MSNBC reports Obama signs tax cut bill into law : The Senate vote was 65-31. The House had passed an identical version of the bill, 250-175, on Wednesday. Link to S4023 as passed by the Senate today. Obama was expected to sign it next week, although the change wouldn’t take immediate effect. The legislation says […]
Chinese Confusions by Paul Krugman These days, China seems to play the same role in much of our discourse that Japan did two decades ago. We look at our own follies — which are immense — and then look at the Chinese, and ascribe to them all the virtues of foresight and determination we lack. […]
by Tom aka Rusty Health Care: Hysterical Reporting Fox News ran a screaming intro and a scary bottom summary line on a story on some survey of physicians, claiming a majority of physician will quit, retire or work part-time. Link via Yahoo: http://news.yahoo.com/video/health-15749655/23362511 This is further proof that Fox News does not do journalism. The […]
by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Opportunities in Detroit? Detroit has lost about 60% of its population since the 1950s peak of about 2 million. About 50 square miles of Detroit is so thinly populated that the Mayor wants to pay for people to move to more densely populated neighborhoods so the area can be abandoned […]
Update: Brad DeLong looks at the data and suggests that the problem may be that the current President is as innumerate as the previous one. Mark Thoma quotes James Kwak: So no, I don’t think Obama is abandoning his principles for political advantage; I think these are his principles. And while I’m upset at him, […]
I have no idea what the advanced Google reader filter actually does. Yves has fun with it as do readers in comments. Here is ours.
Baseline Scenario links to Simon Johnson’s thoughts on current practice of politics. Well worth the time to read and comment. Delusions Of Fiscal Grandeur by Simon Johnson If you honestly believe that investors will happily buy up any amount of US government debt (at low interest rates) for the indefinite future, then relax. The tax […]
by Tom aka Rusty Economics and Corruption Detroit and the Detroit metro area are a pathetic, decaying mess. The reasons are many, ranging from the decline of the Big 3 auto companies to rampant corruption. For almost 40 years corruption has been well known and wide spread. In recent years, the administration of former Mayor […]
Sorry for the odd behavior of comments today. The Wed. report for instance says 13 comments but I can access only five. Igor, the head engineer, says there were several different kinds of problems, and maintenance and upgrade to servers. Apologies.
The Washingtington Post notes: The World Trade Organization has upheld the stiff duties that President Obama imposed on car tires imported from China last year, an important victory released on the eve of trade talks between the two countries. A panel at the Geneva-based trade group on Monday said it agreed that the United States […]