Working Life

People complain a lot about Congress not working hard enough. For my money, and the money and pocketbooks of millions of people, I’d be happy to give the entire lot of them say a year off. Then, maybe, we could enroll them in an advanced political “recovery” program and wean them off this idiotic obsession with the non-existent debt and deficit crisis.

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    Really. When I read The New York Times editorials about the economy, or the truly shallow reporting from most of the paper’s reporters, often I think: the people at The New York Times actually are dolts. They don’t understand economics–at all. But, more often, it’s worth considering–they actually believe what they write, even if [...]

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    I could blame Joe Lieberman for deciding to take a week off starting Monday but it would be unfair. I’m doing that for other reasons–my computer will be, intentionally, in a different place for that week.    But, reading this crap reminds me why it will be good riddance when Lieberman rides off into [...]

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   If this is true, Obama is done: The parties are looking for ways to include smaller tax increases than Democrats had previously sought but more than Republicans want. In addition, Democrats last week proposed keeping upper-income tax rates at 35%, the level set in the Bush-era tax cuts.    And it’s absurd at the [...]

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   Billions of dollars can buy you a lot–for example, a little toy called New York City that you pocket for yourself and, then, keep for yourself even when the rules say it’s time to go (hey, if you’ve got billions, you can buy off politicians to let you keep the toy for a little [...]

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    The people are there. Not surprisingly. If the politicians could get their hands out of the pockets of their contributors, we’d have some progress. All the way from the Financial Times: A poll released on Monday by Quinnipiac University found 61 per cent of registered New York City voters supported extending the state’s surcharge, [...]

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  Let’s see. You’re an editorial board member of the vaunted New York Times. You get paid a lot. Is there at least an expectation that you get your facts right? I know–rhetorical question. It happens every day but sometimes there are just whoppers that need correcting–because they do make a difference. In today’s editorial [...]

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    I am continuously amazed by the reverence accorded company bosses. Put aside the incompetent ones, who get huge severance packages when they leave, or those who have looted their companies of tens of millions of dollars in pay and benefits, even when the companies lose money or collapse. I’m talking about even the ones [...]

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    I often fear I am going to be injured–a victim of the adult "shaken head" syndrome. It’s the syndrome I think many of us are afflicted with–you wake up every day and read some stupid-ass comment or proposal by political leaders of both parties and…you shake your head. I’m telling you, it’s dangerous.   [...]

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    So, sometimes, you wade into a fight that just isn’t fair. Here is one of those fights on economic policy–one that boils down to a massive scam on the part of Flagless Corporate-Land aimed at ripping off those of us who still pay taxes. And this is a scam that is being aided and [...]

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  A number of people–including your truly–have been making the point for a long time that there is no debt and deficit "crisis". The problem is that there is a bi-partisan obsession with the phony "crisis", helped by the transcribers of press releases (formerly known as "journalists") that has drowned out any rationale discussion–a discussion [...]

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   Yee Haw! Some sense. Those questions reflect a common refrain of businesses, their lobbyists and supporters in Washington, who complain that too much regulation is stifling the economy. In both cases, Mr. Obama responded that farmers might be hearing unfounded rumors. “If you hear something is happening, but it hasn’t happened, don’t always believe [...]

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   In the list of really annoying habits of the bi-partisan obsession with the phony debt and deficit "crisis" is the inability, or the ideological desire to willfully refuse, to do simple math. Because if you did simple math, then, you cannot be FOR cheaper government without being FOR single-payer health care. Put another way, [...]

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   There are days when I would just rather be a sports reporter. Today is one of those days. Sports news repeats itself–but every day there is a new twist. Scores may be the same–but how a baseball game ended up 3-2 will always have a different make-up.     Not politics, though–or at least the [...]

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    I am perplexed by the storm of criticism leveled at Standard & Poor’s. Don’t get me wrong–that S&P, or any of the ratings agencies, is even taken seriously is a monumental farce, given their role in the financial crisis.   But, we’re missing the point:   It is a mistake to solely blame the [...]

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    Sometimes numbers are a bitch. Because they expose ugly truths that we either choose to ignore or don’t understand. We better get this one straight in the next few months or the bi-partisan cuts just shoved down the throats of the American people will pale in comparison to what will come post 2012.    [...]

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