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Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael Hiltzik writes the daily blog "The Economy Hub." His business column appears every ...
Inside GOP science policy, Part 3: climate change
March 5, 2015
In Part 3 of our interview with Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas), we turn to climate change, which is surely the most politically contentious topic under his jurisdiction as chairman of the House Appropriations Committee's subcommittee on commerce, justice and science.
Inside GOP science, part 2: the brawl over National Science Foundation grants
March 4, 2015
In part 2 of our interview with Rep. John Culberson (R-Tex.), we turn to the controversy over another agency under his jurisdiction as chairman of the House Appropriation Committee's subcommittee on commerce, justice, and science: the National Science Foundation, which distributes about $7 billion annually in grants--about one-fourth of all federal research grants to academic and research institutions.
Inside the GOP's science policy: A talk with Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas)
March 3, 2015
Republican control of both houses of Congress gives the GOP extraordinary power over science policy in the United States. Last month, we had a lengthy discussion of the party's interests and outlook in scientific research with Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas), who had been named chairman of the House Appropriations Committee's subcommittee on commerce, justice and science.
Nasdaq at 5,000: Time to be very, very afraid?
March 2, 2015
For the longest time, I promised myself that I would stay in the stock market until the Nasdaq Composite index reached its dot-com era peak of just above 5,000. Then I'd bail out.
Actually, that 'off target' 1995 anti-Internet column was amazingly on-target
March 2, 2015
Back in 1995, astronomer and computer expert Clifford Stoll wrote an article for Newsweek dismissing all the excitement about something called the Internet. It was headlined, "The Internet? Bah!"
Watch 'Meet the Press' treat climate change as a big joke
March 2, 2015
As you may have heard, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), who astonishingly enough is chairman of the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee, brought a snowball to the floor of the U.S. Senate last week to debunk "all this hysteria about global warming."
Under attack, unions show new creativity and militancy
February 28, 2015
One consequence of the steady decline of unions in America is that we've forgotten what little we used to know about what organized labor even means.
Is GOP finally getting nervous that the Supreme Court might gut Obamacare?
February 27, 2015
It wasn't so long ago that Republicans were viewing the prospect that the Supreme Court might overturn a key provision of the Affordable Care Act with unalloyed glee.
How NFL stadium promoters are snowing the city of Inglewood
February 27, 2015
The Inglewood City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a plan to build a $1.86-billion National Football League stadium in their municipality.
Hewlett-Packard shows how to fatten shareholders while firing workers
February 25, 2015
Shareholders of the big high-tech company Hewlett-Packard have done pretty nicely over the last year. Their stock gains have outpaced the Standard & Poor's 500 Index by about 14 percentage points, and in 2014 they pocketed a handsome $2.7 billion through share repurchases and $1.2 billion in dividends.
How Congress connives in the offshoring of American IT jobs
February 24, 2015
Earlier this month, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista) spoke out against Southern California Edison's misuse of the government's H-1B visa program to outsource its American information technology jobs.
Has PC maker Lenovo committed the ultimate breach of customer security?
February 24, 2015
The Chinese company Lenovo has become known as the world's largest PC maker. Now it's also becoming famous as the computer company that may have committed the worst breach on record of its own customers' privacy and security.
Finally, a rule will make brokers give you honest investment advice
February 23, 2015
The idea that investment advisors owe a higher duty to their clients than to their own pocketbooks is an old one, often detested by Wall Street.
A few more good arguments against the Apple Car -- and a lousy one in its favor
February 23, 2015
The excitement and attention garnered by rumors that Apple is thinking of entering the carmaking business is almost entirely an artifact of the Apple-can-do-no-wrong mindset.
A loophole in immigration law is costing thousands of American jobs
February 21, 2015
Imagine getting a layoff notice, then being ordered to train your replacement.
This week's mythical creature: The Apple Car
February 20, 2015
Three words of advice for all you iPhone fans who are enthralled by the idea that Apple is entering the car market and are preparing to be first in line at the Apple Store when those fabulous cars start rolling off the production line:
Wal-Mart's raise underscores the poor condition of most low-wage workers
February 19, 2015
Before we all jump for joy at Wal-Mart's announcement Thursday that it's raising the pay of 500,000 employees, let's place it in perspective.
Why the Supreme Court's big Obamacare case never should have been filed
February 18, 2015
King v Burwell, the lawsuit before the Supreme Court that conservatives regard as their last big hope to destroy the Affordable Care Act, has been coming apart on the merits for months.
Education watch: Oklahoma Legislature votes to dumb down its kids
February 18, 2015
As the TV show "Jackass" taught us, when adults do stupid things they're usually only hurting themselves. But what about when their ignorance threatens to harm their own children?
How income inequality undermines Social Security, and what to do about it
February 17, 2015
The drawbacks of rising income inequality have been well documented and widely analyzed, from its corrosive effect on social cohesion (see Benjamin Friedman's work on the subject) to its stultifying effect on economic growth.
Good news (?): marijuana doesn't increase the likelihood of car crashes
February 16, 2015
For all intents and purposes, marijuana legalization is here to stay. That has raised the hackles of auto safety advocates and legislators, who reason that anything that puts impaired drivers behind the wheel can't be good.
BP cherry-picks study to dodge blame for massive deaths of gulf dolphins
February 16, 2015
In the years since its Deepwater Horizon oil spill befouled huge stretches of the Gulf of Mexico, oil giant BP has honed its skill at cherry-picking scientific studies to duck responsibility for the spill's environmental impacts.
When conservation puts a squeeze on utilities
February 14, 2015
The citizens of Claremont showed what they thought of their local water company's rates last November, when they voted overwhelmingly to let the city seize the private company and begin the process of converting it into a municipal utility.
Why I'm glad the Dodgers may be blacked out again this season
February 13, 2015
My colleagues Bill Plaschke, Bill Shaikin and Meg James are reporting that for the second year in a row, Los Angeles Dodger games may be blacked out for TV viewers in Southern California, except for subscribers to Time Warner Cable.
How a major newspaper bungled a vaccine story, then smeared its critics
February 13, 2015
The Toronto Star, Canada's highest-circulation daily newspaper, has built a reputation for excellent investigative reporting, including justly celebrated exposes of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford.
GOP shows it doesn't understand Social Security disability--and doesn't care
February 11, 2015
Many disabled American workers and disability advocates may have hoped that the Senate's Republican majority would try to understand the crisis facing Social Security's disability program. Those hopes were slaughtered Wednesday.
Bleeding Kansas returns: Gov. Brownback reinstates LGBT discrimination
February 11, 2015
Those who remember their high school U.S. history classes will recognize "Bleeding Kansas" as a reference to that territory's violent fight over slavery in 1854-61, during the run-up to the Civil War.
The rich L.A. Angels try to nickel-and-dime their stadium workers -- again
February 9, 2015
Any way you cut it, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are among the richest teams in professional sports. Last year Forbes ranked them 10th in franchise value among Major League Baseball teams, at $775 million, with revenue of about $253 million.
