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The Facts Are In and Paul Ryan Is Wrong

Fri, 10 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Magazine - By Jonathan Chait - May. 10 (News Analysis) - Changes in the way we think about the world are not “news” in the classic sense — they occur gradually, without discrete events to signal them. But they matter. Two such developments have come together recently, both reported in the New York Times. The f

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Reinhart, Rogoff Backing Furiously Away From Austerity Movement

Thu, 02 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Mark Gongloff - May. 02 (News Report) - Under steady attack after their seminal research was found to be riddled with errors, Harvard economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff are making a show of backing away from the austerity that their research encouraged. They claim that their views on austerity have never changed, but the record tells a different story. They're still trying to have it both ways -- advocating for government belt-tightening while trying to avoid being seen as political.

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2 More Grad Students Claim To Find Another Flaw In Reinhart-Rogoff Research

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Mark Gongloff - Apr. 30 (News Report) - Like Scooby-Doo villains, Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff keep getting done in by meddling kids. First, University of Massachusetts-Amherst grad student Thomas Herndon shot holes in their influential research paper, "Growth In A Time Of Debt," by pointing out several mistakes and omissions the Harvard economists had made. Now, two PhD students at the University of Missouri-Kansas City have a new paper that they say finds another flaw in that same research.

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Explaining the upper crust’s preference for austerity economics

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

seattletimes.com - By Paul Krugman - Apr. 27 (Opinion) - At this point, the austerian position has imploded; not only have its predictions about the real world failed completely, but the academic research invoked to support that position has turned out to be riddled with errors, omissions and dubious statistics. Yet two big questions remain. First, how did austerity doctrine become so influential in the first place? Second, will policy change at all now that crucial austerian claims have become fodder for late-night comics?

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The Jobless Trap

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Paul Krugman - Apr. 23 (Opinion) - let’s be clear: this is a policy decision. The main reason our economic recovery has been so weak is that, spooked by fear-mongering over debt, we’ve been doing exactly what basic macroeconomics says you shouldn’t do — cutting government spending in the face of a depressed economy. It’s hard to overstate how self-destructive this policy is. Indeed, the shadow of long-term unemployment means that austerity policies are counterproductive even in purely fiscal terms.

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Did Harvard Economists Make an Excel Error that Lead to Economic Austerity?

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

finance.yahoo.com - By Lauren Lyster - Apr. 17 (News Report) - Austerity has become almost like a four-letter word in some circles. It’s used to describe policies meant to reduce government spending and debt that may be painful in the here and now - measures such as cuts to social services--or that lead to job losse

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Contrasting Views on North Korea Underscore Sensitivities and Lack of Evidence

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By David E. Sanger, Eric Schmitt - Apr. 13 (News Analysis) - A sudden round of finger-pointing highlighted the sensitivity surrounding intelligence estimates in the wake of failures leading up to the Iraq war, and some subsequent missteps involving North Korea.

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Obama So Far: Making History, Inspiring An Opposition

Sun, 20 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

All Things Considered - By Frank James - Jan. 20 (Opinion) - Barack Obama was always going to have a place in history as the first African-American president. That's no small feat given the nation's peculiar past. But achieving what other Democratic presidents couldn't fueled deep divisions within the country and set the table for a second term with daunting challenges.

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Why Obama’s Gamble on the Debt Ceiling Depends on the GOP Being More Sane Than it Is

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

nationofchange.org - By Robert Reich - Jan. 15 (News Analysis) - it must be that he’s counting on public pressure — especially from the GOP’s patrons on Wall Street and big business — to force Republicans into submission.

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Paul Krugman: Clueless Washington Doesn't Know The Deficit Is 'Mostly Solved'

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Bonnie Kavoussi - Jan. 11 (News Report) - It has become conventional wisdom that the United States has a deficit crisis. But according to Paul Krugman, most politicians and journalists don't realize that the deficit has been "mostly solved." "Reasonable projections do not, repeat do not, show anything resembling the runaway deficit crisis that is a staple of almost everything you hear, including supposedly objective news reporting,"

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The Trillion Dollar Coin Solution, Or One Coin To Rule Them All: An Idiot's Guide

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Mark Gongloff - Jan. 07 (News Analysis) - If you've watched business TV or read Paul Krugman lately, you may have stumbled across a strange and maybe frightening debate among policy wonks and pundits about something called a trillion-dollar coin. What is this coin, and why should you care about

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What the Fiscal Cliff Deal Was Really About

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Joshua Holland - Jan. 02 (Opinion) - I hate this deal. It's simply a hostage exchange. The Republicans gave up the fiscal cliff, and will now take the debt limit, the federal budget and automatic across-the-board cuts to discretionary spending (the sequester), and have another standoff in 2-3 months time. The deal wouldn't have gotten 85 GOP votes in the House without the leadership giving right-wingers ironclad guarantees that they'll have another hostage soon.

