November 2009
46 posts
Notes on Natural Monopoly
Natural Monopoly A natural monopoly exists when economies of scale provide a large cost advantage to having all of an industry’s output produced by a single firm the source of this situation is one where there are large fixed costs ex. local utilities —water, gas, electricity, local phone, cable Breaking up a natural monopoly in such a situation (where one large producer has...
When the Republican far right wing is focused upon...
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—we need more moderate Republicans. Many of the problems we face in terms of getting things done, passing legislation, and fixing our budget issues as a state and a nation; all of these hurdles come for the most part from the Republican party having been taken over by ideologues who promote a far right agenda. Former Chair of the Henry...
links to recent Georgia news
The FDIC is tightening its reins on four Georgia banks More Georgians Hungry Water Task Force: New Reservoirs Won’t Work in Time Election Set for Legislative Seats PETA Asks UGA to Drop Bulldog Mascot Georgia Soldier Falls in Iraq Insurer to Terminate Grady Contract UGA Faces Pollution Penalties EPA To Decide On Stricter Air Standards for Rural Areas Performance statistics return focus to...
goodnight blog world...
“Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.” —Friedrich Nietzsche “A happy life consists in tranquility of mind.” Cicero “A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” George Bernard Shaw “Think of all the beauty still...
Ezra Klein: You can't cut the deficit without a...
Ezra Klein stating the obvious (but not so obvious to Republicans… why we need more moderate republicans!) David Broder has a column today expressing skepticism that health-care reform will really cut the deficit. But he doesn’t provide much evidence for the charge. The specific budget gimmick mentioned in the column is that Reid has delayed the subsidies “from mid-2013 to...
Give us fiscal austerity, but not quite yet:
Martin Wolf in the Financial Times: While the increase in the debt ratio is very large in both [Britain and the U.S.], the levels expected to be reached by 2014 are not historically exceptional, particularly for the UK…. [T]hose past record levels did not create insuperable problems. In the 19th century, both countries grew out of their debt satisfactorily, with price stability. In the...
Why Are Good Policies Bad Politics?
As many of you know—we’re trying to change this… but… Economist Brad Delong on good policy as bad politics: Those who claim that America has a debt problem, and that a debt problem cannot be cured with more debt, ignore (sometimes deliberately) that private debt and US Treasury debt have been very different animals – moving in different directions and behaving in...
Bashing Reagan on Social Security: Don't Go There
Bruce Webb over at Angry Bear News that the Republicans are pushing two bills that would establish a ‘Bi-Partisan Commission’ to ‘reform’ Social Security and Medicare are stirring up a debate which mostly had run cold. And one myth is bubbling back to the surface, the one that claims that Reagan simply used the Greenspan Commission to generate “huge...
Short Memories: Republicans and Civil Rights
Economist Brad Delong sends us over… Underbelly: Short Memories: Republicans and Civil Rights: Short Memories: Republicans and Civil Rights There’s a curious case of memory loss that seems to be afflicting both left and right this morning over the history of civil rights legislation. Link, (link). Start with Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina: Just as we were the...
Local Republican Leaders like to Call me the...
…because I put empirical research before “sounds good, feels good” policy. But I’m also the “face the facts” guy because I point out Fiscal Responsibility Requires Higher Taxes. As you may know… 2 + 2 = 4. Its not the politically expedient thing to do. And i’ll probably lose to a right wing ideologue. But I’m not in politics so that...
The Republican Do-Nothing agenda won't get...
Navigating the Jobs Crisis: What Workers Know about Recovery In 1940 Yale Professor of Economics and Director of Unemployment Studies E. Wight Bakke published a pair of volumes titled The Unemployed Worker and Citizens Without Work, reporting the results of a remarkable eight-year study of unemployed workers and their families in Depression era New Haven. Seventy years later, the study’s analysis...
Its about the deficit... the problem is created by...
