by Bruce Webb If I had to pick out the two biggest sources of confusion about Social Security finance it would have to be one, the relation of the Trust Funds to Public Debt and two, the relation of Social Security surplus/deficits to Budget Scoring. At Angry Bear we have discussed the equation Debt Held […]
by Linda Beale crossposted with Ataxingmatter More on UBS and Secret Banking Jurisdictions: Birkenfeld Tells All to Global Post Bradley Birkenfeld, the UBS banker who opened the floodgates of information on the bank’s nefarious practices of aiding and abetting tax evasion, is currently in prison. But he has also done a tell-all interview with the […]
Projected growth in spending on the federal government’s big health and retirement programs–Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security–dominates the long-run budget outlook. If current policies continue, that spending is likely to grow significantly faster than the economy as a whole over the next few decades. By 2040, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects those outlays will […]
by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt HEALTH CARE: The Durable Medical Equipment (DME) mess So you go to an orthopedic surgeon with a complaint of back pain, and the surgeon orders a lumbar back brace for support. Can you stop at a counter and buy the brace on the way out the door? Probably not. Years […]
by Bruce Webb Exactly a month ago I put up a post If a Social Security Annual Report Vanishes into the Forest noting that not only was the Report months overdue but that nobody seemed to notice or care that there was no official announcement about the reasons for the delay or a new release […]
The employment report appears to confirm that the economy has slipped into a stagnation scenario as both payroll and the household survey reported that employment fell. The drop in employment stemmed largely from the layoffs of census workers as private sector employment rose some 71,000 as compared to 31,000 last month.Compared to the historic norm […]
by Mike Kimel Update: Rdan here Take the quiz now…hey big spenders Status Report on Presimetrics The Intelligence Report column in Parade Magazine, the newspaper that appears in Sunday newspapers across the country, wrote a short quiz based on Presimetrics. It will appear in this Sunday’s issue. Michael Kanell and I will log in to […]
I spent the last hours of last night watching the PBS “Human Experience” episode on the Civilian Conservation Corps. A few million people put to work: for long hours, living in Army barracks, with all but $5 of their pay having to be sent home every week. Gosh, sounds just right as part of FDR’s […]
Robert Waldmann Matthew Yglesias has a new argument for encouraging exports of manufactures. I am not at all convinced. He seems to be asserting that employment in wholesaling and transportation follows production not sales and so is increased by manufacturing for export. I really doubt that. Yglesias wrote (click to see his graph). I saw […]