Category: Economy

Is Republican primary about to enter elimination stage?

Posted by dcrim – November 9, 2011

A look at politics and poverty while we ponder who will reach a new deal first: The NBA and its players or the Quincy School District and its teachers?

The Republican presidential candidates will square off tonight in Michigan in a CNBC debate on the economy, and Alexander Burns of Politico notes that they will no longer be trying to make a first impression. Instead, Burns writes, the GOP primary is about to enter the elimination round with about two months to go before the Iowa caucuses. Click here for the story.

Dorothy Rabinowitz of the Wall Street Journal writes that Newt Gingrich, left for dead months ago, can still win the GOP nomination.

Whoever his competitors are in Iowa and beyond, Mr. Gingrich faces a hard fight for the nomination. His greatest asset lies in his capacity to speak to Americans as he has done, with such potency, during the Republican debates. No candidate in the field comes close to his talent for connection. There’s no underestimating the importance of such a power in the presidential election ahead, or any other one.

His rise in the polls suggests that more and more Republicans are absorbing that fact, along with the possibility that Mr. Gingrich’s qualifications all ‘round could well make him the most formidable contender for the contest with Barack Obama.

Click here for the entire story.

A Washington Post/ABC News poll released today shows that most Americans see an increasingly large gap between rich and poor, and want the federal government to intervene in an attempt to address the disparity.

A happy 76th birthday to Bob Gibson, the greatest right-handed pitcher of all time (at least in my book). And Whitey Herzog turns 80 today.

Americans concentrating on restoring values, rebalancing

Posted by dcrim – October 18, 2011

Conservative columnist David Brooks of the New York Times has an interesting take on the restoration of America.

While the cameras surround the flamboyant fringes, the rest of the country is on a different mission. Quietly and untelegenically, Americans are trying to repair their economic values. … Quietly but decisively, Americans are trying to restore the moral norms that undergird our economic system

Click here for the story.

Jeff Zeleny and Ashley Parker of the New York Times write that Mitt Romney is clearly the GOP frontrunner, but it will be a long race.

He has consistently outperformed the rest of the Republican presidential field in debates. He has built a powerful fund-raising machine. He has rolled out one big-name endorsement after another. He has avoided being drawn into distracting sideshows or becoming rattled by his opponents. But a word of caution about calling Mitt Romney the inevitable nominee. He is now going to be tested in a more serious way.

Click here for the story.

Bill Bennett says Republicans are looking for a new kind of candidate in 2012. Click here.

Some of the most dubious things presidential candidates say

Posted by dcrim – October 11, 2011

The Washington Post and Bloomberg News are sponsoring an economics-focused debate among the 2012 Republican presidential candidates tonight at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. In preparation for that debate, the news organizations produced three videos that examine some of the most common sound bites used during previous debates — and what’s factually wrong with them. The videos cover three distinct areas. Click here to view.

How some GOP candidates can remain relevant for 2012

Posted by dcrim – September 22, 2011

Matt Latimer of The Daily Beast offers some suggestions for how members of the Republican second tier — everyone except Mitt Romney and Rick Perry — can make their precious moments on camera sparkle tonight in yet another presidential debate. Click here for the story.

In case you were wondering, Bill Gates is still the richest American. For the complete list of the top 400, click here.

Doctors’ fees linked to higher health care costs in U.S.

Posted by dcrim – September 19, 2011

Research conducted by two professors of public health at Columbia University clearly illustrates what should be obvious about the disproportionately large percentage of the U.S. economy — 16 percent — that goes to health care: We spend more in the United States for doctors’ services because U.S. doctors charge higher prices than doctors in other countries. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch explores the issue in this editorial.

On hurricane hype, root of economic crisis and Dick Cheney

Posted by dcrim – August 31, 2011

Howard Kurtz of the Daily Beast echoes my sentiments on the cable TV coverage of Hurricane Irene last weekend.

Brian Domitrovic writes in Forbes that we should not be mired in economic malaise today; rather, we should be enjoying a fourth decade of prosperity on the heels of the roaring 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. He points to what caused the decade of decline.

Time magazine says former Vice President Dick Cheney is rewriting a little history in his just-released memoir.

