Author Archives: stevej

Aaron Carroll at the Incidental Economist: As the rhetoric heats up before the election, I’d like to give you a quick reminder* of why we needed (and still need) health care reform: That thick red line is the United States.  … Continue reading →

I’ve got to get into the habit of reading Johnston more regularly — he is a goldmine of real data.  In this article, he asks a simple question: What percentage of wealth in America is owned by the poorest 40 … Continue reading →

In another excellent article on tax.com, David Cay Johnston reports on new wage data released by the Social Security Administration. Every 34th wage earner in America in 2008 went all of 2009 without earning a single dollar, new data from … Continue reading →

Baby-sitting the economy. – By Paul Krugman – Slate Magazine. Krugman says this story changed his life.  It certainly changed the way I look at inflation.  Follow the “quite obvious” link at the end and you will find out why … Continue reading →

What Happened to Change We Can Believe In? – NYTimes.com. Good column by Frank Rich, with some useful links.

“One More Time with Gusto: Tax Cuts Do Not Pay for Themselves” (from the Economist’s View) Some Republican Senate candidates have suggested that extending the Bush tax cuts … will actually be good for the country’s bottom line, as the … Continue reading →

The Incidental Economist is looking at our health care system in depth.  In two ten-part series, the author (who is actually a physician) looks into what’s behind results that have been well reported — that we are first in cost … Continue reading →

I missed this back when it was originally published — and I didn’t have this blog.  From the  New York Times”

Mary C. Daly, vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank  of San Francisco presents this detailed, but discouraging assessment of what we can look forward to if no further stimulus is applied.  The original is here: FRBSF Research: FedViews. A … Continue reading →

Why Have Deficits Exploded? – NYTimes.com. Not because of a surge in government spending, but because revenues have collapsed.