It’s history lesson time again. An awful lot of talk and writing about the chained CPI has been focused on the results of its implementation on Social Security. Using this formula for figuring the cost of living ends up reducing the money citizens will receive in their SS checks. One of our commenters, Denis Drew […]

I was forwarded an early look at a survey that was produced by George Washington University’s School of Political Management in conjunction with Thumbtack.com. As some readers know, I am an honest to goodness small business owner. Two business actually and they are as different as say a private practice physician and a florist. So…………I […]

Lifted from Robert’s Stochaistic thoughts is a post that comments on Italian political/economists and government policy.  There are some ‘in the know’ names for US readers: Simon Wren-Lewis asks. I answer. In real authentic East of the English Channel Europe, economists don’t endorse candidates, because elections don’t matter.  Neither do they endorse gymnasts, because our […]

These two articles were juxtaposed in the NYT today.  At a casual glance they look contradictory, and in my experience in my personal sphere no one has asked for this to be explained in the political arena.  Maybe because I have a porcupine sort of personality.  We are apt to discuss parts more deeply but […]

Yves Smith posted a call to action. If you want this country to be different, you can’t just wish for it or expect voting to effect change. You need to be part of making it happen. And that was perhaps the greatest of Obama’s deceptions, that by listening to his seductive rhetoric, your passivity made […]

Elizabeth Warren begins her campaign for the Senate seat in Massachusetts with: (h/t Mark Thoma) Also on MSNBC(h/t reader eric)

Note:This was going to be short pieces about things I missed during a week of illness. It turned into a Very Long Piece riffing on two posts from Capital Gains and Games. And that’s without even mentioning the bravura work Stan Collender is doing there: see, for instance, this note that a deficit reduction bill […]

by Rebecca Wilder What do you want to wager that the IMF’s a bit overly optimistic on the outlook for Greek nominal GDP? Monday, June 27, 2011 Newsneconomics These jokers have no idea what they’re doing. The IMF has overshot the ex-post path of Greek nominal GDP in each and every one of their World […]

AB, late Thursday: If you want to stop a dictator from killing his people, freeze any of his personal assets that are held out of the country. In cases where the dictator is likely to fall, it sends a clear signal to other countries. (In cases where the dictator is likely to succeed, the worst […]

Both Gary and Rebecca cited Marc Lynch recommending “intervening” in Libya: The appropriate comparison is Bosnia or Kosovo, or even Rwanda where a massacre is unfolding on live television and the world is challenged to act. It is time for the United States, NATO, the United Nations and the Arab League to act forcefully to […]