Via Duncan Black comes the latest in hypocrisy from the GOP House leadership in what Duncan calls a cute trick with “There is Plan and No Plan” being Duncan’s perfect title. I guess the GOP spin is that they have laid out what the problem is and the broad parameters of how to fix the […]

Without a shred of evidence or theoretical justification, Greenspan said this today on Capitol Hill: “Addressing the government’s own imbalances will require scrutiny of both spending and taxes. However, tax increases of sufficient dimension to deal with our looming fiscal problems arguably pose significant risks to economic growth and the revenue base. The exact magnitude […]

Samuelson opines about the state of interest rates in the US in today’s Washington Post : The Mystery of Low Interest Rates Something strange happened on the way to higher interest rates: They declined. We’re talking about rates on long-term mortgages and bonds. These rates truly affect the economy, because they influence housing and business […]

Yesterday the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) released its quarterly estimate of house price appreciation. The estimate shows that housing price appreciation slowed sharply in the fourth quarter of 2004 compared to the third quarter. Because prices rose so much earlier in 2004, the year-on-year (y-o-y) percent change in house prices was still […]

How do you recover from Catwoman? Like this: George W. Bush won the “Razzie” worst actor of the year award on Saturday for his performance as president in “Fahrenheit 9/11” but his moment in Hollywood’s dubious spotlight was eclipsed by Halle Berry, who actually turned up to receive her embarrassing accolade. Berry was named worst […]

I asked that question of an acquaintance of mine who is an attorney working for a federal bankruptcy judge. Here is her answer: 1. There are two basic types of bankruptcy in this country: Chapter 13, which means that the individual is put on a strict, court-supervised payment plan with the goal of fully repaying […]

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, […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]