Yves Smith spells out her strong opinion of our dilemma nationally for the elections of 2012. This particular arena of regulating banks and non banks and and accountability also takes on a wider symbolic meaning in this election cycle. How this plays out in determining national budget spending priorities through the lens of an explosion […]
by Mike Kimel The Numbers Behind Newt’s Plan to Balance the Budget Newt Gingrich’s website provides information on The Gingrich Jobs and Prosperity Plan. It starts with this: America only works when Americans are working. Newt has a pro-growth strategy similar to the proven policies used when he was Speaker to balance the budget, pay […]
Mike Konzcal reviews Lost Decades by Menzie Chin and Jeffrey Friedan at New Deal 2.0: What caused the housing bubble? This is a different, though related, question from what caused the collapse of the financial sector or why unemployment is sky-high right now. Why did housing value skyrocket and then collapse? More broadly, why did […]
Andrew Gelman points to our confusions regarding merit in our social perceptions of winners and losers. I might make a list of naughty and nice sayings for another post. Tyler Cowen pointed to an article by business-school professor Luigi Zingales about meritocracy. I’d expect a b-school prof to support the idea of meritocracy, and Zingales […]
by Mike Kimel Herman Cain and the Defense of Marriage This isn’t my usual beat, but I was fascinated to read this statement by Herman Cain’s attorney: Rather, this appears to be an accusation of private, alleged consensual conduct between adults – a subject matter which is not a proper subject of inquiry by the […]
NYT Robert Reich calls our attention to post election 2012 life and political realities: Looking Beyond Election Day By Robert Reich, Robert Reich’s Blog Most political analysis of America’s awful economy focuses on whether it will doom President Obama’s reelection or cause Congress to turn toward one party or the other. These are important questions, […]
by run 75441 In response to Newt Gingrich’s comments on failing schools, work, and rising bootstraps, Peter Dorman at Econospeak replies in: Education with a Twist—An Oliver Twist” “why take it out on the janitors? If the school was failing it wasn’t their fault. According to Gingrich, it’s the teachers who can’t make the grade. […]
op ed by run75441 Think Progress offers a look at relevant parts of the ‘jobs bill’. In the US, the winds of Washington Politics don’t blow, they suck. Gerrymandering the Jobs Bill: “The piece of the jobs bill Republicans will pass would end a requirement that the government withhold three percent of the cost of […]
by Linda Beale The right’s nutty claims about job creation–Gingrich and the estate tax The right is busy selling its program for enriching the rich to the working class. As usual, the sales pitches are full of false and nutty claims pitched to fool hard workers who are uninformed about the facts. Newt Gingrich, for […]
by Linda Beale the right’s smoke & mirrors scams about corporate tax “reform” One could get a pretty gloomy picture of the state of Social Security, and the need to “reduce entitlements” while at the same time hearing about the (faked) urgency of cutting corporate taxes in order to give our US multinationals an edge […]