The long term budget deficit has to be a top priority for lawmakers. Thats why health care reform is needed now. The problem is our two party system is broken. Our nation can’t pass good legislation when the only goal of one of the parties is to oppose. Its not a Democrat or Republican thing. Its a radical vs. pragmatic thing. George Bush Sr.’s approach in Iraq War I was...
update from Dad on the flooding in Philppines
My Dads place in the Philippines got flooded. Thats twice this year now! Here’s some of his update… Nick in Manila Back in Manila and swamped. It took them all day yesterday to get the mud out of the house. Now there’s a stench because, well, you know, septic tank contents (ours and everybody else’s) all floated in with the flood waters. Causes disease - which...
She's too fast for my camera phone. A ...
I’m thankful for a wonderful family that I miss dearly. And to my baby sister whom I never met your big brother loves you and can’t wait to meet you! Nick in Manila Izzy photo’s and a couple of Mikee (click the blue arrow). She’s too fast for my camera phone. A bunch were just blurs I deleted. This message was posted by Nick in Manila on FriendFeed. To comment,...
Obama's wrong turn in Afghanistan
What course we are staying on no one is quite sure of. Obama’s ‘Finish the Job’ Talk Sets Stage for Afghan Troop Surge President Obama plans to formally announce on December 1 his decision with regard to the request from some of his more ambitious generals for a massive troop surge in Afghanistan. But indications are that the president who was elected to set a new course for...
The radical liberal that wasn't...
Get Ready for the Obama/GOP Alliance Today, it’s crucial to ask where Obama is heading. From the stimulus to healthcare, he’s shown a Clinton-like willingness to roll over progressives in Congress on his way to corrupt legislation and frantic efforts to compromise for the votes of corporate Democrats or “moderate” Republicans. Meanwhile, the incredible shrinking...
How many citizens will die during the Health Care...
45,000 Americans die every year because they lack health insurance. If we don’t get control of health care costs like the rest of the industrialized world our budget deficits will swallow us whole—if we do, the deficits disappear. There is a lot of talking head spin on tv about the coming filibuster and entertainers pretending to be policy analysts are using fear and lies. ...
Republican hypocricy on fiscal responsibility
E.D. Kain: Bruce Bartlett is on fire. His entire Forbes column is worth reading, but this bit sums it up nicely: It astonishes me that a party enacting anything like the drug benefit would have the chutzpah to view itself as fiscally responsible in any sense of the term. As far as I am concerned, any Republican who voted for the Medicare drug benefit has no right to criticize anything the...
Fiscal Responsibility... some reality based...
You see and hear a lot of nonsense on the deficit in the press and from many politicians. Its a way to score political points the easy way— when you don’t share the priorities of the American public at large you have to use fear and misinformation. Its refreshing to read some reality based commentary… Fiscal Responsibility, part II in the three decades since the Republican...
A Philippine history of violence
Commentary by Victor Mallet in Financial Times on recent violence in Philippines: If it were not for decades of violence, Mindanao’s climate and scenery could make it as popular a tourist destination as Thailand, Bali or Malaysia (or the Philippine island of Boracay). I once attended a family wedding on an idyllic island off Davao and later climbed with my wife through tropical forest to the...
Manila declares state of emergency
Financial Times: The killing of at least 46 people in the southern Philippine province of Maguindanao on Monday could herald a surge in political violence as powerful clans exact revenge on each other while stepping up the fight for next year’s elections, local residents and analysts warned on Tuesday. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the Philippine president, declared a state of emergency in three...
Japanese exports boost growth hopes
Financial Times: Strong demand from China and other Asian economies helped Japanese exports, which last month fell at their slowest rate for a year, boosting hopes that the economy will continue to report healthy growth. In October, exports fell 23.2 per cent from a year earlier, compared with a 30.6 per cent decline in September, according to data released by the Ministry of Finance on...
Existing home sales jumped 10.1 percent in...
The first time home buyers credit—though having positive impact—for the most part simply pushed forward home purchases making October a good month. There is going to be further downward pressure on home prices. There is an oversupply of housing which is pushing down home prices and rental rates. As rental rates fall its likely that some landlords will be inclined to put houses on...
