Category: Economics
America’s Harvest Box: Socialism for Republicans
About a year ago, my friend Jennifer was mocking our current lack of school choice with this analogy to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP): …the system we have, wherein people are given food stamps to spend at whatever store they please, is FAR better than a system wherein poor people are only able to get food… Read more
The Dumbest Take Yet On the Whitefish Energy Scandal
I know I shouldn’t be picking on left-leaning goofballs (because they’re powerless these days, and all the damage is being done by the right) but Kate Aronoff at In These Times has written the dumbest thing I’ve seen yet about the Whitefish Energy scandal. The article is titled “Repulsed by Whitefish Energy? Maybe You Also… Read more
Free (Brewing of) Beer
Everybody seems to be making fun of Salon these days, and I think I’m beginning to understand why. Case in point: Marcy Wheeler’s post about the recent GOP debates, responding to some of Rick Santorum’s claims about insurance market consolidation under Obamacare: Santorum claimed to be a lot less worried about consolidation in the watery beer… Read more
Some Questions to Ask About Those New York Nail Salons
The New York Times has a fascinating story by Sarah Maslin Nir about conditions in New York nail salons. According to her, thousands of immigrant nail technicians are being exploited by salon owners. As if on cue, cavalcades of battered Ford Econoline vans grumble to the curbs, and the women jump in. It is the… Read more
It Helps To Get the Elementary Economics Right
One of the places I look for blog material is the Post Everything section at the Washington Post, and one of the regular contributors is Jared Bernstein, who bills himself as “former chief economist to Vice President Biden,” which doesn’t sound like the kind of employment you’d want to brag about. Anyway, Bernstein has a post… Read more