I've been too busy recently wrestling with Mr. Market to be able to put together long form pieces.  They would, in any case, be variations on a theme.  Today brings an analysis which comports with mine, and is a somewhat long winded exegesis, in line with what I wrote to the… Read full post »

Another dump-in essay.  Over at Seeking Alpha (a site which, 99.44% of the time, only says Good Things about shares) is an article on Pharma's patent cliff.  Naturally, I was moved to comment, and it's somewhat longer than what I've been purposely writing these days, so here it is.


Well, if… Read full post »

I'll start with the mantra of this endeavor:  you don't make an economy/society better by making the rich richer.  The Tea Baggers/supply siders/Hooverites/let them eat cakers continue to spew the "business and the rich shouldn't have to pay taxes and if they didn't Eden will spring up in e… Read full post »

There is an old comic, whose name I can't recall, who used the line:  "we grew up poor but unhappy".  What have I been telling you?  

Now, sort of mainstream press have figured it out.  The link credits a Right Wingnut with presenting the data.  I expect that academic economis… Read full post »

If it's Sunday this must be "Week in Review"; well, at least at the NY Times.  Whilst munching, I accomplished my weekly obligatory perusal, and found a Robert Shiller article, which discussed his Case/Shiller (why does he get all the media attention, when he was the junior partner?) index. … Read full post »

Every now and again I'll find a Famous Pundit making my argument on some topic of importance.  I've been writing rather a lot recently on the theme that the 1%-ers really do want a Depression.  My reasoning is simple:  Depression is deflation, and for those with hoards of cash (yes, GE… Read full post »

I was quietly minding my own business on Monday, when what should pop into my inbox, but an invitation to apply for a position of Data Analyst with the DNC.  I sure did.  What was odd about the process, from both sides, was that one had to offer a 300 word… Read full post »

There is the occasional writer I envy, not because I covet his/her "voice" or style or subject and such, but rather his/her access.  Joe Nocera has been "promoted" from the business page to the main op-ed page, and today talks with a Real Banker.  What's revealing, and you should always rea… Read full post »

There was a particularly vicious op-ed in yesterday's NY Times.  The author is an economics professor at Duke.  Of course he is.  I needed a day to cool off.

Here's his thesis:

"Strikingly, Shariah lacks the concept of the corporation, a perpetual and self-governing organization that can… Read full post »

Some times I just feel so tired I want to fall down.  Yesterday, whilst going to the grocery store to get more sugar, fat, and salt I caught a few minutes of "Marketplace" on NPR.  Even though it is NPR, it's not a lefty friendly show, generally.  The piece (only some)… Read full post »

Once again, Dear Reader, I begin with the observation that:  I've mentioned this a few times before in this endeavor.  What I've mentioned is that giving taxpayer money to welfare queen corporations is a fool's errand.  Today's installment is a story in the NY Times.  Once again,… Read full post »

Strictly speaking, UMass/Amherst isn't my alma mater, since that term is generally applied to one's undergraduate college.  But it was almost my undergraduate school, and it was where I did my graduate work.  In fact, at that time, it was the only University of Massachusetts, before "they"… Read full post »

OK, I said I wouldn't have any more to say about bin Laden.  But then, I read this Time piece, and it can't go unremarked.  It states that Obambi made a mistake in not giving credit to Bush.  Say what?

This is what Bush said (quoted here):
'I truly am not that concerned… Read full post »

I've only had one thing to say, and that's likely to be it, by posting a comment on a local blog early Monday morning.

What I said was, that by today (Tuesday, 3 May) the Right Wingnuts will further attempt to de-legitimize Obambi by spinning the offing of bin Laden as a… Read full post »

This story just appeared in the news.  It contains this wonderful quote:

Leprosy can't be spread through casual contact such as handshaking, or sexual intercourse.


So, just let your date know that casual means, well... casual.  You'll both be happy.  Ecstatic, even.  Look it up in a… Read full post »

Another re-cycled spleen venting.  This time, a letter to the editor at Bermuda's Royal Gazette.  The writer praised an essay by some (unidentified) high schooler, who praised the idea of Bermuda casting its future with casinos.  What follows is my reply.


It's very, very easy to overest… Read full post »

The Ku Kux Klan exists for a simple purpose:  to extract economic value from a majority for the benefit of a minority.  It happens that the majority is black folks and the minority is white folks in the South.  That the precursor to the KKK was slavery is, of course, not… Read full post »

Along with a lackluster initial claims, which rose some, we also got the PPI (Producer Price Index), which was up a tad, although nothing major.  Moreover, the "core" number was downright laggard.

Here's the briefing.com description:
Excluding food and energy, producer prices increased a much mor… Read full post »

For those who haven't been singing along with the Tea Baggers and the religious Right Wingnuts, I'll take a moment to remind y'all of one of their primo arguments against Science:  only God could create an organ as complex as the eye, so therefore the Bible is literally true, all of… Read full post »

The tea baggers, in the person of John Boehner mostly, are whining that the rich pay too much tax, and the poor get too much services.  As they always do.  The counter example is always Alaska, home of the Tea Baggers, and blessed with the highest per capita Federal largess.

So I… Read full post »

The monthly data is out, and the non-farm payrolls are a bit better than expected.  Two flies, that have so far gone unremarked:  government jobs continue to be scorched, mostly state and local, of course, so the poor states will get poorer by way of the negative multiplier; and earnings ar… Read full post »

I sit here doing my various things, all the while listening to that hated Liberal NPR, usually the station at Sacred Heart University, which as its name implies, is associated to the RC church; after watching that fat guy on "60 Minutes" last night, the right wing agenda of the RC… Read full post »

Scott Walker has done a Hitler.  For those who've forgotten, Germans elected Hitler on the theme that a minority was the source of all its economic problems.  Walker did the same.  Now, he's put Wisconsin's economy in the tank, and handed the 1%-ers even more wealth.

The unions negotiat… Read full post »

Tie me up, Buttercup!  Well, lock me out Rex Stout!!!  The stomach churning that is the NFL and its players needs addressing, if only a little bit.  Long, long ago, when I was paid to be an economist, I had a look at public financing of private facilities.  Primary among these… Read full post »

Say it with me brothers, "Onward Christian soldiers!"

On more than one occasion, I've ranted about the subversive christian element in the US military.  It's been a while since the last bit of news, but here's a bute.

They're bound and determined to blow up the world in the name of Jeeeeeeeeesus!!… Read full post »