by Bruce Webb I am not going to harp on the sexism or ageism in Simpson’s ‘310 million tits’ comment generally, if you happen to have just gotten back on the Inter-Spatial Shuttle from Alpha Centauri this evening and don’t catch the reference a Google search on that turns up 125,000 hits, and I daresay […]

Robert Waldmann Saul Alinsky sure has a lot of followers. Obama is a fan. Hillary Clinton wrote her senior thesis about Alinsky. However the people who follow him to the letter are Republican’s who want to privatize social security. Rule 13 (slightly edited) 13. Pick the target … personalize it,… The latest follower of Alinsky […]

Robert Waldmann Andrew Harless argues that there was no housing bubble ?!? Apparently it is now generally accepted that the rise in house prices was an aberrant bubble, justified only in the minds of irrational buyers who ignored the fundamentals and expected house prices to keep rising simply because they were already rising. But what […]

Transunion reports: TransUnion’s quarterly analysis of trends in the credit card industry revealed that the national credit card delinquency rate (the ratio of bankcard borrowers 90 days or more delinquent on one or more of their credit cards) decreased to 0.92 percent in the second quarter of 2010, down 17.1 percent over the previous quarter. […]

by Linda Bealecrossposted with Ataxingmatter Dealing with the Sunset of the Bush Tax Cuts (Part IV in a series)–the Tax Relief Coalition The Tax Relief Coalition–another of the myriad anti-tax groups comprised of Grover Norquist’s group and those of similar ideology–is at it again with a letter to Congress (available on BNA) urging the passage […]

I have no words for this e-mail to OWL by Alan Simpson on Social Security: I’ve made some plenty smart cracks about people on Social Security who milk it to the last degree. You know ‘em too. It’s the same with any system in America. We’ve reached a point now where it’s like a milk […]

Hat tip r.j.sigmund for finding this leading to the Philadelphia City Paper: Philadelphia Demands License Fee and Taxes from Bloggers Philadelphia bloggers were dispatched letters informing them that they owe $300 for a [lifetime] privilege license [or $50 per year for an annual license], plus taxes on any profits they made. Even if, as with […]

Robert Waldmann Minneapolis Fed President and famous economist Narayan Kocherlakota made my jaw drop with this argument Long-run monetary neutrality is an uncontroversial, simple, but nonetheless profound proposition. In particular, it implies that if the FOMC maintains the fed funds rate at its current level of 0-25 basis points for too long, both anticipated and […]

by reader Ilsm Misspent Tax Dollars for Profits, Not Replacing 1970’s Military Equipment US outlays for military programs are wasted through mismanagement and neglect: these must not be spared in spending cuts. 20% of US government outlays are for the Defense Department. Something that needs to be to considered while reading the report is that […]

Lifted from an e-mail from Dale Coberly regarding Social Security and the dangers of increasing ‘costs’ of helping our old folk live a bit above a level of destitution: …that while SS will eventually cost 6% of GDP, this is not a lot of money for the basic needs of 25% of the population. Moreover, […]