A Brief History of Socialist Plots to End the...
The sky is falling the sky is falling!!! Remember Obama isn’t a socialist to anyone with a decent education and you know.. the facts… gravity being 9.8 m/s^2 and all that…. some recent posts… Political Theory vs. Reality…. Obama is a socialist… Obama is a “socialist” (in as big and scary of a voice as I can muster…) Obama is a...
on the economic front
Recent posts… Please tell me it was just a political statement… Revenue and Health Care Costs… conservatives are roadblocks to fiscal sustainability… Why we need Health Care Reform—-the US Budget Deficit The US Deficit—What if we Nationalized our health care system and created Single payer system? Stimulus in action… Thoughts on the...
Labor in the news: St. Francis Hotel Workers on...
As research shows for the typical U.S. worker (in the middle of the national pay scale) unionization raises wages about 14%. For low-wage workers, unionization raises wages even more – about 21%. For more on economic impacts or unions you can check out the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Being in a union has given my wife opportunity and quality of life—not to mention a ticket...
The US Deficit--What if we Nationalized our health...
To expand on my US Deficit/Health Care Reform Thread…My friends on the left support nationalizing the health care system and creating a single payer system like Canada or the UK. A position which Obama and Democrat leaders wrote off from the start—another of oh so many examples that show how absurd the claim that the Democratic leadership are controlled by the liberal wing of their...
The US Deficit--What if we Nationalized our health...
To expand on my US Deficit/Health Care Reform Thread…My friends on the left support nationalizing the health care system and creating a single payer system like Canada or the UK. A position which Obama and Democrat leaders wrote off from the start—another of oh so many examples that show how absurd the claim that the Democratic leadership are controlled by the liberal wing of their...
Why we need Health Care Reform---the US Budget...
One of the top priorities of the Federal government over the long term is to cut the deficit. In fact one of the single biggest reasons I opposed the Bush tax cuts was that is took a US budget surplus and turned it into budget deficits leading the US Government to bring in less revenue that was currently committed to by the Federal Government. One of the key reasons I support health care reform...
Why we need Health Care Reform---the US Budget...
One of the top priorities of government over the long term is to cut the deficit. In fact one of the single biggest reasons I opposed the Bush tax cuts was that is took a US budget surplus and turned it into a budget deficits leading the US to bring less revenue that was currently committed to by the Federal Government. One of the key reasons I support health care reform is that the key source...
Stimulus in action...
Stimulus funds helping Camden schools An infusion of stimulus funding is helping Camden County schools stay afloat financially, saving jobs and programs. Because of its own budget problems, the state may reduce the more than $6.4 million it had planned to forward to the district, Superintendent Will Hardin said. So far, the district has received $2.6 million of the $3.7 million it was scheduled...
Thoughts on the stimulus...
Dough Henwood over at Left Business Observer writes… spending so far is quite small—about 1% of GDP has been actually disbursed and received. By contrast, the WPA during the 1930s spent about twice that much—and built thousands of schools, rebuilt thousands of hospitals, repaved 280,000 miles of road, etc. No one is even talking about anything like that now. And two, the spending by state...
Please tell me it was just a political...
So I’m headed over to midtown ATL to canvass for Kasim Reed and on NPR I hear Obama state that our long term deficits could push us into a double dip recession. It was a good thing I was sitting as I nearly fell over. This morning before work during my blurry eyed blog check i’m glad to see some sanity pointing out the problem with the claim… Economist Mark...
Fiscal Conservatives and "Conservatives"[sic]
Bookman on being a fiscal conservative… Politically, I’m a fiscal conservative as well. No, not a fiscal conservative as the GOP has tried to define it, but an actual fiscal conservative. I believe that in normal times the federal government ought to be raising as much in tax revenue as it spends, and spending no more than it brings in. (Note that these are not normal times.) The...
