George Lakoff offers his take on some of the mistakes Democrats are making currently in their overall message to the nation compared to the Republicans, with the backdrop and rulings from Rush Limbaugh on proper behavior for the Republican political leadership: Why conservative lies_spread_and what progressives can do to fight them Fit matters. The brain […]

by Bruce Webb (My God, can we get any more jargony and wonkish? Well “Si, Si, Puede!”) When the Greenspan Commission was convened back in 1982 Social Security scoring started and stopped with the SSA Office of the Chief Actuary who are also tasked with researching, compiling and presenting the Annual Report for review and […]

by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt HEALTH CARE: Can Mom Live Forever? Many of us have had the experience of losing a parent. It is a life passage that is impossible to completely prepare for. Problem is, mom is not going to live forever, and at some point aggressive care makes no sense – except to […]

Hat tip Calculated Risk for pointing us to the FHFA Issues Subpoenas for PLS Documents at the FHFA website. CR notes that Many of the originators of the PLS mortgages are no longer in business (New Century, etc.), however most of the PLS issuers still exist. Update: From the The Washington Post Fannie and Freddie […]

Went to Massacghusetts for the weekend, where I learned that Martha Coakley supports child rapists* and Scott Brown (R-MA Sen.) is a decent legislator who stands by his convictions, including his opposition to the Financial Services Reform Act, which principled action he takes because the act institutionalizes Too Big to Fail. (This is also Russ […]

Tom Colicchio comments on HR5504 – Improving nutrition for America’s Children using a personal example to illustrate his point that obesity can be symptom of poverty. Currently obesity is a problem for more of us than we care to admit, and most worrisome for kids. More recently, my wife [filmmaker Lori Silverbush] started mentoring a […]

by Bruce Webb In 2003 CBO published an Issue Brief illustrating the relative contribution of Aging and Real Benefit Growth to future Social Security spending called The Future Growth of Social Security: It’s Not Just Society’s Aging with results graphed above:. Discussion under the fold. Approximately 55 percent of the higher spending is due to […]

by Mike Kimel How Changes in State & Local Tax Burdens Affect Growth in Per Capita Income Cross posted at the Presimetrics Blog. I’ve had a number of posts recently looking at the effect of reductions in the tax burden during Presidential administrations or during (or just following) recessions and how those affected subsequent growth. […]

Mark Thoma hosted Robert Kuttner at Firedoglake, the introduction begins with these words: It’s possible to give two very different interpretations of the Obama presidency so far. The first is a relatively positive interpretation. Proponents of this view argue that even though Obama has faced a united GOP willing and able to use filibusters to […]

A shift to more internal demand for China might not benefit the US in ways we think it will. One such area is the impact of increased demand for resources and energy. And another is where the jobs are. China Puts Up More Money to Build Solar Capacity The government-owned China Development Bank has just […]