Does Harper Lee really want her novel published -- and do her wishes matter?
February 9, 2015
Suspicion and doubt have clouded the announcement last week by HarperCollins that it would publish a second novel by Harper Lee, author of the classic "To Kill a Mockingbird."
How the lauded John C. Whitehead (RIP) helped crater the Getty's endowment
February 9, 2015
Former Goldman Sachs Co-Chairman John C. Whitehead has been getting a very adulatory sendoff in the obituary columns since his death on Saturday at the age of 92. The obits mention his "moral compass," his leadership of numerous philanthropies, his role in helping lower Manhattan recover from the 9/11 attack, his valorous service during World War II.
'Free trade' isn't what Trans-Pacific Partnership would deliver
February 7, 2015
In principle, almost everyone's in favor of free trade. It promotes international harmony, raises wages, helps economies grow. It's an article of historical faith that the enactment of harsh protective U.S. tariffs in 1930 contributed to the Great Depression. And who wants that?
When a state blocks Obamacare, ERs close: The lesson of Louisiana
February 6, 2015
Baton Rouge, La., is about to lose one of its crucial hospital emergency rooms, and the reason is clear: The administration of Gov. Bobby Jindal has refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, and won't put up any other money to keep the facility open.
Why you should care that IBM's CEO is grossly overpaid
February 6, 2015
Reader E.G. Rice of Marina del Rey has taken issue with my recent post on the nice raise that IBM has given its chairman and CEO, Virginia Rometty, despite the company's awful financial results in 2014. To recap, Rometty is getting a $3.6-million bonus for 2014 and a $13.3-million stock incentive award payable in 2018. She's also getting a 6.7% bump in her base salary, to $1.6 million from $1.5 million.
Has Ayn Rand's day as a business guru finally passed?
February 5, 2015
It wasn't so long ago that American corporate CEOs were professing their devotion to Ayn Rand's potboiler "Atlas Shrugged" as though it were a badge of unsentimental industrial muscularity.
California moves to end personal belief exemptions for vaccination--at last
February 4, 2015
As we've been pointing out almost since the inception of the 2015 measles epidemic, outbreaks of such vaccine-preventable diseases are often associated with overly indulgent exemptions from mandatory childhood immunizations.
The FCC makes a breakthrough on net neutrality--but the battle isn't over
February 4, 2015
There's no question that the new proposal on network neutrality from Tom Wheeler, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, is a breakthrough of immense proportions.
New 'productive' Congress takes a vote ... to repeal Obamacare
February 3, 2015
Just the other day, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) was telling Bret Baier of Fox News that the new Republican majority on Capitol Hill was "trying to get off to a fast start here."
Obama pushes back against GOP assault on Social Security disability
February 3, 2015
President Obama is taking a strong line against one of the most despicable acts of the new Republican Congress, the House's effort to manufacture a Social Security crisis by attacking the disabled.
No, it's untrue that Obama 'pandered to anti-vaxxers' in 2008
February 2, 2015
Participating in the extended game of "Telephone" that is the Internet, the news site Vox has unearthed a report of a public appearance by then-Sen. Barack Obama to suggest that he "pandered" to anti-vaccination groups by acknowledging a vaccine-autism link in 2008, when he was launching his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.
The theme of Disneyland's 60th anniversary bash should be 'Vaccinate your kids'
February 2, 2015
Few American companies are as skilled at reaching out and touching their customer base as Walt Disney Co., which will be ramping up its publicity machine to a very high engine speed over the next few months. The marketing surge for Disneyland's 60th anniversary is already underway; recent news stories about the "amazing" new parade and fireworks show that will launch the celebration at the Anaheim park on May 22 are only the beginning.
IBM redefines failure as 'success,' gives underachieving CEO huge raise
February 2, 2015
The IBM board of directors did a huge favor for mediocre CEOs the world over on Friday by announcing (quietly) that it has granted Chairman and Chief Executive Virginia Rometty a $3.6-million bonus for 2014 and a $13.3-million stock incentive award payable in 2018. She's also getting a 6.7% bump in her base salary, to $1.6 million from $1.5 million.
The case for evidence-based policymaking in Washington
February 1, 2015
The most radical and surprising development in Washington policymaking today is the use of scientific research to determine what does or doesn't work in government spending.
Is Shake Shack the next Krispy Kreme?
January 30, 2015
Intuit finally backs down--all the way down--in its TurboTax fiasco
January 29, 2015
Intuit, the maker of the popular TurboTax software program, has finally gotten the message that when you've outraged a large portion of your customer base, responding with half-measures doesn't work.
Measles: How legislators can end 'personal belief' waivers on vaccination
January 29, 2015
If there's a silver lining in the ongoing outbreak of measles linked to infected and unvaccinated visitors to Disneyland during the holidays, it's that the crisis may spur state lawmakers to reverse the trend expanding exemptions from mandatory childhood immunizations.
The Disneyland measles crisis: how to make negligent parents pay
January 28, 2015
The continuing and spreading outbreak of measles traced originally to visitors to Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure park revives the questions of who should be held responsible, and how they should be made to pay for the injury and illness they've caused.
Obamacare poll: Most still know little about it; few want it repealed
January 28, 2015
Several aspects of public opinion on the Affordable Care Act have remained unchanging virtually since its inception: most people don't know what it does or how it affects them personally, but when asked about it in the most general terms they say they're against it.
Jenny McCarthy: anti-vaxxer, public menace
January 27, 2015
To provide context to the ongoing outbreak of measles linked to visits to Disneyland and the influence of the anti-vaccination movement, science writer Seth Mnookin revisits the saga of one of the most celebrated anti-vaxxers, starlet Jenny McCarthy.
SkyMall's bankruptcy had less to do with its absurd catalog than you think
January 26, 2015
On the surface, the bankruptcy of SkyMall seems to be easily explained and none too surprising.
This conservative op-ed confirms the immorality of repealing Obamacare
January 26, 2015
Rarely do conservative opponents of the Affordable Care Act acknowledge the real human consequences of their campaign to overturn the healthcare reform law. But an astonishing op-ed published Friday by the Washington Post does just that.
Five years after Citizens United ruling, big money reigns
January 25, 2015
If you're wondering why issues favored by a majority of Americans such as raising the minimum wage, gun control and net neutrality get scarcely any attention in the halls of Congress, the Citizens United case is the reason.
Sen. Joni Ernst learned to 'live within her means' -- on the taxpayer's dime
January 23, 2015
It has almost become a cliche that the politicians who bray the loudest about cutting government waste and slashing "entitlements" turn out to have learned what they know about the government trough from the inside.
Intuit moves to mollify outraged TurboTax customers -- but is it enough?
January 23, 2015
Intuit, which is reeling from customer outrage over a surreptitious price hike this year in its market-leading TurboTax tax preparation software, has moved to quell the anger. But it may not have done enough.
