Tag Archives: politics

My mind goes back to 2008. I was recently tempted to ask why bad loans by banks are a public problem. I was tempted to say that the bank made the loan, so it is their problem. If enough debtors default that the bank fails, so what? Then I remember the very appealing logic of the argument that, while other banks are free to save Lehman if they choose, no public money should be involved. That didn’t work out very well. The tempting pure market let...

Prof. Heather Cox Richardson (substack.com) “Letters From An American,” January 31. 2022 There are more topics covered in yesterday’s Letter than I can list in the title. It is an interesting mixed bag of experiences we are enduring and what is being reported. I have also included the links below if you wish to do a deeper dive on each topic. It was yesterday, I had read and heard a C&L report featuring George Conway telling CNN trump...

Lambert at Naked Capitalism has an interesting article up as taken from KHN entitled “I Write About America’s Absurd Health Care System. Then I Got Caught Up in It” as detailed by Bram Sable-Smith. As taken from the KHN article, Bram describes the beginnings of his dilemma of getting Insulin: “I’d been waiting since September for an appointment with an endocrinologist in St. Louis; the doctor’s office couldn’t get me in until Dec. 23 and...

On the retirement of Justice Breyer: is this any way to run a country? Long long ago I remember reading that Justices William Brennan and Thurgood Marshall, both about 70 years old at the time, decided not to retire during the Presidency of Jimmy Carter, because he was not liberal enough, preferring to wait for the next, more left-wing Democratic President. Heh!   Liberals got lucky when, upon Brennan’s retirement in 1990, David Souter was...

WSJ reports Stocks rose broadly Thursday morning after the GDP report, but they retreated later in the day, with the Nasdaq falling 1.4%, the S&P 500 dropping 0.54%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average off 0.02%.Thursday’s report contained warning signs. Most of the growth owed to companies’ restocking rather than people and firms buying stuff. In part, the rise in inventory investment reflected a rebound from super-low inventory levels in...

Here is what Biden said about omicron in December: “We’re looking ahead to a brighter and happier December,” Mr. Biden said on Wednesday. He ticked through a list of actions by his administration that he said would help ensure fully stocked shelves in groceries and retailers through the holidays.Asked by reporters if he was worried that the Omicron variant, which officials announced later in the day had been detected in California, would threaten...

Thanks to Digby at Hullabaloo for posting the qualifications of President Joe Biden’s pick (Ketanji Brown Jackson) to replace justice Stephen Breyer Justice at SCOTUS. I’ll (digby) just lay out the qualifications of the presumed front runner for the job: Ketanji Brown Jackson: Fifty-one year old Ketanji Jackson fulfills a lot of requirements for the establishment set. She has the same Ivy League credentials as the sitting justices, having...

A few days ago, libertarian economist Donald Boudreaux published a photo of a woman sitting in an airport with some kind of bubble over her head.  He claimed that it illustrated how insanely risk averse some people are about COVID.  When some of his readers objected to this absurd propaganda, he responded as follows (my bold): You’re one of three people to object to my critical posting earlier today at my blog of a photo of a masked woman at the...

This drives me crazy.  From Alice Miranda Ollstein and Megan Messerly in Politico: Republicans are accusing the Biden administration of racism — against white people.The administration’s recommendation that race and ethnicity be considered when deciding who gets the limited supply of new Covid drugs is the latest political talking points with which Republicans are hammering Democrats, looking to energize their base ahead of the midterm...

Not sure why Democrats are so trusting with Republicans with Deal-Making. “The Senate is split 50-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking the tie. So far, so good, given past Senators have changed the rules for judicial nominees to get across the finish line with just 51 votes. The so-called nuclear option is meant as a last resort, but with the exception of Chief Justice John Roberts, none of the current conservative Justices cleared a...