Economy
Trying to figure out this Occupy thing? Right now, this seems to explain it the best (h/t):Remember this bit by Louis CK (thanks for reminding me, Will)? Protest song! …a sultan and student both have iPhone 4s…it’s not fair Overall, much of the logic seems to go something like this (h/t): ADDENDUM: I put this…
Megan McCardle looked at Netflix/Qwikster and explains how the problem is a business model over reliant on marginal cost pricing. It’s an object lesson that can be extended to, for example, health care costs. [P]eople were confusing the marginal cost with the average cost. Content providers were willing to license their movies and television shows…
Generational warfare: It’s bound to happen here in Rhode Island with the pension crisis. It’s also happening nationally on the budget deficit debate with the new Super Congressional panel set to convene. Education Policy wonk Rick Hess offers his perspective: You’re either with the kids or with those rushing to the ramparts to defend retiree…
William Jacobson makes an interesting point regarding the intersection of the economy and electoral politics: Workers giving up hope, thereby keeping the unemployment rate artificially low, is keeping Obama’s reelection hopes alive. If the headlines screamed that unemployment was 11.4%, even I might begin to believe [that the U.S.A. would not give Obama a second…
Solyndra is a manufacturer of solar panels–a green technology!–and was given half a billion dollars in loan guarantees by the Federal Government. Oh, and a major Obama donor, George Kaiser, was also a financial backer of the the company. Now it looks like they’re going under: A company that served as a showcase for the…
First, a chart and explanation from Investors Business Daily (h/t): Under President Obama, while the economy is struggling to grow and create jobs, the federal regulatory business is booming. Regulatory agencies have seen their combined budgets grow a healthy 16% since 2008, topping $54 billion, according to the annual “Regulator’s Budget,” compiled by George Washington…
This is precisely the thinking that has to end: The two-phase plan will require Obama to argue for spending more money in the short term while reducing the federal deficit over a longer period. Many economists support that combination, saying that cuts in spending should wait until the economy is stronger. But political strategists say…
The other day, I made reference to the possibility that having an economy calibrated to two-income households, rather than the one-income households that were once the norm, is a hindrance on entrepreneurial ventures. Yes, if one spouse’s attempt to create a business fails, the other spouse’s income remains, but in the current marketplace, both incomes…
Well, someday has come: Standard & Poor’s announced Friday night that it has downgraded the United States credit rating for the first time, dealing a huge symbolic blow to the world’s economic superpower in what was a sharply worded critique of the American political system. Lowering the nation’s rating one-notch below AAA, the credit rating…
Yesterday, I gave some thought to shifts in government policy and in American culture that may ultimately be behind our economy’s failure to recover satisfactorily. Much like the productive people who have been leaving Rhode Island because they’ve assessed that the opposition to needed reforms is simply too powerful, many Americans know what must be…