by rdan The Economist reports on troubles in Mexico around corn tortillas. Last year there were demonstrations about a significant rise in prices for corn tortillas. From research I learned that 50% of the people in Mexico earn $5 or less per day, with the corn tortilla being the mainstay of diet…Indeed, the average Mexican […]
by rdan GAO 08782T and GAO-08-847Tor testimony at a congressional hearing on defense spending reports the following: …the Department of Defense’s (DOD) management of its major weapon system acquisitions—an area that has been on GAO’s high risk list since 1990. Prior to and since that time, Congress and DOD have continually explored ways to improve […]
By: Divorced one like BushUpdate: Link for Import Certificates fixed Via Howard Richman’s blog comes this by idea by Buffet: Import Certificates. You have to read down a ways before he gets to the idea. “We would achieve this balance by issuing what I will call Import Certificates (ICs) to all U.S. exporters in an […]
It’s amazing how any discussion of the minimum wage brings out all kinds of discussion and comments. We have a school of thought that believes very strongly that increases in the minimum wage causes firms to fire minimum wage workers, so higher minimum wages harm the very people it is designed to help. I am […]
The NYT reports: State and city governments have yet to shrink the economy; indeed, they have even managed to prop it up. They have quietly maintained their spending at pre-crisis levels even as they warn of numerous cutbacks forced on them by declining tax revenues. The cutbacks, however, are written into budgets for a fiscal […]
by rdan In April, the Pentagon split its largest military contract in Iraq – formerly belonging to the Houston-based corporation KBR, Inc. – among companies Fluor and DynCorp, in addition to KBR. A fourth company, the British-American service provider Serco, is responsible for managing and overseeing the other three, according to its contract, signed last […]
by rdan Forbes reports: In total, the global 2000 companies now account for $30 trillion in revenues, $2.4 trillion in profits, $119 trillion in assets and $39 trillion in market value. Around the world, 72 million people work for these companies.…The U.S. still dominates this list of global giants, but with 61 fewer entries than […]
by reader ilsm B-2 Spirit Bomber Totaled. The phone rang in the pentagon. The Air Force general on the line called home to tell Dad he wrecked one of his shiny new toys. Last Feb on Guam a B-2, which flies by wire. controlled by software, pitched up without input from the flight controls, drag […]
Reader Sammy sends this opinion piece on Hillary Clinton’s primary race. Peggy Noonan in the WSJ offers a thanks on Clinton: But this I believe is the truth: America dodged a bullet. That was the other meaning of the culminating events of this week.Mrs. Clinton would have been a disaster as president. Mr. Obama may […]
Andrew Biggs notes that the Technical Panel of the SSAB (Social Security Advisory Board) has released its Report on Assumptions and Methods. I am only a few pages into the 82 page Report but my initial response is that this is a very important deal. These people do seem to be actual independent observers fully […]