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

MA Teacher Retirement System (and WI a bit)

H35 provides for these amendments to the MA teachers retirement system by Gov. Duval Patrick: An Act Providing for Additional Pension Reform and Benefits ModernizationThis legislation filed by Governor Patrick proposes further pension reforms to achieve the following objectives: Update the system to reflect demographic changes, such as the fact that people are living and […]

A Scalia Tea Leaf on the Healthcare Law?

by Beverly Mannfrom The Annarborist A Scalia Tea Leaf on the Healthcare Law? Judicial decisions, like the Constitution itself, are nothing more than “parchment barriers,” 5 Writings of James Madison 269, 272 (G. Hunt ed. 1901). Both depend on a judicial culture that understands its constitutionally assigned role, has the courage to persist in that […]

Is the President Reading Angry Bear?

AB, late Thursday: If you want to stop a dictator from killing his people, freeze any of his personal assets that are held out of the country. In cases where the dictator is likely to fall, it sends a clear signal to other countries. (In cases where the dictator is likely to succeed, the worst […]

Public sector collective bargaining and secrete corporate political campaign contributions

Jonathan Zasloff asks at The Reality-based Community blog New Directions in GOP Political Economy Quite subtle, actually: Public-sector collective bargaining is unhealthy and distorts democracy because it enables workers to influence the government which negotiates with them; but Unlimited and secret corporate political campaign contributions are necessary to democracy because they enable corporations to influence […]

Trichet and King: it’s energy, VAT, and food!

The global inflation picture is heating up. On Google, a search of ‘inflation’ spanning the month of February 2011 gets 311,000,000. For one year ago, the same search parameters yielded 1,850,000 hits. Inflation’s on the monetary policy makers’ minds. But why? In the developed world, it’s a food and energy story! Seriously, look at German […]

Wiggle Room

By Noni Mausa Wiggle Room In a claustrophobic economy where the lions share of the fruit of citizens’ efforts is funneled to a small number of beneficiaries, where institutions intended to intervene on their behalf have been rejigged to work backwards, what can the little guy do to gain some wiggle room? The poorest Americans […]