Friday, July 17, 2009
The Next Crisis
Krugman worries about the financial industry and the next crisis. I worry that the next crisis is already here, or at least slowly sneaking up on us. Commercial Real Estate is going to bring more institutions down....
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Have I Mentioned Yet How Stupid Dennis Prager Is?
I would regret it if I didn't take this opportunity with a soapbox to crib from my own recent archives and point out how stupid Dennis Prager is. Here's the quick background.
I listen to a rightwing podcast that is often just an hour of Prager's radio show. He's a big "Fair Tax" proponent, big enough that you would assume he's actualy figured out what it is. So Hugh Hewitt was on his show, and well, Dennis Prager makes him look like Marie Curie.
I listen to a rightwing podcast that is often just an hour of Prager's radio show. He's a big "Fair Tax" proponent, big enough that you would assume he's actualy figured out what it is. So Hugh Hewitt was on his show, and well, Dennis Prager makes him look like Marie Curie.
Hewitt: Let's cover this 23, 30% divide Dennis. If we can. If I want a dollar for a pencil at the end of the transaction, I make a pencil I want to have a dollar in my pocket, I'm going to have to charge $1.30 under the Fair Tax plan. Do you call that a 23% tax or a 30$ tax?I think even Joe the Plumber has got that part figured out...
Prager: Ok. I have mulled this thing over, and over, and over, and I don't know of much in life where truly the way one phrases the question gives you a different response. That's one way of stating the statement. The other is I charge a dollar for a pencil and you pay me 23%, therefore you are in fact going to pay $1.23 for the pencil. That is 23%.
Hewitt: But the Fair Tax would operate this way. They would charge you $1.30 for that pencil. Under both my approach and their approach it's $1.30. They say that 30 cents is 23% of $1.30, and therefore it's a 23% tax. I say that America and the 45 states that apply sales taxes all calculate and find sales tax based upon the percent applied to get to the final number.
Therefore, if we're looking for clarity in the public space, if we want the public to understand what is being proposed, we should call it a 30% sales tax because that's how American's talk about sales taxes.
Pointing Out the Obvious
I've waited a long time for health care reform to be at the top of the agenda. Now that congress is finally addressing the issue, politicians on both sides of the aisle are focusing most of their time talking about the cost of reforming our system. Democrats for health care reform are pointing out how much money it will save the country as a whole while the Republicans are pointing out how it will drive our country deeper into debt. I get that both sides are trying to win the messaging war by saying that their health care stance is more fiscally responsible. The truth is most Americans know the reality of the system quite well.
The reality is if you get real sick, no matter if you're insured or not, you're probably financially fucked.
The reality is if you get real sick, no matter if you're insured or not, you're probably financially fucked.
Really Not Important
But I have a bit of an obsession with the number of local sports franchise team members who live in the 'burbs. Voorhees?
Studies Say What I Want Them to Say!
A common phenomenon in right-blogistan. Even more common than its cousin, "any new rearrangement of debunked arguments constitutes a new and devastating study."
Also.
Also.
Quote of the Day?
Linda Chavez, testifying at the Sotomayor hearings:
"I testify today not as a wise latina woman."Well I think we can all agree on that...
Surely Not Joking
Microsoft has put the Richard Feynman Messenger Series of lectures online, and they're pretty amazing to watch. I'd never actually seen video of a Feynman lecture, but I've had a soft spot for him for a while. When I graduated high school, my physics teacher, who I liked a lot, gave me an old set of the Feynman Lectures on Physics she found cleaning out a lab closet, and I credit Feynman's books with drawing me into the sciences in the first place.
They're entertaining on a number of levels, and you probably won't even get in trouble for watching them at work!
(via the borg)
They're entertaining on a number of levels, and you probably won't even get in trouble for watching them at work!
(via the borg)
Getting Fleeced By Ben Stein
The NYT should care. Perhaps if we set up a blogger ethics panel it'll all make sense.
Journamalism
I normally don't cheer on the death of "journalism,"but the AP's national political coverage can't die soon enough.
Still Looking For That Bottom
Maybe it's over here somewhere...
July 16 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. foreclosure filings hit a record in the first half, a sign that job losses and falling property prices deepened the housing recession, according to RealtyTrac Inc.
More than 1.5 million properties received a default or auction notice or were seized by banks in the six months through June, the Irvine, California-based seller of default data said today in a statement. That’s a 15 percent increase from the year earlier. One in 84 U.S. households received a filing.
Mission Accomplished
And the governator terminates the state.
LOS ANGELES — California lawmakers neared a deal on Wednesday with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to close the state’s $26 billion budget gap in ways that would profoundly alter the state’s relationship with its cities and millions of residents who receive basic services.
Details emerging from the talks suggested that the deal would require extraordinarily deep cuts to school systems and local governments, and, while far smaller than the governor threatened a month ago, substantial cuts to health care and other social services.
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