For those who don't want to increase government...
on things like extending unemployment benifits, jobs programs, and sending states money to help plug budget holes… here’s another option to ponder! Why the Federal Reserve should LITERALLY throw money out of helicopters The situation has a name in the economic jargon - a liquidity trap. An American – not a Japanese version of a liquidity trap – but a liquidity trap nonetheless....
Revenue and Health Care Costs... conservatives are...
“Mere parsimony is not economy…. Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part in true economy.” Economist Brad Delong on Budget Deficit… In the short term, we don’t have a deficit problem: as long as unemployment remains highly elevated—certainly as long as the unemployment rate stays above 7%—and as long as interest rates on U.S....
National Security... Republican ineptitude...
In a two party system you have to choose between one of the two major parties. When it comes to the national level I have leaned Democrat for many reasons—one of the biggest deciding factors has been on the question of national security. The nature of political bureaucracies and patronage means that no matter who is on top—the bureaucracies are filled with insiders who have worked...
I'll leave you with these thoughts for the...
“Only as we discover the extent to which secularism has colored our perspectives will we be able to hold out hope of coming to terms with the religious deception of our time.” —David Pacini “It’s a queer feeling to be so utterly dependent on the help of others, but at least it teaches one to be grateful, a lesson I hope I shall never forget. In normal life we...
On why we need more moderate Republicans...
As I’ve mentioned many times, I came to party politics distrusting and frustrated with both political parties but that I found the Democrats to have a bigger tent with a less ideologically driven agenda… (it goes without saying this was during the Bush era…) Former Chair of the Henry County Republican Party Charles Mobley posted a great example—legislating morality is...
Why socialism is utopian...
Came across a Rosa Luxemburg essay and this snippet reminds us why the socialist ambitions of the 19th-20th century failed… In a word: the workingman in a Socialist industrial state must show that he can work decently and diligently, without capitalists and slavedrivers behind his back: that of his own volition he can maintain discipline and do his best. This demands mental discipline,...
Gays aren't families...[sic]
A picture speaks a thousand words… “the gays aren’t families”???? I was reading an story on the repeal of the gay-marriage law in Maine this week This picture kind of ripped at my heart… and it brings up a separate question I’ve been wanting to address. Are homosexuals in long term monogamous relationships families? To many of you I’m sure...
good policy makers will always keep this in...
http://www.poemhunter.com/quotations/famous.asp?people=Edmund Burke&p=5 On Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 4:47 PM, Jim Nichols <jim.nichols@gmail.com> wrote: http://www.bartleby.com/24/4/2.html On Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 4:39 PM, Jim Nichols <jim.nichols@gmail.com> wrote: Mere parsimony is not economy…. Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part in true economy. Its a...
good policy makers will always keep this in...
http://www.bartleby.com/24/4/2.html On Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 4:39 PM, Jim Nichols <jim.nichols@gmail.com> wrote: Mere parsimony is not economy…. Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part in true economy. Its a pretty basic truism… its something I try to always keep in mind @JimN2010 when I’m looking at the challenges facing this state and smart policy....
good policy makers will always keep this in...
Mere parsimony is not economy…. Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part in true economy. Its a pretty basic truism… its something I try to always keep in mind @JimN2010 when I’m looking at the challenges facing this state and smart policy. Policymakers who don’t understand this tend to be reckless and/or radical… or radically reckless… or however...
Jon Stewart did a wonderful segment with...
Anna Baltzer & Mustafa Barghouti Extended Interview Pt. 1 Exclusive - Anna Baltzer & Mustafa Barghouti Extended Interview Pt. 2 Jon Stewart is on the cutting edge of bringing real news, addressing real issues, and exposing media/political hypocrisy… add the middle east to his level headed analysis and efforts… Jon Stewart Creates Sea Change on Middle East Coverage ...
annual growth versus annual changes in the...
I posted on stimulus early this morning before work… Here is scatterplot via economist Paul Krugman to remind us why more money to do things like extend unemployment, patch holes in state budgets to fill in for declining revenues, and other efforts to keep the economy on life support is vital: Free Exchange blog over at The Economist magazine chimed in on Krugman’s chart Third...
