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

Peter Dorman of Econospeak Writes, So I Don’t Have To

I’m just going to “Go Thoma” on him, since I can’t find anything to cut: Barack Obama tells us we should not investigate American intelligence agents or their overlings who are responsible for torturing hundreds of suspects in their custody. We have to forget about the past, he says, to concentrate our attention on the […]

Vanishing Surpluses-Yet Again

by Bruce Webb Last month we were delivered alarming news from AEI: Slowdown Slashes Social Security Surplus illustrated with the table above in turn derived from this source SSA-Trust Fund Data. And sure enough if you followed the link and inserted Feb 2009 that is exactly what you would see. But what if you put […]

A Civil Libertarian is a Congressperson who got Wiretapped

Greenwald on Harman. Read the whole thing. Sample: when the U.S. Government eavesdropped for years on American citizens with no warrants and in violation of the law, that was “both legal and necessary” as well as “essential to U.S. national security,” and it was the “despicable” whistle-blowers (such as Thomas Tamm) who disclosed that crime […]

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Cap-and-Trade Proposals…and truth in spending

rdan Lots has been said about costs and this study. Please notice the cost includes insulating the house as well. Here is a Letter to Nation Republican Congressional Committee regarding cap and trade costs to households. About $340 per household in the MIT study versus about $3000 claimed by the Republicans? And so easily checked…yet […]

SIGTARP Quarterly Report to Congress

rdan Special Inspector General Barofsky and his team make particular note of the lack of oversight in TARP, and also worry that hedge funds are even more opaque in other trillion dollar programs. The SIGTARP team did its own survey and received reasonable, but uneven, reporting by banks eventhough Treasury said it would be too […]

A brand name that pays back…?

rdan 24/7 Wallstreet suggests AIG might pay back much of the money lent to it by Uncle Sam (#11). Is this notion really in the cards for the taxpayer?? AIG (AIG) may be the only large company in America that both the management and federal government want torn apart. If AIG succeeds in selling most […]