Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

__________ and Medicare are ‘unsustainable’ for the long term

The usually staid David Broder, teeing off on this report from the CBPP: Back-to-back briefings last week put a harsh spotlight on the deep hole left by the budget policies of George Bush’s first term. Millions of Americans will be paying the price for the fiscal profligacy of this misnamed conservative government. The bad news, […]

Personal Income and Saving

The BEA just released its latest figures on personal income and spending in the US: Personal income decreased $238.6 billion, or 2.3 percent, and disposable personal income (DPI) decreased $241.4 billion, or 2.6 percent, in January, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) decreased $3.9 billion, or less than 0.1 percent. […]

Social Security, Risk, and Compromise

Matt Yglesias endorses a take no prisoners approach to privatization: Some people want to know why I seem to think Social Security should be a “litmus test” issue for Democrats. On one level, it’s a complicated question requiring a long answer. On another level, it’s a simple question that’s easily answered. First, Social Security is […]

Blogs Less Traveled

It seems to be in vogue these days, so here’s a few blogs from my blogroll that I think get less traffic than they should (some likely get more visits than we do here at Angry Bear, but may nonetheless be new to many of our readers): 18 Minute Gap Ben Muse Brad Plumer Hobson’s […]

More Maps

First, the homes of record of US soldiers killed in Iraq:(thanks to commenter Felix for the link) Second, color coded Election 2004 results in which (1) counties are shaded between pure red and pure blue based upon Bush and Kerry’s vote shares and (2) the heights are proportional to voter density (voters per square mile):(Thanks […]

Podestra Writes to the National Review

It would seem that John Tammy’s disingenious attack on a tax proposal endorsed by John Podesta prompted this reply from John Podesta, which NRO had the courtesy to post. Since NRO also had the good sense to provide links and all, one might wonder if they were actually adopting a sense of decency and honesty. […]

Who Is To Blame?

A Harris poll on Iraq, 9/11, Al Qaeda and Weapons of Mass Destruction: What the Public Believes Now came out last week and, not surprisingly, Americans are stunningly misinformed: 47 percent believe that Saddam Hussein helped plan and support the hijackers who attacked the U.S. on September 11, 2001 (up six percentage points from November). […]

Red vs. Blue

We’ve all seen the maps contrasting the vast swaths of red voters with the tiny islets of blue voters. In the past I’ve pointed out the obvious in various ways: relatively few people live in those red seas, and measuring political parties’ strengths by acreage is nonsensical. Unfutz has two more maps, updated for the […]

Excessive Liquidity

The Economist is worried about the rapid growth in the world’s money supply over the past couple of years: HOW loose is the world’s monetary policy? One gauge is that real interest rates in America and other countries are still negative. Another is that global liquidity has been expanding at its fastest pace for at […]

Fourth Quarter GDP Growth

The BEA just released revisions to its estimate of fourth quarter GDP: Real gross domestic product — the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States — increased at an annual rate of 3.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2004, according to preliminary estimates released by the […]