Disneyland measles crisis should wake up the anti-vaccination crowd
January 21, 2015
The rise of the anti-vaccination movement has shown that even affluent and well-educated parents can be dolts, and that school and public health officials can be inexcusably complacent. The Disneyland measles outbreak may finally give all these parties a much-needed jolt of reality.
Book publishing shocker: That boy didn't actually come back from heaven!
January 21, 2015
The secular world is having a good guffaw over the embarrassment of Tyndale House, a Christian book publisher that announced last week it was withdrawing from print its bestseller "The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven."
Here's Obama's best applause line (it wasn't the one about his campaigns)
January 21, 2015
President Obama packed so many proposals into his State of the Union address Tuesday night that it was hard to grab hold of each one before he careened on to the next. And that's not counting the occasional zingers, including his reference to his two presidential election victories in response to a brief outburst of grade-school hooliganism from the Republicans in the House chamber.
Should nature have the right to sue us?
January 20, 2015
Corporations have it. So do infants before they can walk, children, even oceangoing vessels. It's the right to bring a lawsuit in their own name. More attention is being given to the question of whether wild animals, valleys, rivers, meadows or mountain ranges--in short, nature herself--should have standing to appear as plaintiffs in court.
Is this Social Security trustee trying to undermine Social Security?
January 20, 2015
In these parlous times when conservatives are sharpening their knives to slash Social Security benefits, the last thing nearly 60 million beneficiaries need is someone working to erode the program from the inside.
Here's how Obama's capital gains tax plan hits the 1% where they live
January 19, 2015
With President Obama placing tax reform on the table in his State of the Union address, scheduled for delivery to Congress on Tuesday, we can expect weeks or months of Washington debate about the vices and virtues of the tax breaks held dear by many segments of the taxpaying public.
Intuit changed TurboTax this year, triggering an enormous customer uproar
January 19, 2015
Intuit's TurboTax software program long has been the king of do-it-yourself tax preparation, with nearly 30-million customers and a market share of 60-65%.
Rand Paul steps up the GOP attack on Social Security
January 19, 2015
Travel obligations kept me from addressing until now the attack on Social Security disability recipients made last week by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), but it was too outstandingly ignorant and cynical to go unanswered.
Obama's free education proposal: Why stop at community colleges?
January 9, 2015
President Obama's proposal unveiled Thursday to provide free community college education to all "responsible" students is garnering immense attention. That's as it should be, although the details still need to be fleshed out and individual states will have to agree to shoulder a share of the costs.
Here's the anti-Obamacare lawsuit that just might deserve to win
January 9, 2015
Lawsuits aimed at eviscerating the Affordable Care Act have been lining up in federal courts like airliners on America's taxiways. Most are frivolous or partisan or both, and some have already been tossed. The Supreme Court on Friday will ponder whether to hear one that actually has some merit.
Is FCC Chairman Wheeler really moving the ball on net neutrality? Stay tuned.
January 8, 2015
All the Internet has been abuzz since Wednesday, when Federal Communications Chairman Tom Wheeler spoke as though he's leaning toward much stricter oversight of net neutrality rules in a way that benefits consumers.
Anti-vaccination update: How the measles crisis struck Disneyland
January 8, 2015
As many as 12 measles cases have been connected to visits to Disneyland or Disney's California Adventure Park, California public health authorities say--including at least six occurring in people who were unvaccinated for the disease. Among them were two infants too young for immunizations.
Do Republicans misunderstand Social Security, or just feign ignorance?
January 7, 2015
As a follow-up to our Tuesday post on the House GOP's assault on Social Security and its beneficiaries, it's proper to take a closer look at the rationale for the attack.
Amazing fact: Obamacare 'beyond repair,' yet brings insurance to millions
January 7, 2015
When it comes to the Affordable Care Act, you have two choices about what to believe. You can go with objective statistics from Gallup, a respected survey organization, which indicate that the law has increased the number of Americans with health insurance by more than 10 million.
On Day One, the new Congress launches an attack on Social Security
January 6, 2015
The GOP keeps trying to scare people away from Obamacare--but why?
January 6, 2015
The conservative approach to keeping Americans from taking advantage of the Affordable Care Act always has featured a large element of fear-mongering. Remember the "death panels"? Sticker shock?
The revolving door spins faster: Ex-Congressmen become 'stealth lobbyists'
January 6, 2015
The NFL prepares to squeeze L.A. -- and St. Louis -- just a little bit tighter
January 5, 2015
Announcements of possible NFL team relocations often cause the same frissons of expectation and trepidation in their target communities as videotaped threats from unknown terrorist groups. In both cases, projections of what might happen do battle with the sheer unlikelihood of anything happening. Hope, or fear, almost always wins out over rational judgment, at least at first.
The mortal threat to Medicaid -- and how to fix it
January 5, 2015
Jan. 1 was a red-letter day for America's provision of healthcare to its poorest residents--and we do mean red.
Ten years in, California's stem cell program is getting a reboot
January 3, 2015
Turning 10 years old may not quite mark adolescence for a human child, but for a major government research effort such as California's stem cell program, it's well past middle age.
California's huge blow against stupidity about immigrant driver's licenses
January 2, 2015
It took more than a year to get the ball rolling, but California just struck one of the most important blows against brainless public policymaking in years: The state on Friday started issuing driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants.
Obamacare could help millions of American smokers to kick the habit
January 2, 2015
Did you know that the Affordable Care Act may be the single most important anti-smoking initiative in the country?
It's nearly New Year's Eve, and Uber will face the music on surge pricing again
December 30, 2014
New Year's Eve is coming, and that means a surge of debate about the jacked-up surge pricing charged during high-demand periods by Uber, the leading online ride-hailing service.
Is Texas, the biggest domino, about to topple on Medicaid expansion?
December 30, 2014
The serial capitulation of red-state governors to the Medicaid expansion authorized by the Affordable Care Act has left the holdouts increasingly isolated.
A look at the economic shadows for 2015
December 29, 2014
Over the last couple of days, economists Justin Wolfers of the University of Michigan and Tyler Cowen of George Mason University engaged in a round of debate over the biggest unknowns facing the world economy in 2015. (H/T to Kevin Drum, who found the discussion rather too dour for his taste.)
Your mediocre iPad may create a market for great new electronic gadgets
December 29, 2014
The iPad and other tablets are popular because they're good at a wide range of functions -- Web browsing, game-playing, emailing, listening to music and reading. For smartphones, add phone-calling and text messaging.
How Washington can improve the lives of ordinary Americans
December 28, 2014
Obstruction is easy; governing is hard.
I went to see 'The Interview' on Christmas Day--and survived!
December 25, 2014
Because we shouldn't let the terrorists win, and also one always needs a reason to be out of the house while Christmas dinner is being prepared, we headed out to our local small-chain theater Thursday to see Sony's "The Interview."
