This excellent article by Robert Knutter in the American Prospect, “Friendly Takeover,” is required reading for anyone who cares about either the Democratic party or social democracy (it is also featured in Economist’s View). It describes how Robert Rubin succeeded in getting the Democrats to adopt many of the practices of Eisenhower Republicans, most importantly, […]
Read more...We now have proof that liberals are more productive. First, it has now been established that slobs are more productive. This article in Extreme Tech,”Are You a Slob? Good, You’re More Productive,” reports that tidiness actually wastes time: Karen Jackson would be the first to admit her desk looks like a disaster area. Her stacks […]
Read more...OK, I am being completely unfair, I just wanted to get your attention. The blog New Economist pointed me to a couple of posts by what it calls “the always readable Cato Institute gadfly Will Wilkinson” on the subject of happiness research. He finds most of it to be lousy. I have no doubt he […]
Read more...Articles in Slate (which we found via Economist’s View via Marginal Revolution) and the New York Times point out the dark side of home ownership. Is this merely a needed bout of contrarian thinking, or is this the very early signs of a shift in attitudes towards home ownership? As I will address below, I […]
Read more...For those of you who like having the facts, rather than asserting the obvious and hoping you are right, Linda Beale of ataxingmatter has a good post, “The Bush Tax Cuts–good for whom?,” which has a clear presentation of who got the bennies, and why that might not be so good from an economic standpoint. […]
Read more...Robert Reich, in a post, “Time to Join a Union (Or At Least Have the Right To)” argues in favor of legislation in Congress (unlikely to pass) that would make it easier to form unions. There is a case to be made for increasing labor’s power relative to capital. Even with a minimum wage increase, […]
Read more...Linda Beale’s blog ataxingmatter pointed us to an excellent article on the failings of the current health care system by Clark Havighurst and Barack Richman at Duke University, Distributive Injustice in American Health Care. It’s a bit of a nuisance getting the article itself (you have to register and get it e-mailed to you) but […]
Read more...I must confess that I’m reporting on an event that I don’t completely understand. Last week, there was a “debate” in the House of Commons on the politics of wellbeing. Except the format seemed to be 6 panelists of sorts (2 MPs, one economist, one psychologist, a TV figure who has a reputation as an […]
Read more...Gods, what an awful word, and what an awful prospect. But as much as Blinder may be technically correct, my bet is that “offshoring,” or sending US jobs overseas, won’t go nearly as far as Blinder fears. The alarming news came in Blinder’s testimony to the Joint Economics Committee, recounted at TPM Cafe, which I […]
Read more...First we have Wal-Mart promoting diversity and now conservatives giving unions some due. The item in question is a post, “Do Unions Increase Productivity?” on the Economist’s Free Exchange, which is generally fairly right-wing in orientation (although I’m sure they’d describe themselves as free marketeers). This post in turn was engendered by a post on […]
Read more...Those of us familiar with Wal-Mart’s ways (meaning most of America) find the company’s new social responsibilty push perplexing. What do you make of a company that tries to be more environmentally responsible, and now is promoting diversity, yet has a heinous record as far as its rank-and-file workers are concerned? Answer: In both cases, […]
Read more...Below we have an extended except from “The Road to Happiness” by Derek Draper in The Guardian’s online commentary section. I find it intriguing that the question of social wellbeing has come to the point of being worthy of consideration in the House of Commons. Americans are stereotyped as touchy-feely and navel-gazing, but the Brits […]
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