"This was the voice of moderation until 13 Sept, 2025"
by Jacob Davies Via Mark Thoma, the USDA reports that 42.9 million Americans collected food stamps last month, or 14% of the US population. In 2001, the number collecting food stamps averaged (pdf) 17.3 million. Between 2001 and 2010, the US economy grew from $39,773 per-capita to $42,247 per-capita (both in 2010 dollars), or $2,474. … Read more
by Jacob Davies What do the two major parties in the United States stand for? What priorities do they put higher than anything else, so high that they are willing to compromise on things they really don’t like if that’s the only way to make it pass? Let’s see: Republican Party Democratic Party Tax cuts for households … Read more
by russell OK, looks like this is how it's going to play out: Bush-era cuts extended across the board for two years Unemployment benefits extended for 13 months Swapping 2% off of FICA for the "making work pay" tax rebate Reinstating inheritance tax as planned, but hold to 35% on estates over $5M Extending the Bush-era cuts on … Read more
Gary mentioned there had been no open thread for over a week. That's just wrong. We got your open thread right here. News in my world includes the amazing fecundity of my nieces (yay babies!), I still have a job (yay software!), and I'm almost done raking the yard (no yay). Spent last evening in … Read more
–by Sebastian I feel like I'm still sorting through my thoughts about WikiLeaks. So if this seems a bit contradictory, that may very well be because I'm of (at least) two minds about the whole thing. But it seems to me like the issue lacks balance. My pre-WikiLeaks initial thoughts on such issues were something … Read more
by Doctor Science
On Monday, zunguzungu posted a widely-linked and ground-breaking analysis of Julian Assange’s stated philosophy behind Wikileaks:
to summarize, [Assange] begins by describing a state like the US as essentially an authoritarian conspiracy, and then reasons that the practical strategy for combating that conspiracy is to degrade its ability to conspire, to hinder its ability to “think” as a conspiratorial mind. [bold mine]
by Jacob Davies Well, I sure complain a lot. But I'm an optimist – long-term, planet-wide – even if the day to day politics of the US are wearying. I also like visualizations, and this one describes why I'm an optimist: (5 minute video. If you're impatient, skip to a runthrough of the animation at … Read more
by Eric Martin This post from Economist Mom about the current dominance of pro-tax cut ideology raises several important points about the dearth of sensible tax policy debate in Washington, not the least of which has to do with the collective inability to grasp the nuances of marginal tax rates. In particular, she points out … Read more
by Jacob Davies The cables tell a tale of America being taken for a ride by Georgia’s President Saakashvili in 2008: A 2008 batch of American cables from another country once in the cold war’s grip — Georgia — showed a much different sort of access. In Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital, American officials had all but … Read more
by Jacob Davies I’ve been meaning to write something about the Wikileaks leak of diplomatic cables, but Tom Levenson at Balloon Juice pretty much sums up what I wanted to say: What I do know is that this leak is a reminder of what it means to live in a national security state. Not in … Read more