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

Buffet’s Import Certificate idea. What about the people?

By: Divorced one like BushUpdate: Link for Import Certificates fixed Via Howard Richman’s blog comes this by idea by Buffet: Import Certificates. You have to read down a ways before he gets to the idea. “We would achieve this balance by issuing what I will call Import Certificates (ICs) to all U.S. exporters in an […]

Minimum Wage Employment

It’s amazing how any discussion of the minimum wage brings out all kinds of discussion and comments. We have a school of thought that believes very strongly that increases in the minimum wage causes firms to fire minimum wage workers, so higher minimum wages harm the very people it is designed to help. I am […]

State and local economies and $1.8 trillion

The NYT reports: State and city governments have yet to shrink the economy; indeed, they have even managed to prop it up. They have quietly maintained their spending at pre-crisis levels even as they warn of numerous cutbacks forced on them by declining tax revenues. The cutbacks, however, are written into budgets for a fiscal […]

Serco is the new auditor for Iraq

by rdan In April, the Pentagon split its largest military contract in Iraq – formerly belonging to the Houston-based corporation KBR, Inc. – among companies Fluor and DynCorp, in addition to KBR. A fourth company, the British-American service provider Serco, is responsible for managing and overseeing the other three, according to its contract, signed last […]

Forbes global 2000

by rdan Forbes reports: In total, the global 2000 companies now account for $30 trillion in revenues, $2.4 trillion in profits, $119 trillion in assets and $39 trillion in market value. Around the world, 72 million people work for these companies.…The U.S. still dominates this list of global giants, but with 61 fewer entries than […]

B-2 Spirit Bomber Totaled

by reader ilsm B-2 Spirit Bomber Totaled. The phone rang in the pentagon. The Air Force general on the line called home to tell Dad he wrecked one of his shiny new toys. Last Feb on Guam a B-2, which flies by wire. controlled by software, pitched up without input from the flight controls, drag […]

Two thank yous for Hillary

Reader Sammy sends this opinion piece on Hillary Clinton’s primary race. Peggy Noonan in the WSJ offers a thanks on Clinton: But this I believe is the truth: America dodged a bullet. That was the other meaning of the culminating events of this week.Mrs. Clinton would have been a disaster as president. Mr. Obama may […]

Soc Sec XVIII: Social Security Advisory Board Technical Panel Report

Andrew Biggs notes that the Technical Panel of the SSAB (Social Security Advisory Board) has released its Report on Assumptions and Methods. I am only a few pages into the 82 page Report but my initial response is that this is a very important deal. These people do seem to be actual independent observers fully […]

Totally individual or a group insurance

by Reader Arne (lifted from comments) TJ asks “Either Retirement Security is a societal imperative …”An interesting proposition, but has little to do with SS. Consider a cohort of 65 year old guys just reaching retirement. To simplify the math, assume they all need the same amount to live on. In the absence of SS, […]

Secret club handshake…who is allowed to have one?

more cat pictures The econ as science was a success as an open thread and blossomed into a great discussion. Now, we at Angry Bear have been accused of hyper partisnship and perhaps being an echo chamber. Can that be differentiated from an identified strong point of view? Bias will always be present in a […]