Cross posted to policyresearch community

Elizabeth Warren discusses why the financial-consumer protection agency needs to be independent. I agree with her, but think that it should even be independent of the government. This I believe would minimize the influence of financial industrial lobbyist and save taxpayer dollars ( Read more... )

cross-posted to policyresarchThe 1996 HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) law protects health insurance coverage for workers that change their job or lose their job ( Read more... )

Cross-posted to policyresearch

Against

Paul Krugman is against the Public Private Investment Program (PPIP). I tend to agree with him mostly because the current plan subsidizes the private investor a lot. This description by Nemo explains the mechanics well.

ForThe rationale for the plan is that we need to subsidize the private investor to get ( Read more... )

Joseph Stiglitz provides a very good summary of many of the factors that contributed to the current financial mess: Fed policy, repeal of Glass-Steagall, unregulated derivatives, incentive structure underlying stock-options, conflict-of-interest at rating agencies, and others.

cross-posted to policyresearch .

My initial thoughts about the government bailout of banks: privatized profits and socialized risk. So let them face the consequences of bad decisions and bad bets ( Read more... )

The sounds of truth in this essay make me sad and motivated all at once.


( Read more... )

The U.S. is proposing 58 military bases in Iraq . The population of Iraq is about 437,000 (according to the CIA factbook)-that amounts to one-fifth of a base per 100,000 Iraqis. According to Wikipedia there are 201 bases in the U.S. That is one-fifteenth of a base per 100,000 Americans. There is a lot more chaos in Iraq so the disproportionate ( Read more... )

I dislike the system the democrats have in place to elect their candidate for president. The candidate with the most delegates wins, but approximately 20% of the delegates can vote their own mind irrespective of what the majority of voters in their state decide. This is not democratic and borders on oligarchy ( Read more... )

This website, Innocentive, offers awards of $10,000 to $60,000 (one or two for $1 million) for solving problems, such as finding an analytical problem to a chemistry process, such as counting sugars or developing a method to prevent or remove a substance from a reactor wall ( Read more... )

An amusing Washington Post article about how the left-wing French pundits have found symbolism in Sarkozy’s practice of jogging for exercise. For those without a post account, this article is readable without an account. Essentially they view his jogging as symbolic of his pro-American views and see it has un-French. Perhaps it is, but I found ( Read more... )