tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56670042012-02-16T07:25:57.862-05:00Occasional assortment of economic and political observations.Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.comBlogger451100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1269040535331801402007-10-08T10:01:00.000-04:002007-10-08T11:03:09.942-04:00

...But they are on top of the great lapel pin flap. In a probing analysis of the candidates' stance on lapel pins, The NYT Political Blog gives us close ups of the lapel pins each candidate is wearing. Surely our selection of President rests on what kind of lapel pin he or she is wearing. This is an issue far more important than any other, so you'll excuse them I'm sure if they lose track of

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-75813822830221849822007-08-23T10:48:00.000-04:002007-08-23T11:04:40.587-04:00

The New York Times reports yesterday that average incomes in 2005 were still less than they were in 2000, despite 4 years of the Bush "recovery". Citing newly published IRA data, The Times shows that 2005 average income was $55,238, while 2000 income, adjusted for inflation, weighed in at $55,714, a drop of $476 or 0.9%. This marks the very first time since World War II that incomes failed to

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1928455604595201152007-07-15T08:17:00.000-04:002007-07-15T08:55:10.492-04:00

Bill Moyer's Journal has possibly the most important discussion found on TV this century so far: a discussion of impeachment with conservative Bruce Fein and progressive John Nichols. As a constitutional law scholar, Fein helped draft the impeachment articles against Bill Clinton and has long been a fixture at right wing think tanks and media outlets. Nichols is Washington correspondent for the

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-67909672608033099942007-06-24T06:04:00.000-04:002007-06-24T06:11:56.373-04:00

I've tried to keep this blog around for occasional original content, rather than more frequent links to cool stuff laying around the tubes of the internets. However, this analysis from the Existentialist Cowboy merits special attention. The connection between oil, Republican administrations and the rise of terrorism is nailed:"So much so that one would think GOP regimes cause terrorism."Must

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-49153726951799610732007-05-04T08:04:00.000-04:002007-07-06T14:17:43.766-04:00

I might be deleting this post if I'm wrong.The monthly jobs report is due out in about a half hour. Consensus is calling for a gain of about 100,000 new jobs created in the month of April. Atrios takes over/under bets shortly beforehand just for fun. This month he predicts the report will come in below consensus predictions. Usually that's a safe position, but this month I think I'll take the

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-91745152475540906422007-04-08T14:57:00.000-04:002007-04-08T15:19:07.368-04:00

The Great Global Warming SwindleThat's the film aired in the UK recently purporting to show that Global Warming was a total fraud perpretated on the public by, er, well, the entire scientific community of a bazillion countries. I urge everyone to look at this video, for it represents the last gasp effort of the global warming deniers to make their case. It has all the tricks, sophistry, straw

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-77659114149014510162007-03-09T23:40:00.000-05:002007-04-08T16:40:22.744-04:00

Every now and then we run across a column, or post, or letter that is so off the wall, so barking mad crazy as to defy rational response. The cognitive dissonance we feel is usually due to the strength and mass of the opaque mental constructs of the ideologically extreme. Facts do not obscure the right winger's view of these constructs. Neither do written words. No, the hard right winger see what

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-60785451408838403982007-01-22T11:50:00.000-05:002007-04-08T16:41:16.961-04:00

There's a meme going around today at Kos, TPM and the LA Times raising the spector of an "unnatural aristocracy" should Sen. Hillary Clinton be elected to President for two terms. If that should happen, then a Bush or a Clinton would have been President for 28 years.What strikes me as odd is why the hubbub now, with 10 of those 28 years the subject of future speculation? Where was the hand

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1163136679525429092006-11-10T00:19:00.000-05:002007-04-08T16:41:46.510-04:00

Now that the Democrats have taken control of Congress, hundreds of GOP Congressional staffers are now in a mad scramble for employment. "The hundreds of Republican staffers — not to mention more than a few Members — who will lose their jobs in the next few weeks are going to face a hostile marketplace on K Street as unemployed Republicans flood the market."I really feel their pain. Really. That

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1162747085426128812006-11-05T12:01:00.000-05:002007-04-08T16:42:18.799-04:00

So Saddam Hussein has been found guilty of genocide against Kurds in 1982. Shock and surprise. How many of the 101st Fighting Keyboarders will now use that as justification for the Iraq War? Never mind that the US had no problem with Saddam's genocide at the time. That famous picture of Donald Rumsfeld shaking Saddam's hand took place about a year later, long after we knew full well what went

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1158372679185828742006-09-15T22:01:00.000-04:002007-04-08T16:42:39.554-04:00

Take a look at our intrepid House of Representatives Armed Services Committee web page.They've got a plan for Iraq! In fact, they've got an organized "Victory In Iraq" Caucus all set up and working to ensure our... well... Victory in Iraq!Scroll down the page a little to the "Victory In Iraq Caucus" link for further details on all the excitement! I don't know about you, but I feel SO much better.