Issa's big dud: No White House connection to IRS 'scandal'
December 24, 2014
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista) wasted enormous congressional resources over the last 18 months trying to inflate the IRS "scandal" into a mountain. The release Tuesday of his final, petulant report on the affair marks what may be its final decline into a mouse.
GOP moves to bring a bogus New Math to the federal budget
December 23, 2014
Doug Elmendorf has been viewed as a marked man in Washington ever since the last election, when Republicans won a majority in both houses of Congress for 2015. Now confirmation comes via Bloomberg that he won't be reappointed to his job as director of the Congressional Budget Office in January.
Another threat from climate change: bad-tasting shrimp
December 22, 2014
Some of the consequences of climate change are obvious -- shrinking polar ice caps, rising sea levels, more damaging floods -- and some are subtle. Among the latter, we can now add bad-tasting seafood.
Is the oil crash about to snuff out the 'Texas miracle'?
December 22, 2014
One aspect of the Texas economic "miracle" that made the triumphalism of its promoters so hard to stomach was the way they glossed over one of its key drivers: the oil boom. Now that global oil prices are plummeting -- down 50% since the summer -- Texas may be facing a less than miraculous future.
These experts still don't buy the FBI claim that North Korea hacked Sony
December 21, 2014
President Obama has done his best to tamp down fury at North Korea for hacking Sony--"I don't think it was an act of war," he said Sunday on CNN, but "cybervandalism"--but to find true skepticism about North Korea's role in the attack, you have to turn to the professional hacking and anti-hacking community.
Sony pays high price for ignoring its past
December 19, 2014
How grave is the cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment? Here's one high-level Sony executive:
How a $1.3-billion, 21-year study of U.S. children's health fell to pieces
December 19, 2014
The National Children's Study was launched with a fanfare of expectation and ambition in 2000. The idea was to follow 100,000 American children from the pre-natal stage to age 21, collecting an unprecedented volume of data on "environmental influences (including physical, chemical, biological, and psychosocial) on children's health and development," in the words of the enabling federal legislation, the Children's Health Act. As Science Magazine reported, it was the largest and most complex longitudinal study of its kind ever planned in the United States.
The Sony hack: What if it isn't North Korea?
December 19, 2014
The received wisdom that North Korea is responsible for hacking Sony Pictures Entertainment has taken over discussion so thoroughly that the Obama administration already has been chided for not taking firm action against the insular regime. Until Friday, official sources' attribution of blame to North Korea was off the record; the FBI has now issued a formal accusation.
The Cuba sanctions: Farewell to a Cold War relic
December 17, 2014
There may be some elderly Cubans in Havana who long ago gave up hope that the U.S. embargo against their country would ever end. On these shores, however, the 50-year policy of isolating Cuba has seemed so useless for so long that many people assumed it would just wither away, sooner or later.
Are the Democrats allowing Social Security to twist in the wind?
December 16, 2014
In these waning days of the Democratic Senate, the majority is taking advantage of a muffed procedural maneuver by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to confirm a passel of otherwise stalled executive branch appointees.
Why the press must report those Sony hacks
December 15, 2014
The hacking of Sony Pictures' internal systems and the dumping of personal and corporate information onto the Internet--the biggest entertainment story of the year--confronts news organizations and the public with two complex puzzles. One is how to report the divulged information, and the other is what to make of it.
Who gets left out of all those Hollywood tax incentives? Musicians
December 15, 2014
Most of Hollywood celebrated in September, when California Gov. Jerry Brown put his signature to a vastly expanded tax incentive for the movie industry.
Uber needs to learn how to play by the rules
December 14, 2014
Is there a company in America more in need of adult supervision than Uber?
Can't we finally put an end to anti-lefty discrimination?
December 13, 2014
A sizable percentage of the critical emails I receive accuse me of being a lefty. When I read them, my first reaction is always: How did this person find out which hand I write with?
Putin the Great, and the collapse of the Russian economy
December 12, 2014
In certain corners of conservative thought, it's been fashionable to portray Russian President Vladimir Putin as a master strategist who has outdueled Barack Obama at every turn.
The secret GOP swipe at Obamacare--and you--in the year-end spending bill
December 12, 2014
Underscoring how much mischief can result when Congress acts in haste and in secret, hidden away in the year-end omnibus spending bill being acted on this week is an attack on a key provision of the Affordable Care Act long targeted by the GOP.
Congress' backroom pension-cutting deal is even worse than expected
December 10, 2014
At last the actual language has been released of the backroom, last-minute congressional deal allowing benefits of millions of retired workers to be shredded.
That awful congressional plan to allow pension cuts heads for enactment
December 9, 2014
The congressional proposal to deal with a supposed crisis in worker pensions by allowing trustees to slash the benefits of already retired workers to shreds is heading toward enactment.
Are America's 'missing workers' really missing?
December 9, 2014
As job growth picks up and the unemployment rate declines, naysayers about the strength of the U.S. economy have aimed their fire ever more intensely at what is supposedly the one black hole in national statistics: the labor force participation rate.
Journalism's eternal search for the outside savior, and why it fails
December 9, 2014
I was the first Los Angeles Times reporter to interview Sam Zell after he bought the newspaper's parent company, Tribune, in 2007. During our interview at the executive jet terminal at LAX, he was blunt, crude and profane. He started the meeting with an extended rant about Times columnist Steve Lopez, who wasn't present but had had the effrontery to drive up to Zell's Malibu hideaway when he wasn't there and do journalism by interviewing the housekeeper. But he also pledged to make the company bigger and stronger.
What universities really can do to fight climate change: A new proposal
December 8, 2014
The movement to force university endowments to divest their holdings in fossil fuel companies -- coal, oil and gas -- has some obvious shortcomings: For one thing, the effort is relatively painless, since it's unlikely that the endowment returns will be materially affected by taking these volatile companies out of their portfolios (or that the companies will care); for another, it's hypocritical, since university communities remain heavy consumers of the very same energy sources.
The Supreme Court ends BP's campaign to kill its gulf oil spill deal
December 8, 2014
For almost a year, we've been chronicling BP's efforts to undercut a damage settlement deal its own lawyers helped craft for victims of its record-setting 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
Both sides in the New Republic meltdown are wrong about the magazine
December 8, 2014
Considering how devoted everyone involved in the meltdown of The New Republic is to the principles of trenchant journalism and lucid policy analysis, the most remarkable thing about the event is how obtuse they all are about the magazine's past, present and future.
Suspicions keep Chinese telecom firm Huawei out of U.S. market
December 5, 2014
— In mid-November, the giant Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei invited networking executives from some of the more than 170 countries where it does business for a two-day Global Mobile Broadband Forum. The potential buyers wandered among display tables bathed in a ghostly blue light as corporate associates talked up the products. They represented about 400 companies. None was American.
