by Reader Jack From the NY Times yesterday:“Social Security to See Payout Exceed Pay-In This Year” That’s the headline. The interesting parts are buried deep. In the print edition one has to go not just below the fold, but to the inside pages to find the meat of the story. Superficially it would appear the […]
by Linda Beale why taxes are important from ataxingmatter When I started this blog several years ago, I wrote in my inaugural post that I thought it was important for people to be informed about taxes–how they work, who pays them, and why we need a tax system to support our governmental programs. I thought […]
I mentioned I would be going into the archives to re-post some of Angry Bear’s explanatory writing in the 2004/05 time period. The first was written by Kash in early 2005 on the coming dilemma in paying for health care and how to use measures to think it through. Here is a post by CR […]
Krugman writes: Andrew Leonard has a good point: if Obamacare is such a disaster for the economy, where’s the market reaction? Silly Krugman. And silly Andrew Leonard. Sure, the S&P 500 is up a few percentage points. But it would be up many, many times that amount if not for the healthcare bill. Update: Sarcasm […]
Jamie Galbraith writes in The Nation: In Defense of Deficits The Simpson-Bowles Commission, just established by the president, will no doubt deliver an attack on Social Security and Medicare dressed up in the sanctimonious rhetoric of deficit reduction. (Back in his salad days, former Senator Alan Simpson was a regular schemer to cut Social Security.) […]
The Dan Rather interview also reminded me of the many Senators and House members outright retirements or “running for another office” that affect the nature of incumbent advantage in more regular elections. From a cursory google of sources I believe there are 9 senate retirements (4 R, 5D) and 17 (6R,11D) House members retiring outright, […]
Maggie Mahar at Health Beat Blog gives a historical perspective to the passage of Healthcare Reform 2010 and Medicare 1965. Maggie’s comments are in the parenthesis in red on transcripts of Rathers and Maddow’s exchange. Dan Rather on Presidents Obama, LBJ and HCR: I saw Dan Rather on the Rachel Maddow show. Some people have […]
by Bruce Webb Well me neither. I read through the Tri-Committee and HELP Bills and the Senate Finance Committee’s Chairman’s Mark and then both the Pelosi and Reid versions as introduced and followed as best I could the last minute revisions introduced by the Team of Ten but as I type I have yet to […]
by cactus A Simple Explanation of How The Use of Derivatives Created The Great Recession In comments to a post by fellow Angry Bear Robert Waldman, reader Cantab writes: Nobody here has come up with a believable story on how derivatives hurt the economy or were the cause of the recession. All we really get […]
by Rebecca Wilder This morning there was an abundance of links evidencing the building anxiety over U.S.-China relations. Edward Harrison at Credit Writedowns links to a Reuters article, China vows to hit back if targeted by U.S. on yuan. Calculated Risk refers to commentary at the Financial Times and the Washington Post referencing China Losing […]