by Bruce Webb House Minority Leader John Boehner said in a statement marking the 75th anniversary that while the law has served the needs of millions of Americans seniors, the Social Security and Medicare Trustees have “repeatedly warned Congress and the American people that reforms are necessary or future benefits will be threatened.”He added that […]
Donklephant offers the familiar graphs making the rounds on tax cuts comparisons, but the comments were worth reading last time I checked.
lifted from comments from anne at Economistview: Share of Gross Domestic Product of Federal Government, Defense and Nondefense Spending, 2000-2009 January 15, 2010 Percent of GDP of Defense Spending 2000 ( 3.7)2001 ( 3.8) Bush2002 ( 4.1)2003 ( 4.5)2004 ( 4.6) 2005 ( 4.7)2006 ( 4.7)2007 ( 4.7)2008 ( 5.1)2009 ( 5.5) Obama [There are […]
Lifted from comments in open thread by reader sgetz99: August 10 – Bloomberg (Jungmin Hong and Saeromi Shin): “China’s banking regulator ordered banks to transfer off-balance-sheet loans onto their books and make provisions for those that may default… The assets linked to wealth management products provided by trust companies must be shifted onto banks’ balance […]
Higher Ed Watch reports: The student loan company Nelnet announced late Friday afternoon that it has reached “an agreement in principle” to settle a Federal False Claims lawsuit filed against the corporation and five other lenders that engaged in a scheme to bilk taxpayers by systematically overcharging the government for subsidy payments on federal loans […]
Higher Ed Watch covers the student loan scandal (links and the rest of the article): One way or another, a whistleblower lawsuit filed by Jon Oberg, the U.S. Department of Education researcher who uncovered the 9.5 student loan scandal, against six student loan companies that participated in the scheme should come to a conclusion shortly.The […]
by Bruce Webb A little over a year ago I put up the following map from Cordesman and Toukan’s Study on a Possible Israeli Strike on Iran’s Nuclear Development Facilities “ A year later and this issue is back in the headlines and specifically in association with the publication by the uber-Likudnik Jeffrey Goldberg’s article […]
by reader Ilsm Restoring AffordabilityWaste, Unneeded Programs Hinder ModernizationBy ASHTON CARTER Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition Technology and LogisticsPublished: 19 July 2010 Read the whole article at Defense News Ashton Carter says: “The department spends approximately $700 billion annually for our country’s defense. About $300 billion of this is spent inside the department, on […]
Fortune published an op-ed piece by Keith R. McCullough at Hedgeye (h/t to my Mom). He argues (not very well, I might add) that QE2 is the doomsday scenario for “markets”. I’d like to point out the following (mostly because this is a common mistake): what the Fed announced is NOT QE2. Furthermore, the Fed’s […]