The lame-duck Congress plots to undermine retiree pensions
December 5, 2014
Passing legislation on a tight deadline--especially a bogus deadline--is invariably a formula for serious mischief. That's what's happening with a proposal to deal with a supposed crisis in worker pensions by allowing trustees to slash the pensions of already-retired workers to shreds.
Trent Lott (remember him?) says Congress should fix Obamacare
December 5, 2014
Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, materializing as a voice of sanity from the Republican Party of yore, says the GOP should act to save the Affordable Care Act if a crucial provision is upset by the Supreme Court.
How big is the Supreme Court threat to the ACA? Very big.
December 3, 2014
Some experts have counseled a zen-like patience while awaiting the Supreme Court's consideration of the King case, which involves federal subsidies for Affordable Care Act insurance plans and is expected to yield a decision sometime in July. We've observed that the prospect of subsidies being overturned in as many as three dozen states could or should spur action in those states, or in Congress, to head off the consequences.
A true 'hot property': Elliott Gould's 'Long Goodbye' apartment is for rent!
December 3, 2014
Spotted by the eagle-eyed Erik Loomis, the Hollywood Hills apartment occupied by Philip Marlowe (Elliott Gould) in Robert Altman's great 1973 film "The Long Goodbye" is for rent.
Did Obamacare destroy the Democratic Party? Another look
December 3, 2014
Was heathcare reform a fatal political blunder by the Democratic Party? That thesis of Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate, received a respectful airing this week from the veteran political journalist and New York Times columnist Thomas B. Edsall.
Why 'wellness' program scams cost employers and harm employees
December 2, 2014
Perhaps the most popular fad at large today in the employee health benefit world is the "wellness" program.
How airline seating reflects income inequality
December 2, 2014
When I flew on Aeroflot back in the mid-1990s, everyone flew what we would think of today as Economy; they were still serious about a classless society in those post-Gorbachev years, or perhaps they hadn't quite gotten their arms around the idea of tapping the 0.1% for excess disposable income.
A great scientist's fall into crankdom: The case of DNA pioneer Jim Watson
December 1, 2014
Word emerged over the weekend that James D. Watson, whose co-discovery in 1953 of the structure of DNA is one of the landmarks of 20th-century biological science, is putting his Nobel Prize medallion up for auction.
A looming farewell--though not good riddance--to RadioShack
December 1, 2014
Several generations of home electronics hobbyists, ham radio enthusiasts and computer nerds spent their growth-spurt years haunting their local RadioShack stores. They can't be happy about the company's long slide toward irrelevance and its looming disappearance as a feature of the retail landscape.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein's drought relief bill needs closer scrutiny
November 28, 2014
No one is more adept at turning crises into opportunities than representatives of special interests in Washington. And there are few better opportunities-in-disguise than the California drought.
On Obamacare, could all Democrats really be as clueless as Sen. Schumer?
November 26, 2014
The biggest political error committed by Democrats over the last four years has been to run away from their signature legislative accomplishment, the Affordable Care Act. As a result, they've allowed Republicans and conservatives to depict a measure that improves the lives and health of millions of Americans as harmful, even un-American.
Isn't it time for a shoppers' strike on Thanksgiving Day?
November 25, 2014
The only complaint about our commercial habits that has become more frequent than the one about Christmas decorations appearing in stores before Thanksgiving is the one about stores now opening on Thanksgiving.
A look at poverty in America, from the inside
November 25, 2014
One little-recognized reality of poverty in America is how closely it lurks beneath the surface of even a successful professional life. A bad career turn, a couple of financial missteps, and -- here comes the dizzying plunge from middle class to underclass.
New House GOP better for science -- by a micron
November 24, 2014
For many thinking Americans, the anti-intellectual core of Republican Party policies was made real during a 2007 primary debate among its 11 presidential candidates, when three raised their hands to say they doubted the theory of evolution.
What Jon Gruber said was dumb, but the Gruber controversy is much dumber
November 18, 2014
I'm probably not alone among journalists writing about the Affordable Care Act in finding that the lowest-information emails landing in my inbox lately come from people who have learned one thing about the act, and one thing alone: that some guy named Jonathan Gruber, its ostensible "architect," said some insulting things about American voters' stupidity and how they had to be gulled into supporting the bill.
Travel is broadening
November 17, 2014
Travel is broadening, so I'll be spending the next week or so expanding my horizons on a reporting trip. Posting on the Economy Hub will be sporadic at best through next Sunday. Feel free to catch up in the meantime by visiting the archives.
The hard truth about Americans' retirement options
November 15, 2014
Alicia H. Munnell has some gloomy words for Americans about retirement.
Dr. Oz gets what's coming to him on Twitter
November 13, 2014
You can add Dr. Mehmet Oz to the list of big shots, individual and corporate, who expect sedulous respect from the denizens of social media, only to get their heads handed to them.
Farewell to a fine public servant: George H. Painter, 1926-2014
November 13, 2014
In these cynical times when working for the government is often caricatured as almost an act of moral turpitude, lifelong public servants seldom get the respect and admiration they deserve. The passing last weekend of George H. Painter, who served 35 years as an administrative law judge for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and died Saturday in Los Angeles, gives us an opportunity to rectify the injustice.
How the rise of Catholic hospitals is jeopardizing women's healthcare
November 12, 2014
Via Nina Martin of ProPublica comes word that America's Catholic bishops are moving toward tightening religious restrictions on physicians and nonsectarian hospitals that join with them in mergers and partnerships.
Comcast, stop saying you 'agree with the President' on net neutrality
November 12, 2014
The giant cable and Internet company Comcast has been trying to paint itself as a staunch defender of network neutrality. This effort has been wholly misleading, and never so much as in the company's response Tuesday to President Obama's outspoken defense of the principle, when it issued a statement headlined:
President Obama takes a huge leap forward on net neutrality
November 11, 2014
The Federal Communications Commission has received about 4-million comments on its undertaking to remake the rules on network neutrality on the Internet. But it's fair to say that one comment, filed Monday, outweighs all the rest.
The congressional deal that could save Obamacare
November 10, 2014
The received wisdom about the fate of the Affordable Care Act is that it's in the Supreme Court's hands -- more specifically, in Chief Justice John Roberts' hands, since he's thought to be the swing vote in a 5-4 split on the law. This is key because of the Halbig issue, on which the high court will rule early next year: Does a wording glitch in the ACA mean that federal subsidies can't be offered to residents of the 36 states that didn't create their own insurance exchanges? A Supreme Court ruling in the affirmative would kill federal subsidies for residents of those states, snatching affordable health coverage out of their hands.
The congressional GOP sharpens its knives to attack scientific research
November 10, 2014
Nothing is easier, if you're a political philistine playing to an audience of anti-intellectual rubes, than to ridicule scientific research projects by caricature.
Will the Supreme Court move America closer to two-class healthcare?
