Ron Wyden, Democratic Senator from Oregon who serves on the Senate Finance Committee and the Energy Committee, is generally considered a liberal, though with a mixed bag of positions that hardly qualify on all grounds. He is against the estate tax and favors lowering rates of capital gains taxes, neither of which makes sense, from […]

If you needed a picture of a Megan M., you could have used this one: I’m probably not the only one who wonders why you chose a Megan F. instead. (h/t Susan of Texas. Photo credit to superficialgallery.com)

rdan For JS-Kit’s part, and Echo specifically, the key is to ensure that a blog is a full and fruitful part of the full social media landscape. The goal is to make the blog post the first place to share a thought and the best place to see a complete and comprehensive view of the […]

rdan I was going to do another piece on the OCC and performance as a regulating agency, but Baseline Scenario did a great job already:John Dugan and the OCC. Does anyone know if a replacement is even being considered?

rdan I have been informed by js-kit that Aug.6, 09 is the date of our automatic conversion to the Echo Commenting System. Be advised it interconnects comments to other sites with your open ID and other formats as a social networking opportunity when someone clicks your profile, compiling your trail of comments over the internets. […]

rdan David Zetland carries this story that I assume is accurate. Archtypical anecdote comes to mind. (via JWT) Judy Wallman, a professional genealogy researcher in southern California, was doing some personal work on her own family tree. She discovered that Harry (senator (D) from Nevada ) Reid’s great-great uncle, Remus Reid, was hanged for horse […]

Robert Waldmann Taunter explains the link between Monte Hall and Health Insurance. Brilliant. Via Paul Krugman via Yves Smith so I’m sure you’ve read it already but if not click now click often. James Kwak at Baseline described the practice as rare, affecting only 0.5% of the population. The faint light bulb above my head […]

rdan I read the Op-Ed in the Boston Globe and asked Doug to write a piece or pieces in a more detailed fashion. There have been allusions to this issue as a cost factor, but no policy consideration here to date. Post by Doug Brown Due to the complexity of organizations today, there is commonly […]

Robert Waldmann is very very late with this one. Appears that long long ago (in blogtime) Michelle Malkin said that Larry Katz once wrote that unemployment insurance causes unemployment. I know Larry Katz, Larry Katz was my PhD co-supervisor, Larry Katz is a friend of mine and Ms Malkin, you’re no Larry Katz. Malkin was […]

By Spencer, July auto and light truck sales are being reported at 11.2 million annual rate. That is a very significant increase from the second quarter average of 9.5 million and implies that consumption in the third quarter GDP data will be up significantly. I do not have detailed data of how much of this […]