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1158368490940858372006-09-15T20:57:00.000-04:002007-04-08T16:43:12.202-04:00

All right, I've tried to resist this for a long time. I really didn't want to do it. Well actually, I did. Here goes:We Told You So. We Were Right. You Were Wrong.The Iraq War is a devastating, bankrupting, economy destroying disaster. Each time you fill your tank up with $2 to 3+ gasoline, remember that:We Told You So. We Were Right. You Were Wrong.You don't remember that we warned you before

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1133115544701288582005-11-27T12:55:00.000-05:002007-04-08T16:43:46.225-04:00

(Here's the post I spoke of in my last entry.)The Truth Laid Bear wants all good bloggers to support a bill put forth by a handful of conservative Republican Senators called "The Fiscal Watch Team Offset Package", This bill ostensibly offsets the costs of Hurricane Katrina with a bunch of Federal budget cuts to Medicare and a 5% reduction in all domestic spending. This is apparently a litmus test

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1133113352185289542005-11-27T12:36:00.000-05:002007-04-08T16:44:19.065-04:00

In the aftermath of a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration, I was poking around the blogosphere and came across a growing site called "The Truth Laid Bear", which styles itself as a "fully developed portal to the blogosphere". It's pretty impressive too, with something like 7K visits per day and close to 50,000 blogs registered as part of the "TTLB Ecosystem". OK, so I registered my small blog with

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1130719085828504892005-10-30T19:27:00.000-05:002007-04-08T16:44:46.305-04:00

First, some perspective. Pictured here are some day laborers working on construction of the Hoover Dam in 1932.These men were part of a corps of 5,000 men paid 50 cents an hour to do the dirty unskilled labor that created the magnificent dam over 5 years of hard dangerous work. Those who got that 50 cents an hour considered themselves lucky, as wage rates were depressed by the height of the Great

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1128270841068797812005-10-02T12:23:00.000-04:002007-04-08T16:46:38.772-04:00

Reality is an inconvenient thing sometimes. In the polarized atmosphere of today's politics, reality is often hard to come by. Everyone has their spin, their set of facts and warping of same. Because of this, no one trusts what the other side is saying, and perhaps rightly so. That's why I like to get back to basics and simply rely on hard primary data that no one can dispute or question. So when

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1127364050165759412005-09-22T00:26:00.000-04:002007-04-08T16:45:40.965-04:00

Finally. The Democrats are finding their voices. In the last two weeks we've been treated to four absolutely suburb analyses of what's wrong with the direction of the country. If the Democrats run on the platform elucidated by these folks, I will be proud of my party again.John Kerry on Bush's Response to Katrina, speaking at Brown University."Katrina is a symbol of all this administration does

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1126460695446802552005-09-11T13:22:00.000-04:002007-04-08T16:47:04.286-04:00

Will wonders never cease? A friend of mine pointed me to an article in the National Review criticizing the Bush Administration's response to Katrina. They were pretty enthusiastic. Unfortunately, they were blaming bureaucracy in general, as if the notion of a government agency included incompetence by definition, wrapping it up with: "Unfortunately, there is not much that can be done to make

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1125679646947701612005-09-02T12:32:00.000-04:002007-04-08T16:47:28.468-04:00

At first blush it seems unfair to lay the disaster of Hurricane Katrina on George Bush's doorstep. After all, who can stop hurricanes from going wherever they want to go? However, the Bush administration, and the longer term policies of those who support the Bush administration, have a lot to do with how bad the carnage and destruction really are.Failed: Protecting New Orleans from FloodingFirst

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1119206032332534452005-06-19T14:24:00.000-04:002007-04-08T16:47:45.882-04:00

Here's a challenge: Can anyone mention a single policy of George W. Bush's since he was installed as President that actually worked as advertised at the time? Anything? In any area?Ever wonder why this question is so tough? I think the answer is so obvious that no one notices it: Modern Republican ideology hates government. When Ronald Reagan was President, he proclaimed that government wasn't

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1114352909875710032005-04-24T09:57:00.000-04:002007-04-08T16:48:33.617-04:00

George Orwell once said: "We have now sunk to a depth at which re-statement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men." In our continuing series on Social Security, I decided to skip to the last myth to be busted:Myth #6: Social Security is a drag on the economy. (Reality: Social Security has been a mighty engine for U.S. economic growth in several different ways.)This is because in all

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1110209037849421822005-03-07T10:12:00.000-05:002007-04-08T16:48:54.917-04:00

Now let’s see. If I wanted to create a scenario where the long term collapse of Social Security would happen, how would I have to construct my economic models to predict such a collapse?Well since good economic growth will keep the system solvent for the next century or so, I’d have to erase that average annual 3.3% real GDP growth the USA worked hard to earn over the last 40 years. What would do