November 10, 2014
The chart at the top of this post identifies the black hole of American healthcare: The highest death rates are in a swath of states across the Deep South.
Fighting for the right to be forgotten on the Web
November 9, 2014
Every time Gary Katcher sees the article, he feels that his reputation is being dragged through the mud again.
The Supreme Court puts the screws to 36 state governments
November 7, 2014
No piker when it comes to cliffhanging drama, the Supreme Court late Friday placed the governors and legislatures of 36 states in a corner, by taking up a challenge to the Affordable Care Act that directly threatens their citizens.
Consumers: Don't believe CVS when it says it does these immunizations
November 7, 2014
The drugstore chain CVS has been making a big deal of its intention to become not merely a corner drugstore, but a healthcare provider. It changed its corporate name from CVS Caremark to CVS Health, and took tobacco products off its shelves to reinforce the good-health story.
This Boehner/McConnell Obamacare 'fix' could hurt millions of Americans
November 7, 2014
The GOP manifesto published by the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday over the names of Republican leaders John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., included a tweak to the Affordable Care Act they say would provide Americans with "more hours and better pay."
Another judge stands up for the people with a blistering dissent
November 7, 2014
Judicial dissents often make for the most important, interesting and entertaining reading in major cases.
On California initiatives, money talked, the public interest walked
November 5, 2014
It was obvious from the start that the cascade of corporate cash into ballot initiative campaigns in California this year would be overwhelming. The reality did not disappoint.
The GOP sucked up to the middle class -- but will it deliver?
November 5, 2014
Will Saletan at Slate puts his finger on a fascinating development in the 2014 election: A slew of Republican Senate and House candidates ran on Democratic themes. These included poverty relief, black unemployment, equal pay for women, dismal middle-class economics, income inequality and the protection of Social Security and Medicare.
Does your employer really care about your 'wellness'? Maybe not
November 4, 2014
A federal judge in Minneapolis on Monday refused to block Honeywell International from imposing penalties on workers who refuse to participate in a workplace "wellness" program, denying a request for an injunction by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Pyramid scheme or not, Herbalife is tanking
November 4, 2014
In December 2012, Hedge fund investor Bill Ackman painted a huge bull's-eye on the back of Herbalife, labeling the Los Angeles nutritional supplements company an illegal pyramid scheme and placing a $1-billion short bet against its shares.
Is the U.S. economy in a permanent slump? These economists fear it is
November 3, 2014
The scariest term that economists have been throwing around lately is "secular stagnation." That sounds technical, but it's easy enough to explain: it means the economy is in a slump that it may never be able to escape.
How the IRS 'scandal' put American democracy up for sale: A case study
November 3, 2014
Well-timed to coincide with both the terrors of Halloween and the eve of the election, the Center for Public Integrity delivers a horrifying story about how our lax enforcement of nonprofit regulations led to a torrent of mystery money in a key Senate race this year.
Voters are left in the dark on campaign spending by corporations
November 1, 2014
Voters are usually inclined to vote their pocketbooks. But that's become more difficult with every election, as the pocketbooks that carry the most weight aren't those of the individual voter, but corporations and plutocrats.
A glimmer of hope in Africa: Is Liberia getting Ebola under control?
October 31, 2014
In the Ebola crisis, one seizes on hope where one finds it. At the moment, its unlikely location is Liberia, where World Health Organization officials are cautiously -- very cautiously, hinting that the wave of cases there may be ebbing.
Can scientists patent life? The question returns to the Supreme Court
October 31, 2014
The thorny and unresolved question of whether life itself can be patented may come again before the U.S. Supreme Court, if it accepts a motion filed Friday by Santa Monica-based Consumer Watchdog. (H/T to David Jensen's California Stem Cell Report.)
Today's voting freakout: noncitizens are coming to steal your election
October 31, 2014
With only a few days left before election day, pretexts for panic over the sanctity of the ballot box are dwindling down to a precious few. Two political scientists from Virginia's Old Dominion University have done their part, with an article on the Washington Post's Monkey Cage politics website asserting that control of the Senate could be "decided by illegal votes cast by non-citizens" on Tuesday.
Wall Street talks, companies respond -- by axing thousands of jobs
October 29, 2014
Today's Times business page has a grim cast to it, related to reports of thousands of layoffs provoked not by a bad business climate but by Wall Street investors dissatisfied with their income.
The shame of Mississippi, where racism and stupidity killed Obamacare
October 29, 2014
From Politico and Kaiser Health News comes this jaw-dropping look at Mississippi, the national graveyard of the Affordable Care Act's promise:
This Democratic 'reform' would make Obamacare more expensive. Bad idea.
October 28, 2014
A caucus of seven nervous Democratic senators, led by Mark Begich of Alaska, has been pushing a plan to "reform" the Affordable Care Act by allowing insurers to offer an even skimpier insurance plan than the skimpiest permitted now.
On Jonas Salk's 100th birthday, a celebration of his polio vaccine
October 28, 2014
Few scientific achievements have had as swift and dramatic effect — and been surrounded by as much myth — as the development of the polio vaccine by Jonas Salk, who would have turned 100 on Tuesday.
A new sign that opting out of Medicaid expansion will cost states money
October 27, 2014
The Kaiser Family Foundation's latest issue brief on Medicaid offers new evidence on the fiscal implications for states that have opted out of the Medicaid expansion available under the Affordable Care Act. Opting out, the foundation says, is very costly.
The Atlantic trots out a dubious source to support an Ebola quarantine
October 27, 2014
During a panic as severe as the current Ebola event, it's wise to watch the news media for pointers on the right way and the wrong way to inform the public. What may be a good example of the latter was posted Sunday by The Atlantic, which should know better.
Golden State Water tries to drown Claremont ballot measure
October 25, 2014
Self-preservation is the most basic instinct in nature.
U.S. income inequality is bad, but wealth inequality is a bigger problem
October 24, 2014
Emmanuel Saez, that assiduous tracker of economic inequality in the U.S., has been shifting his attention away from income inequality to a broader, thornier and more intractable issue: wealth inequality. As he observes in a paper published this week at the blog of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, wealth inequality is "exploding," constituting "a direct threat to the cherished American ideals of meritocracy and opportunity."
An updated map: The devastating toll of the anti-vaccination movement
October 24, 2014
Marking Friday as World Polio Day, the Council on Foreign Relations has released an updated map showing the global prevalence of vaccine-preventable diseases. The map was first released in 2011. We commend Laurie Garrett of the CFR for her work pulling together the data, which covers 2008 through this year.
BP breaks new ground in PR, issuing a PR release about its PR release
October 23, 2014
Evidently feeling some heat over a corporate press release that somehow found its way into Politico Magazine masquerading as an "opinion" op-ed, BP took the unusual step Wednesday of issuing a corporate press release about it. If you're counting, that's two press releases for the price of one.
