Wow. And there’s much more destruction yet to come. Kash

Yesterday the Kaiser Foundation released the Employer Health Benefits 2004 Annual Survey. Here are a few comparisons between the 2004 survey results and the 2001 results: Over the past 3 years, health benefits have gotten far more expensive for both employer and employees, have covered fewer workers, and have given those workers who do get […]

This morning the BLS released its latest PPI data, covering August. It showed continued — in fact, increased — weakness in pricing power. The core price level (ex. food and energy) fell by 0.1%. While this may end up being good for consumers (though only if worker compensation doesn’t also fall), this is yet more […]

Postcards from Old Europe – Thank God for Alan Greenspan The week which is ending today hasn’t brought us much in the way of hard economic news. Alan Greenspan’s testimony before the House Budget Committee was probably the only thing that kept people at their desks. The Federal Reserve chief managed to be upbeat and […]

CNN reports : (CNN) — Osama bin Laden’s top lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri, appeared in a videotape message Thursday on the Arabic-language TV news network Al-Jazeera, saying southern and eastern Afghanistan is control of the mujahedeen.Wearing a white turban and glasses, al-Zawahiri said that American forces are hunkered down and afraid to respond to advances of […]

As we all know, Bush pushed through two massive tax cuts — “the largest tax relief in history,” according to the Bush campaign. Yet the current recovery is among the weakest in history, as illustrated in the previous post. Shouldn’t the largest tax cuts in history have had more effect? How could such massive tax […]

It’s time to take stock of how the US economy has recovered from the recession of 2001. Unfortunately, the scorecard is not good; the current recovery is the weakest recovery from a recession in recent history. Why do I say that? Consider the following graphs. Each one shows the progress of a key economic variable […]

From the Washington Post: Proposal Draws on Advice of 9/11 Panel President Outlines More Budget Powers For Intelligence Chief By Walter Pincus and Dana Milbank President Bush yesterday proposed giving a new national intelligencedirector broad powers to plan intelligence agencies’ spending priorities and clandestine activities, making a concession to lawmakers moving to implement the more […]

Does it seem to you that Bush-Cheney’s campaign is based on the premise that they can lie about everything – and that the public and the press are too stupid to realize this? Rudy Giuliani was a guest on Hardball this Monday. I wish I had a video link and not just the transcript for […]

Yesterday George “W is for Wrong” Bush said: To create jobs in America, we must stop the junk lawsuits that threaten our small business owners. The cost to our economy of litigation is conservatively estimated to be over $230 billion a year. As PGL pointed out yesterday, that figure is wrong. Completely wrong. It’s false. […]