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1106755455716088342005-01-26T10:58:00.000-05:002007-04-08T16:49:16.066-04:00

Reflecting the seriousness and sober reflection undertaken by the right wing on Social Security, a coalition of conservative groups known collectively as the Arlington Group, is telling Karl Rove that they won't go along with the administration's Social Security destruction plans unless the Bush administration puts just as much emphasis on banning gay marriages.Huh?Never mind the total cognitive

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1103080132255656972004-12-14T21:48:00.000-05:002007-04-08T16:51:37.801-04:00

Number three in a continuing series.Myth #4: Social Security is a pension or an insurance plan. (Reality: Social Security is a social program, the only social program that is so well funded and secure that it will not need a dime of additional Federal taxes for decades.) We often hear of Social Security as a pension plan or an insurance plan. Comparing Social Security to private employer pension

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1102178086501208342004-12-04T11:07:00.000-05:002007-04-08T16:52:15.491-04:00

Today we debunk a couple more myths surrounding Social Security. We can tackle Myth #2 and Myth #3 at the same time, as they are two different facets of the same misconception. (Myth #1 and the introduction to this topic is here.) First though here’s a tip of the hat to a wonderful resource on the myths of the Social Security debate at the Center for Economic and Policy Research. These guys have

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1100538435308929962004-11-15T11:38:00.000-05:002007-04-08T16:52:41.821-04:00

Oh boy, here we go again.The alarm bells about the long term safety of Social Security have started anew. After basically keeping mum on the subject in the campaign, the Bush Administration is emboldened by their 51% victory to try once again to "fix" Social Security.Nowhere in political discourse is there more deliberate misinformation than in the Social Security debate. Nowhere is it more

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1099887936633192112004-11-07T23:16:00.000-05:002007-04-08T16:53:36.576-04:00

President Bush and his supporters are unabashedly crowing over their victory on election day. That's fine. They won. They step over the line when they claim a "mandate" for their policies though. Here's why: Bush's Narrow Victory: Bush's re-election vote was the lowest of any re-elected President since Woodrow Wilson in 1916. (Look it up at the USA Election Atlas) The power of incumbency is

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1099235261972802832004-10-31T10:02:00.000-05:002007-04-08T16:54:42.177-04:00

We've been having an interesting discussion with our friends at "The Dead Hand" blog about my assertions that Democratic administrations have a far superior record for economic growth than Republicans. Here's the record that's facing them:That's right. EVERY Republican administration since World War II experienced lower growth than the previous one. EVERY Democratic administration experienced

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1098898960033449832004-10-27T13:22:00.000-04:002007-04-08T16:55:02.068-04:00

OK what's it going to take? The few people who have yet to make up their minds between Bush and Kerry, apparently the starkest differences on every major political issue aren't enough to sort it all out and make your Presidential choice clear. So I've got an offer for you.How about some Cold Hard Cash? How about $1.3 Trillion Bucks? In previous blogs, I've shown how job growth is accelerated

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1096164833864615612004-09-25T21:50:00.000-04:002007-04-08T16:55:19.089-04:00

Haven't updated this blog in a while due to heightened work responsibilities and travel, but I wanted to revisit a prior subject because of some discussions that resulted mainly taking place in other blogs.Quite a few people criticized my earlier postings discussing how most of the jobs thought to be created in the last year and reported in the Bureau of Labor Statistics' establishment survey

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1096163399445075222004-09-25T21:37:00.000-04:002007-04-08T16:57:29.408-04:00

Haven't updated this blog in a while due to heightened work responsibilities and travel, but I wanted to revisit a prior subject because of some discussions that resulted mainly taking place in other blogs.Quite a few people criticized my earlier postings discussing how most of the jobs thought to be created in the last year and reported in the Bureau of Labor Statistics' establishment survey

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1088999647099815942004-07-04T22:56:00.000-04:002007-04-08T16:57:50.543-04:00

When does 77,000 actually equal 112,000? Only in the attempt to spin this month's jobs report into something remotely favorable to the Bush Administration. When we tuned in last month, the estimate for total nonfarm payrolls stood at 131.224 million. This month's nonfarm payroll estimate weighed in at 131.301 million, or 77,000 higher. But the announcement was made that 112,000 jobs were

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1088137766691953562004-06-24T23:59:00.001-04:002007-04-08T16:58:11.746-04:00

In previous blogs, I've raised the issue of how robust economic growth is strongly associated with Democratic Party control of government, and outlined how a Democratic administration typically stimulates job growth in contrast to how Republicans have approached the issue. Well the proof is in the pudding as they say. If the Democrats are better at job creation, then we should see it in

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1086918563028566952004-06-10T21:23:00.000-04:002007-04-08T16:58:33.064-04:00

