Via Mark Thoma comes the latest argument for Bush’s Social Security Deform put forward by the folks at the Heritage Foundation: Yes, because of a bigger crisis that has nothing to do with the program’s solvency. It’s a personal crisis affecting millions of American working families: The program designed for the 1930s is shortchanging them […]
That President Bush weaseled out on his promise to cut farm pork does not surprise me in the least. But it does show that this White House was never serious about giving you your money back or protecting your Social Security benefits. Update: Brad Plumer notes that it might indeed be the time to be […]
Here’s some of the data I promised you the other day, giving a more detailed look at the performance of the US health care system compared with those of other industrialized countries. First let’s take a look at the very young. How well does the US health care system take care of children and mothers, […]
Kash recently posted a graph entitled Historical Profits, which had me looking for an excuse to post the following graph showing corporate taxes relative to corporate profits before taxes (see NIPA tables 6.17 and 6.18, which note that taxes income those paid to Federal, state, and local government and taxes paid by domestic corporations to […]
Paul Krugman deserves kudos today for trying to turn attention toward the true long-term domestic crisis facing the US today: its horrible health care system. One of his central points is this: [T]he U.S. health care system is wildly inefficient. Americans tend to believe that we have the best health care system in the world. […]
Via Max comes Stephen Moore’s attempt to lower the standards at the Weekly Standard with the only line of interest being: Finally, to put the Democratic obstructionists in an especially uncomfortable position, it would make sense to start proposing fallback positions that at least get personal accounts started. One idea would be to defuse the […]
If you are looking to sell a used Prius, the rise in gasoline prices is good news: NEW YORK (CNN/Money) – Demand for the gas-electric hybrid Prius is so great that some used Priuses are selling for more than the list price for a new one, a report said on Monday. Buyers who want to […]
First, the good news: Oil futures (West Texas Intermediate:WTI) for May delivery are only $52.95 per barrel, off from the recent high of $58.28 per barrel. And it appears gas prices may be peaking for the current driving season at around $2.30 per gallon. Perhaps that will be the end of stories like the following […]
My imagination runs amok while wondering how China’s New Weapon could prove useful to China… China to the US: “We regret to tell you that we have been disappointed about your decision regarding issue X. (Selling new arms to Taiwan? Supporting a Taiwanese declaration of independence? Increasing pressure on N. Korea beyond what China wants? […]
The NYTimes ran a story yesterday about the potential dangers that the Chinese Navy’s rapid buildup may pose to the US. But China’s increasing military power may well be less important than another weapon that China has acquired over the past few years: substantial control over the fate of the US economy. Consider that China’s […]