Category Archives: Politics

Undoing the Damage in Chile

Yves here. America hates taking lessons from other countries, but Chile looks about to embark on tackling a student debt/overpriced educational system mess that makes ours pale by comparison. So it will be instructive to see how this reform effort takes shape.

Wolf Richter: The Young Subprime Debt-Slave Generation

Yves here. It’s obvious that student debt is a train wreck. Yet the severity of this problem is barely acknowledged as a problem among policy classes. Is that because the looting must continue? But even if so, why do colleges and universities have such privileged status?

Consumer Reports Shills for ObamaCare, Pooh-Poohs Medicaid Clawbacks on Bizarre Assumption They’ll be Waived

How come the poor 55+ people ObamaCare forces into Medicaid can’t leave the house and the estate to the kids, like the middle class and the rich can? ObamaCare apologists say “Trust us! Don’t worry about a thing!” but wouldn’t they have more credibility if they were agitating for the clawbacks to be dropped, instead of minimizing the problem?

Focus on TBTF Banks Misses How Even More Powerful Private Equity Kingpins Are Moving More into Unregulated Parts of Banking

The fact that the world’s biggest banks drove themselves off a cliff yet managed to save their hides and even profit from the exercise while leaving ordinary citizens to pick up the tab is ample reason for citizens and the small cohort of non-captured regulators and politicians focused on their continuing misdeeds.

But as a result, an even more powerful set of financial players, namely, private equity firms, is continuing to expand the scope of their activities with little scrutiny and pushback by the press and public interest groups.

20% of Obamacare Enrollees Failed to Make First Payment

Robert Pear of the New York Times has an important story today on the actual, as opposed to heavily-spun, state of play with Obamacare take-up.

Joe Firestone: Dear Dr. Krugman – Please Let Me Explain

Paul Krugman can’t explain why the deficit issue has suddenly dropped off the agenda. Perhaps I can help.

PBS Pimps Itself Out to Billionaire Who Campaigns Against Pensions for Gov’t Employees to Produce Scaremongering Series About Government Pensions

Now we know how much it takes to buy PBS programming: $3.5 million.

Money Makes People Right-Wing and Inegalitarian

Rich people typically lean right politically. Are they motivated by deeply moral views or self-interest?

Obama Lame Duck Watch: Pelosi Puts Another Nail in Toxic Trade Deal Coffin, Says She Opposes Giving Administration “Fast Track” Authority

Obama now has another hurdle to overcome if he is to get his toxic trade deals, the TransPacific Partnership and the TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, passed in time for him to take credit for handing the keys to America over to multinational corporations and turning out the lights.

Pimco, Blackrock Mulling Suing Ocwen Over Abusive Servicing

Funny what a difference a few days makes.

Money and Elections in Washington: Pro Wrestling, but With More Respectable Clothes

kayfabe: Term in pro wrestling. Kayfabe was the unsaid rule that the wrestlers should stay in character during the show and in public appearances in order to maintain a feeling of reality (albeit suspended) among the fans.

Governments and Activists are Fighting the Corporate “Right” to Sue Governments

This post contains several troubling examples of how investors have used provisions in existing trade deals to attack the laws of nations that attempt to enforce environmental, labor, and consumer protections, or simply discipline bad-faith behavior.