Buffett: Mega-rich should be paying their fair share

Posted by dcrim – August 16, 2011

Warren Buffett, chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, knows a thing or two about making money. And he has a message for the 12 members of Congress who will soon take on the crucial job of rearranging our country’s finances: Stop coddling the super-rich.

Writes Buffett in an op-ed piece for the New York Times:

While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks. … These and other blessings are showered upon us by legislators in Washington who feel compelled to protect us, much as if we were spotted owls or some other endangered species. It’s nice to have friends in high places.

Buffett said he paid just shy of $7 million in federal taxes last year, which he admits was only 17.4 percent of his taxable income – well below the rate of most Americans.

Buffett notes that the IRS has compiled data from the returns of the 400 Americans reporting the largest income since 1992. In 1992, the top 400 had aggregate taxable income of $16.9 billion and paid federal taxes of 29.2 percent on that sum. In 2008, the aggregate income of the highest 400 had soared to $90.9 billion — a staggering $227.4 million on average — but the rate paid had fallen to 21.5 percent.

Buffett also debunks the popular theory (in some political circles, at least) that higher taxes will mean fewer investments and, therefore, fewer jobs.

I have worked with investors for 60 years and I have yet to see anyone — not even when capital gains rates were 39.9 percent in 1976-77 — shy away from a sensible investment because of the tax rate on the potential gain. People invest to make money, and potential taxes have never scared them off. And to those who argue that higher rates hurt job creation, I would note that a net of nearly 40 million jobs were added between 1980 and 2000. You know what’s happened since then: lower tax rates and far lower job creation.

Click here for the full article.

Time for U.S. to get serious about fixing economy

Posted by dcrim – August 5, 2011

The Labor Department reported this morning that employers added 117,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate dipped to 9.1 percent. The mild improvement may ease investors’ concerns after the Dow Jones industrial average plummeted fell nearly 513 points Thursday, its biggest decline since December 2008.

Bloomberg reports that more than $4.4 trillion has been wiped out from equity market values worldwide since July 26, and all of 2011 stock gains have been erased. The bleak news prompted many analysts to warn that there’s a 50-50 chance the United States will slip into another recession this year.

Nate Silver points out that America has hit a wall. Its long-term growth trend faltered at the end of the last century and has flatlined and then collapsed in this one.  It is not as bad as the Great Depression, but it is the next worst thing.

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman suggests that to turn this disaster around, a lot of people are going to have to admit, to themselves at least, that they’ve been wrong and need to change their priorities, right away.

The point is that it’s now time — long past time — to get serious about the real crisis the economy faces. The Fed needs to stop making excuses, while the president needs to come up with real job-creation proposals. And if Republicans block those proposals, he needs to make a Harry Truman-style campaign against the do-nothing G.O.P.

Read the full analysis here.

Art of compromise lost during cantankerous debt limit debate

Posted by dcrim – August 2, 2011

The Senate is expected to approve emergency bipartisan legislation later today to allow the government to borrow more. Speechwriter and author Michael Cohen, writing for Politico, laments that the months-long debate for raising the debt ceiling — once a formality — provides a glimpse of the death of effective politics.

What we have seen over the past few weeks is the continuing erosion of the notion that political compromise, the linchpin of our democratic system, is the key to effective legislating and policymaking. Hostage-taking has replaced deal making in Washington with potentially devastating consequences for the political system.

Click here for the entire analysis.

Fannie Mae: The scandal no one is talking about

Posted by dcrim – June 17, 2011

David Brooks of the New York Times writes that the Fannie Mae scandal is the most important political scandal since Watergate. It helped sink the American economy. It has cost taxpayers about $153 billion, so far. It indicts patterns of behavior that are considered normal and respectable in Washington.

Newsweek and the Daily Beast report that the financial disclosure report Rep. Paul Ryan filed with Congress last month and made public this week shows he and his wife, Janna, own stakes in four family companies that lease land in Texas and Oklahoma to the very energy companies that benefit from the tax subsidies in Ryan’s budget plan.

Buzz Bissinger writes that LeBron James does not deserve to be the most hated athlete in America.