America's middle class knows it faces a grim retirement
October 22, 2014
Wells Fargo did as much as it could to soft-pedal the findings of its fifth-annual Middle Class Retirement Survey, released Wednesday, but the horrific numbers speak for themselves.
BP offers a lesson in how to sugarcoat an environmental disaster
October 22, 2014
The giant oil company BP doesn't do small-scale.
Are the political winds shifting in favor of net neutrality?
October 21, 2014
The unknown factor that keeps advocates of network neutrality up at night is whether our political leaders will have the spine to resist the principle's enemies -- the Comcasts and Verizons of the world, who wish to profiteer from charging website providers extra for preferential access to your home and business.
Vladimir Putin brings the Cold War back to McDonald's
October 20, 2014
McDonald's long has been the great commercial bellwether of Russian-American relations.
How racism underlies voter ID laws: the academics weigh in
October 20, 2014
Are voting laws requiring photo IDs inherently racially discriminatory, as Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg maintained in her blistering dissent Saturday morning?
To Govs. Jindal, Perry: A travel ban won't save lives, but Medicaid will
October 20, 2014
For Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Rick Perry of Texas, two Republican governors thinking about running for president, the Ebola virus has been a heaven-sent opportunity. It has allowed them to swank around as protectors of public health, distracting their audiences from policies they've implemented that really are threats to public health.
Justice Ginsburg sees what motivates Texas' voter ID law: racism
October 18, 2014
As one might expect, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had no difficulty putting her finger on the point of Texas' voter ID law: it's openly racist.
On fiscal policy, USC professor's viewpoint is moral and farsighted
October 18, 2014
"The left sees me as a Wall Street Journal Satanist, and the right as a stealth Marxian bent on destroying free enterprise," Edward D. Kleinbard was saying.
After Ebola ebbs, will the world again leave Africa to die?
October 17, 2014
The problem with crisis-oriented assistance programs in the Third World is that crises, no matter how urgent they are, eventually fade.
The harsh truth about an Ebola vaccine: It's not so simple
October 17, 2014
The popular instinct about the potential of vaccines to address the horrific Ebola outbreak in West Africa is: Why delay? If there's any chance they'll work, let's get them out now.
6 ways to avoid being stupid about Ebola
October 16, 2014
Ebola fever in the United States -- the social, not the medical, phenomenon -- is moving toward a climax.
Why Ezekiel Emanuel is wrong to 'hope' for death at 75
October 16, 2014
Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, eminent oncologist, medical sage, policy advisor to the Obama White House, outspoken defender of the Affordable Care Act — has roiled the political and policy communities, both left and right, with an essay in the Atlantic declaring that he hopes to die at age 75. That's a mere 18 years from now.
An expert's heroic fact-checking of Mitch McConnell on Obamacare
October 15, 2014
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who is facing a stiff reelection challenge this year, has stuck to his stated determination to repeal the Affordable Care Act if his party takes control of the Senate in the next election.
The real story behind the collapse in Southwest's on-time performance
October 14, 2014
Starting last fall, passengers on Southwest Airlines' usually reliable flights began noticing a sharp deterioration in on-time performance. More flights arrived late, and more flights sat on the ground past their departure times, waiting for connecting passengers from flights that arrived late, and so on and so on.
More on why the U.S. was unprepared for Ebola
October 13, 2014
As we reported Sunday, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) engaged in some pointless and uninformed ruminations about the government's response to the Ebola virus.
How Chevron swamps a small city with campaign money and bogus news
October 13, 2014
A few weeks ago, we described how the giant oil company Chevron was barraging little Richmond, Calif. (pop. 107,000), the site of one of its major refineries, with corporate PR disguised as community "news." Its instrument was an objective-looking website, known as the Richmond Standard, purporting to be a news portal for residents of Richmond.
A conservative judge's devastating take on why voter ID laws are evil
October 13, 2014
In a rational world, the debate over voter ID laws would be ended by the eloquent, incisive and angry opinion issued late last week by U.S. Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner of Chicago in a case concerning Wisconsin.
Why don't we have an Ebola 'czar,' Sen. McCain? Because of the NRA
October 12, 2014
Donning the mantle of the nation's scaremonger-in-chief, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., appeared Sunday morning on CNN to weigh in on the latest Ebola news. The nugget he and host Candy Crowley were chewing over was that a healthcare worker who had been helping to care for Thomas Duncan, the Ebola patient who died Wednesday in Dallas, has contracted the disease despite wearing protective gear.
The 5 rules on how to kill a consumer-friendly initiative
October 10, 2014
California's initiative process can shine a bright light on how money and influence work their magic in American politics.
A glimpse into the future: Will our robots have legal rights?
October 10, 2014
One doesn't have to be a fan of Philip K. Dick to recognize that robots are already participating in our daily routines to the extent that their activities have legal implications. That will become more important as they act with more autonomy, and the law will have to change to deal with it.
Annals of corporate co-opting: Another 'independent' news site is born
October 10, 2014
The ingenuity of big corporations knows no bounds, especially when it comes to disguising self-interested PR as objective information. Say hello to the latest such effort, a website devoted to communicating information about "sustainable" -- that is, environmentally friendly -- activities called Collectively.org.
A good day for voting rights -- or is it?
October 10, 2014
Restrictive voter ID laws in Texas and Wisconsin have been blocked by federal judges--in the latter case by the Supreme Court--in what may be harbingers of a judicial pushback against efforts by Republicans to disenfranchise minority voters. Meanwhile the Government Accountability Office released a report documenting that voter ID laws in Kansas and Tennessee succeeded in reducing black voter turnout, as they were devised--let's not beat about the bush--to do.
Did the Nobel Prize just honor a threat to the environment?
October 8, 2014
In one of the more unlikely developments during Nobel Prize season, Science magazine has thrown a dash of cold water on this year's physics Nobel.
More on what makes the 1% so darned wonderful, by yet another courtier
October 7, 2014
The "Think and Grow Rich" genre is one of our oldest categories of self-help claptrap, and endlessly successful in the marketplace.
End of an era: The NYSE floor isn't even good for PR photos anymore
October 7, 2014
The vast bulk of trading of New York Stock Exchange-listed shares moved away from the NYSE floor years ago, but the death knell for human-interactive trading may have been sounded recently when MarketWatch, a Dow Jones-owned news website, said it would no longer use photos from the floor to illustrate its market stories.
Bye-bye, bitcoin? The crypto-currency's price agonies intensify
October 6, 2014
Remember bitcoins?
How a tech entrepreneur is hoping to avoid a huge bill for a tax dodge
October 6, 2014
You don't have to look much further for a taste of what a federal judge recently called "the shenanigans of the rich" than the financial maneuverings of the one-time Silicon Valley millionaire Trip Hawkins.
California strikes a blow for research open access -- but pulls its punch
October 6, 2014
The idea underlying the open access movement in academia is a simple one: most scientific research is funded by the public through federal or state grants. So why should reports of that research be handed over to commercial publishers, which then charge huge subscription fees to universities and libraries to read work the taxpayers have already paid for?
