by Linda Bealecrossposted with Ataxingmatter Friday Animations–being a good mother These days the tea partiers and libertarians have tended to mock those who think that we should all tax ourselves to take care of those who are less fortunate, and that the wealthiest amongst us–corporate managers, private equity managers, and shareholders–should pay more in taxes. […]
Robert Waldmann The gap between public opinion and elite opinions about public opinion never ceases to amaze me. The policy elite seems to have decided that Social Security old age pensions have to be cut. The public is adamantly opposed. It is even more striking that a strong majority supports lifting the payroll tax ceiling […]
Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt The Un-foreclosure What could be worse than a foreclosure? An Un-foreclosure (HT: Columbus Dispatch) also known as a dropped foreclosure or a bank walkaway. Although exact statistics are hard to come by, the un-foreclosure is apparently become very common in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana. At some point the bank decides the […]
Premise: The difference between the Irish and U.S. situation is in the breadth of institutions (smaller financial institutions still intermediate and control capital usage), not the foolishness of the leaders in committing to make the banks whole. Discuss.
Robert Waldmann Matt Taibbi is to Robert Rubin as Glenn Beck is to George Soros.
There is a lot of fanfare today about the success of GM to date as it turns around the bankruptcy of a couple years ago. Let’s look at the nature of this success, which may offer voters an insight into patterns of successful competition as it stands today. So, what does the new GM look […]
Hat tip Economist’s View for Lane Kenworthy’s post on growing the GDP and distribution of the benefits. It is also related to concpts determining trade policies: None of these countries significantly increased the share of GDP going to government transfers. What happened is that some nations did more than others to pass the fruits of […]
by Linda Beale Tax cuts and deficit commissionscrossposted with Ataxingmatter The game continues, as Republicans hold out for tax cuts for the wealthy (who are garnering increasing amounts of the total income) and various “deficit commissions” put out austerity plans that all call for cutting Social Security benefits and Medicare benefits. Alice Rivlin, who spoke […]
On Econbrowser last week: The Impact of Health Insurance Reform in Massachusetts The use of emergency rooms for routine care fell, as did hospital admissions for treating preventable conditions, and the proportion of uninsured among hospital inpatients (by 36%), while there was no increase in the growth of hospital costs. From the NBER Digest article […]
by Bruce Webb Well it is out and I have a copy. And no doubt in short order it will be up at the following web-page: http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/solvency/index.html but as of 10:43 AM PST it wasn’t. Because just like the SSA score of the Chairmen’s proposal there is a lag between release and web publication. I’ll […]