Robert Waldmann Some time ago, I noted the difference between the provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) which reduces the scheduled generosity of payments to hospitals, nursing homes and home health care agencies and the formula in a 1997 bill which was supposed to reduce the generosity of payments to doctors and which is […]

by Linda Beale Alice Rivlin spoke at Wayne State University’s FOCIS forum today on the economic crisis. Rivlin is an economist who served as the first director of the Congressional Budget Office (1975-83, when she was a critic of “reaganomics”), director under Clinton of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) (deputy 1993-94, director 1994-96) […]

Robert Waldmann is still trying to get Paul Krugman to read my answer to his question. Krugman explaines the neo-Austrian view of the business cycle and unemployment during recessions and asks “why isn’t there similar unemployment during the boom, as workers are transferred into investment goods production?” I answer (in comments and here) I think […]

by Linda Beale Detroit’s spring, anti-government rhetoric, and the importance of paying taxes Dear Readers: As you know, I’ve been offline for a few days. Spent a very nice holiday enjoying the outdoors. Spring has sprung in Michigan. Daffodils are blooming, bobbing their gay yellow heads in various corners of the yard where I tucked […]

Unedited videos released by the California Attorney General’s Office this weekend. Finally. ACORN is not around, but the news people are. Will there be any notice? Update: Based on the comments it looks like no one watched the unedited tapes. Others have been released in other states. Rachel Maddow has parsed the California tapes. Now […]

In case you haven’t noticed, I have become slightly less “optimistic” about the prospects of a sustainable U.S. recovery. I used to think that the household deleveraging story was more of a decade-long project, and the economy would cycle throughout. But recent deficit hysteria has me worried; income growth might lapse. What differentiates this recovery […]

Nothing sinister. The Social Security and Medicare Annual Reports are released together each year because each interacts deeply with the other. The new Health Care Reform law significantly changes Medicare and so the Obama Administration decided to update its numbers to match the new reality. Which makes sense. But expect opponents to mount a hissy […]

On my way out the door hopefully to score an iPad today. Meaning it is time for the haters to step up. I think this is going to be the greatest advance in human history since the second biggest advance, which of course was baked bread. (The biggest advance obviously being the genius that let […]

The New York Times notes the passing of an important man: Mr. Gates knew what many had forgotten: that Dr. Roberts had made an early and enduring contribution to modern computing. He created the MITS Altair, the first inexpensive general-purpose microcomputer, a device that could be programmed to do all manner of tasks. For that […]

by cactus Economic Views – a Thought Brought About by Yves Smith’s (Excellent Book) Econned I’m still reading Econned, by Yves Smith. Sadly, these days I only have two minutes here or five minutes there. One day I will post something about everything going on right now, but that’s for another time. Anyway, its not […]