Today’s links to interesting news and analysis…
- Big news: AQ is not SPECTRE, THRUSH, or COBRA: “Whether it’s AQ or not, nobody in Arab media cares“, Marc Lynch, blog of Foreign Policy, 27 December 2009
- Seeking the economist’s Holy Grail: “What Makes a Nation Rich? One Economist’s Big Answer“, Daron Acemoglu, Esquire, 18 November 2009
- About one of the big but ignored social trends, reshaping America: “America Without a Middle Class“, Elizabeth Warren (Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel), Huffington Post, 3 December 2010
- Another important paper from 2 A-team economists: “Growth in a Time of Debt“, Carmen M. Reinhart (U of Maryland) and Kenneth S. Rogoff (Harvard), NBER, 31 December 2009 (26 pages)
- We’re burning America’s human capital: “The Price of Casino-Like Finance Is Higher Than We Think“, Maxine Udall, 2 January 2010
- A reminder that the largest cause of the Federal deficit is the collapse in revenue, not more spending: “December Rolling Tax Witholdings Collapse To Multi-Year Low“, Zero Hedge, 5 January 2010
Of course, the serious budget busters lie in the future. Esp Medicare, as seen in this bit of propaganda from the Heritage Foundation (source). Of course, this forecast is specious — we’ll change the system when the costs become intolerable. For a different perspective, what would this graph look like with DoD’s cost forecast included?
