"I disagree with you, but I'm pretty sure you're not Hitler." – Jon Stewart
Posted in Blog Post on May 1st, 2011
NY Times StoryI’m not sure this makes much difference now. This is years too late, his ideas and methods have spread too far. Update:The President will make a statement soon. CNN is waxing eloquent about what important blow this is. I disagree. OBL was killed in a mansion near Islamabad. There are some spontaneous cheers [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Oct 25th, 2010
via Falling Into the Economic Chasm – NYTimes.com. The real story of this election, then, is that of an economic policy that failed to deliver. Why? Because it was greatly inadequate to the task. For those who would say that progressive polices failed, I reply they weren’t really tried.
Posted in Blog Post on Jul 13th, 2010
I know the cops have a hard job, but this was way overdue. Four current and two former New Orleans police officers have been charged in connection with the killing of unarmed civilians on the Danziger Bridge in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina, federal law enforcement officials announced here on Tuesday. via Police Charged [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Jan 7th, 2010
Op-Ed Columnist – The God That Fails – NYTimes.com. He had to wait until Dec 31st to do that? What took you so long Dave? Well, at least this once I’m quoting the Times without Paul Krugman being the source.
Posted in Blog Post on Oct 21st, 2009
Facts are stubborn things: Serious students of health care have known for a long time that the magic of the marketplace doesn’t work in health care; the United States has the most privatized health-care system in the advanced world, and also the least efficient. The pale reflection of this reality in the current discussion is [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Aug 23rd, 2009
Some call it recovery – Paul Krugman Blog – NYTimes.com. Paul says while it might be a “recovery” in terms of conventional definition, but job creation still lags. The question seems to be why isn’t job creation part of the definition of recovery.
Posted in Blog Post on Aug 23rd, 2009
Bear in mind that by the time the terror alert controversy arose in 2004, we had already seen two tax cuts sold on massively, easily documented false pretenses; a war launched with constant innuendo about a Saddam-Osama link that was clearly false, and with claims about WMDs that were clearly shaky from the beginning and [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Aug 7th, 2009
It appears to me like the President’s approach to building support is going to take the legs out from under one of the most important aspects of health reform cost control: via White House Affirms Deal on Drug Cost – NYTimes.com. Pressed by industry lobbyists, White House officials on Wednesday assured drug makers that the [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Jul 27th, 2009
The more I think about the influence of Blue Dogs in the health reform debate, the more convinced I am that they should form their own party. Them seem to share little in the way of values or goals with democrats. Maybe they should shed their DINO disguise and join with Chuck Hagel and Joe [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Jul 22nd, 2009
Good piece by Leonhardt on health reform here: Economic Scene – Support for Health Reform Requires Facing Facts on Costs – NYTimes.com. So what’s in health reform for the majority of voters who already have health insurance? David Leonhardt makes a try to answer: $6500 per year per household. That’s what we spend over and [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Jul 22nd, 2009
Talk about a waste of money. This is from the party of fiscal responsibility. You know, the same people who spent a budget surplus and created structural deficits while fighting a multi-front war of choice. The same people who say that we can’t afford health care reform that would cost a fraction of the tax [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Jul 17th, 2009
Mass. Panel Backs Radical Shift in Health Payment – NYTimes.com. This is an interesting development and may well mirror what will happen with federal level health reform moving forward. The state has managed to hold together a coalition to support reforming payments to providers. I’m not sure such a thing is possible at the national [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Jul 17th, 2009
I’m not sure what the answer is, but what we’ve been doing doesn’t seem to work for anyone, except maybe Goldman Sachs. The sector officially labeled “securities, commodity contracts and investments” has grown especially fast, from only 0.3 percent of G.D.P. in the late 1970s to 1.7 percent of G.D.P. in 2007. Such growth would [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Jul 13th, 2009
Feinstein Says Law May Have Been Broken – NYTimes.com. Feinstein thinks that oversight laws have been broken. The real question is will Lord Darth Cheney be held accountable for intentionally flouting the law? He seems very adept at avoiding accountability, ignoring Congress and being protected by GOP caucus on the Hill.
Posted in Blog Post on Apr 14th, 2009
Who says economists have no sense of humor? A missed opportunity on This Week – Paul Krugman Blog – NYTimes.com. So I was all ready to talk about Rick Warren on today’s panel, only to learn that he had cancelled out at the last minute. The show replaced him with pirates, plus an extended roundtable. [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Apr 11th, 2009
Blanche Lincoln – (DINO) AR would like to ham string Obama budget and health care reform by simply lying about the effects of the estate tax. Another thing that really pisses me off about this piece of “journalism” is the total acceptance of the GOP framing of the issue demonstrated by continually referring to it [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Apr 6th, 2009
via A Medicare-Like Plan for the Non-Elderly – Economix Blog – NYTimes.com. The most powerful ordnance lobbed at the public health plan by its opponents is the dreaded “R” word, that is, the prediction that it will lead to the rationing of health care in America. In the debate on health policy, getting slapped with [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Mar 30th, 2009
Op-Ed Contributor – Dear A.I.G., I Quit! – NYTimes.com. An Executive VP in AIG’s Financial Products division, you know them as the wankers that destroyed the company, gets his Good-Bye Cruel World resignation letter carried in the NT Times op-ed section. He whines and cries and complains that AIG isn’t being nice enough to them [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Feb 10th, 2009
Ignorance is bliss – Paul Krugman Blog – NYTimes.com. I’m with Krugman, this is vile. Drug and medical device makers want to remove $1.1 billion from the stimulus bill that would be spent to compare medical treatments. I would think that if they had nothing to fear from the public knowing which treatments were best [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Feb 2nd, 2009
Op-Ed Columnist – Herbert Hoover Lives – NYTimes.com. Frank Rich on the financial crisis, the stimulus bill and the “patriots” in the GOP: The crisis is at least as grave as the one that confronted us — and, for a time, united us — after 9/11. Which is why the antics among Republicans on Capitol [...]
Date: 04/11/2006