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 […]

Note: This is “what I believe I said,” not“what I would have said” and is presented here solely to document the confluences that were, perhaps, clearer in my head than they were in the presentation itself.  As such, several references here are echoes of earlier pieces of the presentation. (Links to same will be updated […]

by Bruce Webb Whence Teabaggery? Opponents of Health Care Reform vow to keep up their efforts and sweep Republicans to victory in November. But where do they take their stand? Up to now they have been opposing potential legislation that existed mostly in their own imagination: Socialized Medicine, Obamacare, Government Bureaucrats between You and Your […]

by cactus A Brief Review of Econned I have read the first few chapters of Econned by Yves Smith, that’s about where I re-evaluate and decide whether its worth reading through the first 80% of the book. When the answer is yes, I usually re-evaluate the 80% mark. As a result, I don’t always get […]