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Fix the Debt Empties Its Trojan Horse

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

ips-dc.org - By Sarah Anderson, Scott Klinger - Jan. 02 (News Analysis) - In late October, the Institute for Policy Studies began exposing the Fix the Debt campaign's Trojan Horse. While they presented themselves as a patriotic bipartisan group, merely seeking a “balanced” deal, their own lobby materials revealed they were out to use the fiscal cliff as an opportunity to win massive new corporate tax breaks paid for with cuts to earned benefit programs like Social Security and Medicare. The hypocrisy was stunning.

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Cox and Archer: Why $16 Trillion Only Hints at the True U.S. Debt

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Wall Street Journal - Nov. 27 (Opinion) - Hiding the government's liabilities from the public makes it seem that we can tax our way out of mounting deficits. We can't.

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CEO Evening News?

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0800

FAIR - Nov. 26 (News Analysis) - The CBS Evening News has decided the best way to inform viewers about the impending "fiscal cliff" is to let corporate CEOs affiliated with the Fix the Debt campaign recommend cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

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6 Reasons the Fiscal Cliff is a Scam

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By James K. Galbraith - Nov. 23 (Opinion) - In the nature of stampedes arguments become confused; panic flows from fear, when multiple forces – economic and political in this instance – all appear to push the same way. It is therefore useful to sort through those forces, breaking them down into separate questions, and to ask whether any of them justify the voices of doom.

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Geithner Says U.S. 'Absolutely' Should Scrap Debt Ceiling

Sat, 17 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Bonnie Kavoussi - Nov. 17 (News Report) - Not raising the debt ceiling would have a destructive effect on the economy. It would force steep government spending cuts and likely cause a financial crisis and recession. The government would be at immediate risk of defaulting on its debt.

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Lobbyists Feign Budget 'Fix': Trojan Horse Filled with Corporate Tax Breaks

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Common Dreams - Nov. 14 (News Report) - As boisterous threats of a 'fiscal cliff' persist and progressive voices urge President Barack Obama to avoid falling for shortsighted solutions to illusory ultimatums, a group of corporate lobbyists and CEO's going by the name "The Campaign to Fix the Debt" are set to unleash an onslaught of campaign ads which propose bi-partisan 'compromises' to the problem, but in reality would act as a "Trojan horse concealing massive corporate tax breaks that would make our debt situation much worse

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The Next Game of Economic Chicken: Taxing the Rich

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0800

readersupportednews.org - By Robert Reich - Nov. 11 (Opinion) - The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office on Thursday warned that the automatic tax increases and spending cuts scheduled to start in January amount to too much deficit reduction, too soon. They'd put the economy back into recession, and push unemployment to about 9 percent. But the CBO also warned of an economic crisis ahead if the United States doesn't stem the growth of the nation's exploding deficit.

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Buying Debt - What OWS has been up to.

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Daily Kos - By Triumpth110 - Nov. 09 (News) - OWS is launching the ROLLING JUBILEE, a program that has been in development for months. OWS is going to start buying distressed debt (medical bills, student loans, etc.) in order to forgive it. As a test run, we spent $500, which bought $14,000 of distressed debt. We then ERASED THAT DEBT.

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Europe’s Agony Could Become Our Future Under Mitt Romney

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0700

nationofchange.org - By Richard (RJ) Eskow - Oct. 26 (News Analysis) - Nationalism and rage have been on the rise as countries like Greece have been forced to accept humiliating economic deals in order to stay afloat, one of which is to make repaying bankers a higher national priority than serving its own citizens. That's where austerity inevitably leads: the overruling of democratic process by financial elites.

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OpEdNews - Quicklink: 55 Facts About The Debt And U.S. Government Finances That Every American Voter Should Know

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Op Ed News - Oct. 25 (News) -

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Fact-checking the Denver presidential debate

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0700

PolitiFact - By Becky Bowers, Jon Greenberg, Angie Drobnic Holan, Louis Jacobson, Molly Moorhead, Katie Sanders, J.B. Wogan - Oct. 04 (Fact Check) - President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney traded barbs Wednesday night on taxes, jobs, health care and the economy — and often stretched the facts. "Mr. President," Romney said, "you're entitled as the president to your own airplane and to your own house, but not to your own facts." Romney also would have benefited from that advice. We're combing through the pair's remarks from the University of Denver's Ritchie Center, where moderator Jim Lehrer focused on the economy, health care, the role of government and governing. Here's what we've checked so far.

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Dubious Denver Debate Declarations

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0700

FactCheck - By Brooks Jackson - Oct. 04 (Fact Check) - We found exaggerations and false claims flying thick and fast during the first debate between President Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney. Obama accused Romney of proposing a $5 trillion tax cut. Not true.

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Obama’s claim that the Bush tax cuts led to the economic crisis

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Glenn Kessler - Oct. 01 (Fact Check) - “Now Governor Romney believes that with even bigger tax cuts for the wealthy, and fewer regulations on Wall Street, all of us will prosper. In other words, he’d double down on the same trickle-down policies that led to the crisis in the first place.” Read full article >>

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