELLIGENCE I am reading a short article on the Intelligence Squared debate I previously referred to in Social Security For the Young. It turns out they were more concerned with “insurance” than with Social Security. But they don’t seem to understand the […]

The practice of ‘peer benchmarking’ and cozy relationships on executive boards have contributed to a steep rise in CEO pay since the 1970s, reports Peter Whoriskey in The Washington Post’s latest “Breakaway Wealth” report. Pay data 2010.

by Linda Beale Repatriation Tax Holiday–WIN America is pushing hard… I get a press release a day from WIN America, the coalition of almost two dozen multinationals and about two dozen business organizations (like the Chamber of Commerce) that is pushing for another big “repatriation holiday” tax cut for the multinationals. Now they’re touting the […]

Brad DeLong has a spat with Scott Sumner: The IS-LM model led economic historians to argue money was easy in 1929-30, because rates fell sharply. It led modern Keynesians to assume that money was easy in 2008, because rates fell sharply… Well, I would say that not just “modern Keynesians” but a lot of people […]

by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Health Care Thoughts: Institute of Medicine recommendations The Institute of Medicine (IOM) an influential organization long known for criticizing health care providers and advocating reform, has issued process recommendations for deciding the “essentials” of health insurance plans. An essentials list is required by DHHS by 2014 for all health plans […]