One Person One Vote Died a Year Ago today

In an important landmark case Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533 (1964), the Supreme Court established one of the most significant voting rights rulings impacting our Republic since the enfranchisement of woman and the election of U.S. senators by popular vote. Both of these occurred earlier in the century.  Basically, Reynolds v Sims established the [...]

What’s our Return Policy?

State of Disbelief sent me this link earlier today.  I very rarely  just post some one else’s stuff outright, but this column by Ted Rall is just is beyond belief.  I’m looking forward to her comments and background work over on The Confluence later, hopefully, today.[UPDATE:  LINK] But right now, I’m pretty speechless.  Let’s just [...]

The Wrong Right Wing Stuff

I inadvertently stepped on a right wing meme back last September when I implied that Fannie and Freddie did their share in contributing to the current financial meltdown. I used figures to show that the problems in the mortgage market were occurring equally in the subprime as well as the prime market. What happened is [...]

Vat tu, Barack?

Yesterday’s Washington Post featured an article proclaiming “Once Considered Unthinkable, U.S. Sales Tax Gets Fresh Look”.
With budget deficits soaring and President Obama pushing a trillion-dollar-plus expansion of health coverage, some Washington policymakers are taking a fresh look at a money-making idea long considered politically taboo: a national sales tax.
Common around the world, including in [...]

Hyperventilation on Hyperinflation?

I’ve taken a much needed break from economics and I’m ready to ease back into the research groove. I’m still focused on currency exchange and things related to the monetary policy so I thought I would bring up one of the current global concerns. Will the incredible amount of expansionary Monetary Policy combined [...]

Who is Harshing our Memorial Day Weekend? Better yet, WHY?

I was going to try to take a breather and stick to spring cleaning and cocktailing this weekend.  The rest of the world evidently doesn’t know it’s the official start of the US summer!  I suppose one of the things about blogging is its ability to play to the obsessive streak that probably exists in [...]

A Deadly Unwind

My dad was a small town Ford dealer (Council Bluffs, IA). Dad was fortunate enough to have a very rich mentor that put him into the dealer development program when I wasn’t even walking and so we moved to what I still believe is the middle of no where and put down roots. I [...]

Women and the Great Recession

A colleague of mine sent me a link to the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College where they do a lot of research on Gender Equality and Economic Issues. The Institute’s Rania Antonopoulos has just released a very interesting study on The Current Economic and Financial Crisis:
A Gender Perspective. It is an interesting addition to [...]

Social Security: Reform, Refund, or Opt Out? (Part 4)

The aging burden is upon us and solutions are required quickly.  People are living longer.  There are three responses households face: consume less and save more when young, consume more and have lower monthly benefits when older, or work longer.   They should make these decisions with a combination of their own savings and employer savings [...]

Social Security: Reform, Refund or Opt-Out? (Part 3)

Lessons from the World
One of the most interesting things about the large number of countries reforming their public pension programs is how dissimilar many are to the United States.  A large number are in Latin America or are Asia countries that are not experiencing the demographic challenges faced by the United States.  Instead, they reform [...]