Sandwichman Speaks . . .

By on October 30, 2011 in Economics, General Discussion, Politics

Krugman of Mass Destruction”   http://econospeak.blogspot.com/2011/10/krugman-of-mass-destruction.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+espeak+%28EconoSpeak%29 Econospeak   Paul Krugman, check your thoughts and your sources! In a blog post titled More Thoughts on Weaponized Keynesian, http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/29/more-thoughts-on-weaponized-keynesianism/ Krugman wrote: Economics, as I say often, is not a morality play. As far as creating aggregate demand is concerned, spending is spending – public spending is as good as but [...]

Read full story • Comments { 6 }

Maybe Obama isn’t quite as bad as he seems

By on October 30, 2011 in General Discussion, Politics

Far from being merely a continuation of Bush’s second term–which can be seen most obviously in the financial bailouts and the continuation/expansion  of Bush’s wars and tax cuts, Mettler tries to make the case that Obama did attempt some fundamental reforms of what she calls the ‘submerged state’: little known subsidies for the rich and [...]

Read full story • Comments { 12 }

From the CBO on income distribution.

By on October 29, 2011 in Economics, General Discussion

Points selected, for a full read go to, http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=12485 After-tax income for the highest-income households grew more than it did for any other group. (After-tax income is income after federal taxes have been deducted and government transfers—which are payments to people through such programs as Social Security and Unemployment Insurance—have been added.) CBO finds that, [...]

Read full story • Comments { 2 }

Get Your Freak On, Girl!!

By on October 28, 2011 in General Discussion, Human Behavior, Politics

A news story that is both amusing and disconcerting at the same time:   Passenger Jill Filipovic found this note in her luggage last weekend: Get your freak on, girl!! STORY HIGHLIGHTS Baggage screener found vibrator in bag, left note saying “Get Your Freak On, Girl” Passenger tweeted about note to open “a bigger conversation [...]

Read full story • Comments { 2 }

Doomsday Has Been Indefinitely Postponed…

By on October 28, 2011 in General Discussion, Human Behavior

I don’t think this news story needs any additional comment by me. [Really, it doesn't.]   October 28th, 2011 10:12 AM ET Doomsday ministry scrubs end of world predictions from website By Dan Merica, CNN (CNN) – The Christian radio broadcasting network that touted Harold Camping’s failed doomsday predictions may be getting out of the [...]

Read full story • Comments { 2 }

A real bad combination.

By on October 27, 2011 in Economics, General Discussion

While it is possible to hear some spare good economic news, like manufacturing continues to be a bright spot in the economy, there are some underlying economic forces at work that are just depressing. The advance estimate for real growth in the third quarter was 2.5% according to the BEA. (The second quarter was even [...]

Read full story • Comments { 18 }

Conception the start of life?

By on October 26, 2011 in Human Behavior, Politics

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/26/us/politics/personhood-amendments-would-ban-nearly-all-abortions.html?hp Some states are moving to have the moment of conception marked as the start of human life. This move is being done so that abortion may be declared an act of murder, so making it illegal. On the one hand I welcome this initiative, the reason being that I have long had objection to our [...]

Read full story • Comments { 24 }

Shanty towns 2020.

By on October 25, 2011 in General Discussion

From the NYT RSS feed. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/25/us/suburban-poverty-surge-challenges-communities.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Read full story • Comments { 3 }

When did the debt bubble begin?

By on October 25, 2011 in Economics

The arguments about the US debt bubble all assume that this is a rather recent development. But as Gail Tverberg pointed out in an article in the Energy Bulletin, this is not the case. She cites a graph of all non-governmental debt, expressed as a ratio of the GDP, dating back to 1945 and it shows… [...]

Read full story • Comments { 5 }

The Legality Of Killing Anwar Al-Awlaki

By on October 25, 2011 in International affairs, Politics

The earlier discussion on this topic had reached the limits of indentation, so I thought it best to initiate a new thread to permit more fluid commentary. To start with, here are some interesting paragraphs from the Wikipedia article on Awlaki, followed by a few comments by me:   In January 2010, White House lawyers [...]

Read full story • Comments { 13 }