Politics Has Doomed Us

From Brian Beutler at TPM:

As the U.S. government and governments in Europe respond to the global economic slump with conservative austerity measures, it’s easy to forget that the overwhelming professional economic consensus is that depressed countries that can afford to should be doing the opposite — ramping up government purchases of goods and services and putting off the budget cuts and tax increases for a few years.

This isn’t even close to what’s happening. And as the space between what these experts think should happen and what global elites are actually doing grows, the experts’ forecast is becoming more and more pessimistic.

Nowhere was this gloominess more clearly worn than at a symposium hosted by the New America Foundation in downtown Washington Wednesday evening.

The event itself centered on an October paper called “The Way Forward” by Daniel Alpert, Robert Hockett, and Nouriel Roubini, which explained both the sources of U.S. economic woes, and what needs to be done to fix them. But the paper’s authors, and the expert panel they invited to discuss it with them, all agreed that American and European politics are so out of step with the proper diagnosis and treatment that the country is likely to hobble along for years — and could even experience another recession.

You can read the entire story at the link above.

9 December 2011

Congressional Republicans & the Deficit

There is telling folks that you believe in something and there is actually believing in something.  As I've mentioned before,Congressional Republicans say that they are interested in the national debt and lowering deficits.  They are not.  Honestly, they don't give two shits about either of these topics in and of themselves.  The sometimes care about them in relation to other items about which they actually care, but only care about them when they impact those areas.

Taxes, on the other hand, Congressional Republicans care a lot about.  A lot.  They will completely destroy the federal deficit if it means getting their way on taxes.  And getting their way on taxes, by the way, will always increase the deficit.  Always.

This post at TPM by Brian Beutler about the latest Republican efforts on the debt super committee illustrates this point handsomely.  And the killer point about our society is that the press doesn't cover it and Americans don't care.  I'm not sure which is the chicken and which is the egg in that model, but either way, Democracy gets the middle digit.

17 November 2011

Celiac Disease & Vitamin A

Here is an interesting blog post on recent research on vitamin A and celiac disease.

16 November 2011

Honey for the American Market

A new study about honey for sale on the American market is out.  You may not be buying what you think you are.

7 November 2011

The Math of Climate Change

A short read about a study that is another blow to skeptics of climate change.  The kicker?  This study was funded by the Koch Foundation.  That makes me giggle.

21 October 2011

24 October 2011 Addition:  Another read on this issue.

Taxes: the "Other 47 Percent"

From Brian Beutler at TPM:

Conservatives are continuing their counter-protest against the so-called "47 percent." Specifically, that's the share of recession-era households that pay no federal income taxes. Most of them pay payroll taxes and other federal taxes (not to mention state taxes), but Republicans have chosen to depict them as the free-riding half of the country.


The fact of the matter, though, is that those other taxes constitute a huge chunk of federal revenues. Check out the charts below. Over the 58 years preceding the Lesser Depression, the share of federal revenues that came from individual income taxes has remained fairly stable, fluctuating between 40 and 50 percent, and peaking just before George W. Bush slashed rates in 2001.

You can read the whole piece via this link.

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21 October 2011

Label GMO Foods

Credo Action has a campaign to submit public comments to the FDA in support of labeling requirements for genetically modified foods.  Not only are GMO foods more and more prevalent in America, but it would apprear that the FDA is about to approve a genetically modified animal for human consumption for the first time, a salmon.  Be afraid.

11 October 2011