John Crudele's jobs commentary in the New York Post caght my eye last month. He reported that a huge number of the new jobs being reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics were actually the imaginary invention of a statistical method known as "birth/death modeling". This model attempts to correct the notion that the employment figures don't account for jobs created by new businesses that

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1086565737949114482004-06-06T19:31:00.000-04:002007-04-08T16:58:56.423-04:00

In a recent blog I laid out the fact that economic growth under Democratic Party controlled administrations is significantly higher than under Republican administrations, at least for the last 52 years. Further, the highest average growth rates have occurred under Federal governments with a Democratic President and a House of Representatives controlled by Democrats. (Budget/finance bills

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1084028232491652022004-05-08T10:57:00.000-04:002007-04-08T16:59:20.677-04:00

I've been hanging on to this essay for awhile, feeling it was a little over the top. However, with the expanding revelations of torture, rape and murder in Iraq at the hands of military intelligence and mercenary led soldiers, as well as reports coming out of the notorious resumes (like affiliations with South African apartheid death squads among other things) of some of these crazoid

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1082430155499756832004-04-19T23:02:00.000-04:002007-07-05T00:28:17.882-04:00

What do the Lincoln Tunnel, the Holland Tunnel, the George Washington Bridge, the United Nations, the New York FBI Office, and the Los Angeles International Airport have in common?They are all standing today because, according to the 9/11 Commission's staff report, US intelligence and law enforcement agencies foiled terrorist plots to destroy them in the 90's during the Clinton administration.

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1081314883885365442004-04-07T01:14:00.000-04:002007-04-08T17:00:03.494-04:00

One of the typical responses to Resident Bush's disastrous jobs record from our good friends on the right is to call into question the ability of government to create jobs in the first place. "Employers create jobs, not government!" goes the mantra. Problem is that Federal government policies have a profound effect on job creation. That's how I came to assert such in a recent Yahoo forum

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1075008753390206382004-01-25T00:32:00.000-05:002007-04-08T17:00:23.601-04:00

Let's say we're at the Democratic Party convention. After a raucus primary and caucus season, the nominee is chosen. He gets up to give his acceptance speech. He shocks the nation with a bold and aggressive speech demanding action on multiple fronts: --National health insurance --A national low rent housing construction program --Raise the minimum wage --Increase direct Federal funding of schools

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1074143661498641352004-01-15T00:14:00.000-05:002007-04-08T17:00:57.254-04:00

It's become quite popular to brand Islam a backward and evil religion spawning all manner of violence and barbarity. Neocon pundits have pushed the idea of the "clash of civilizations" between the enlightened West and backward Islam.Over the holidays, I was fortunate enough to be able to relax at Myrtle Beach with my family. Walking along the beach on Christmas Eve, I looked up and saw Venus

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1070855683889749092003-12-07T22:54:00.000-05:002007-04-08T17:01:14.771-04:00

Supposedly, happy days are here again. Announcements of job gains, and a slight improvement in the unemployment rate, together with a bullish sentiment reading in a poll of manufacturers, has the major media gushing all over the Bush administration for solving the economic crisis. This is, to use James Kilpatrick's favorite word: "balderdash". I'm going to defer to Gene Sperling's excellent

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1064526244833933552003-09-25T17:44:00.000-04:002007-04-08T17:01:42.446-04:00

In last night's "debate", the latest chapter in the circus called the California Recall Campaign, one piece of substance was drowned out and eventually denied by the media noise and spectacle. Peter Camejo made the charge that California's poorest taxpayers pay a higher % of their income in state and local taxes than do the wealthy. Referring to figures produced by the California Budget Project

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1061823305013976402003-08-25T10:55:00.000-04:002007-04-08T17:02:08.622-04:00

The radical right is wasting no time in branding the Northeast blackout of 2003 the fault of "greens" preventing the construction of power plants. In a characteristic article making the rounds of the right wing blogs, boards and BBS's, J. Matthew Phipps declares: "Gone is NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard), to be replaced by the BANANA Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything...The recent

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1061178449374803862003-08-17T23:47:00.000-04:002007-04-08T17:02:27.542-04:00

Note: This article was originally written on October 1, 2000. The theme of the article, that more social spending by the Federal government creates higher economic growth (and vice versa) is actually the thing that got me backing away from the stock market in the summer of 2000. This article predicted a slowdown in economic growth based on the slowdown in social spending (as a % of the total

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667004.post-1060569883353738892003-08-10T22:44:00.000-04:002007-04-08T17:02:51.745-04:00

Welcome to my blog. I've established this blog to puncture as many political and economic myths as I can. Listening to what passes as the national discourse these days gives me the feeling that we have all fallen down Alice in Wonderland's rabbit hole. That's a good analogy I think, especially since I've gotten The Matrix out to watch again. Maybe when I publish this blog publicly I'll rename

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09808521274027308076noreply@blogger.com0