The latest bogus attack on Obamacare: It's anti-innovation!
October 3, 2014
As the Affordable Care Act takes hold as a flag carrier for U.S. healthcare reform, assertions of its deleterious effects become more threadbare and repetitious by the day.
Dear Budweiser: What kind of jerk leaves his dog home alone all night?
October 3, 2014
In the early Tom Hanks comedy "Nothing in Common" (1986), Hanks' youthful advertising executive rips into his creative team for an ad featuring a grandmother flying across country to see her grandchildren. Before leaving home, she's seen sitting at home with her cat.
Obamacare at one year: a birthday assessment
October 2, 2014
The Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, was signed into law on March 23, 2010. Some provisions went into effect by the end of that year and some over the following three years.
In Stockton bankruptcy case, the target is the working class
October 2, 2014
The investment house Franklin Templeton's effort to knock down the city of Stockton's proposal to emerge from bankruptcy portrays the case as one in which Franklin is defending itself against three big, faceless adversaries.
Health insurers spending millions to beat pro-consumer ballot measures
October 1, 2014
The latest campaign spending figures on California's two big healthcare ballot initiatives are just in, courtesy of the watchdog group MapLight, and they're mind-boggling.
Of college football coaches, CEOs, and excessive pay at the top
September 30, 2014
Readers of this blog know that we have an indirect, and fairly mild, rooting interest in University of Michigan Wolverines football.
Watch a conservative economist try to wish income inequality away
September 30, 2014
As America's problems with economic inequality have moved toward the political front burner, conservative economists have stepped up their efforts to explain that it doesn't really exist.
Taking aim at short-sellers, but misfiring
September 29, 2014
Northwest Biotherapeutics, a Bethesda, Md., firm with a purported cancer vaccine in development, has been in a long, bitter battle with short-sellers of its shares. It also has implied that Adam Feuerstein, a reporter for TheStreet.com, may be in cahoots with the shorts.
The moment Bill Gross' days at Pimco became numbered: A broker's view
September 29, 2014
Ever since the bombshell announcement of Bond King Bill Gross' decampment from Pimco to the much smaller Janus Capital, Wall Street pundits and players have been offering their takes on what happened. (Ours is here.)
How did UnitedHealth let so many questionable claims slip past?
September 27, 2014
Here's how the nation's largest health insurance company aided and abetted what it says was a $43-million healthcare fraud.
How Bill Gross and Pimco got too big for each other
September 26, 2014
The instant reaction to the sudden departure of Pimco's bond king, Bill Gross, for Janus Capital is that the move is a disaster for Pimco and a windfall for Janus.
Heritage Foundation: America's poor actually live pretty durn well!
September 25, 2014
The Heritage Foundation has weighed in with its contribution to the enduring conservative effort to paint America's poor as undeserving mooks.
The jury in a mortgage case finally strikes back at fraudulent bankers
September 25, 2014
Given the government's failure to bring criminal cases against bankers and other Wall Street figures for collapsing the U.S. economy in 2008, it's been left to the little guy to strike back.
Faulkner at 117, and the tragedy of race in America
September 25, 2014
William Faulkner, who was born in Mississippi 117 years ago today, was America's poet and prophet of race. It's unconventional to observe a man's 117th birthday, but in the wake of a long summer that brought the nation's unresolved racial divide back to the surface in spectacular fashion, there may be no better time to re-examine how Faulkner understood this unique national burden.
Message to Chase: You know how to stop card hacking, so do it already
September 24, 2014
On Tuesday I got a message from the good people at the fraud alert center at JPMorgan Chase: They'll be sending me a new Chase credit card because "a security breach at The Home Depot" may have put my old one at risk.
A Chevron PR website pretends to be an objective news source
September 22, 2014
If you happened to click Monday on the Richmond Standard, a community news site for that Bay Area locality, you would have come upon a fairly snarky piece about 170 activists ("some from Richmond") who took a train cross-country to participate in the People's Climate March in New York on Sunday.
A voice from the past warns of the Big Money takeover of the university
September 22, 2014
"The present primacy of public relations in the management of universities, the view that they must ingratiate themselves with the public, and in particular with the most wealthy and influential portions of it, the doctrine that a university may properly frame its policies in order to get money and that it may properly teach or study whatever it can get financed--these notions are ruinous to a university in any rational conception of it."
New study shows that the savings from 'tort reform' are mythical
September 20, 2014
"Tort reform," which is usually billed as the answer to "frivolous malpractice lawsuits," has been a central plank in the Republican program for healthcare reform for decades.
Census data on poverty show results of economic policy gone wrong
September 20, 2014
The headline number in last week's release of Census Bureau data on poverty was pretty good. It was widely noted that the rate dropped significantly for the first time since 2006, with especially sharp declines among children and Latino families.
Left and right agree on something at last: Tipping is a management scam
September 19, 2014
In this hyper-polarized world, it's rare to find liberals and conservatives agreeing on anything -- and especially surprising to find them agreeing that hotel housekeepers deserve a raise.
I finally got my iPad to take calls like an iPhone (but it wasn't easy)
September 19, 2014
Two of the neatest features I expected from Apple's new iOS 8 operating system for its mobile devices involve that old disrespected function, voice calling on the phone.
What a lobbyist does: The Lanny Davis/Roger Goodell NFL edition
September 17, 2014
Yes, the best defense is a good offense, but sometimes a bad defense is just a bad defense. Sometimes it even makes things worse. For an example, let's look at the defense mounted for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell by noted Washington lobbyist Lanny Davis.
Question of the day: Is BP run by children?
September 17, 2014
Federal Judge Carl Barbier of New Orleans already has ruled that BP is guilty of "gross negligence" and "willful misconduct" in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. His Sept. 4 finding exposed the British oil firm to as much as $18 billion in penalties.
The NFL scandal shows why you shouldn't get your news from the PR dept.
September 16, 2014
The purchase and sale of news reporters by powerful institutions and influential people are hardly a new phenomenon. But like all manifestations of disproportionate wealth, it's been raised to glorious new heights during the early 21st century.
Why did it take so long for CalPERS to dump its lousy hedge funds?
September 16, 2014
That big thunderclap you might have heard Monday afternoon rumbling from California to the New York island (apologies to Woody Guthrie) was the sound of CalPERS, the nation's largest public pension fund, dumping its entire portfolio of hedge fund investments.
The Salaita case and the Big Money takeover of state universities
September 15, 2014
Responding to an academia-wide furor about the firing of a faculty member over a series of provocative tweets on Israel and Gaza, the University of Illinois board of trustees last week took a vote on the case.
Here's the most hypocritical remark made yet about Dodgers TV fiasco
September 15, 2014
Time Warner Cable, which paid more than top dollar to secure Dodgers telecasts well into the future and then managed to prevent millions of Dodger fans from seeing the games on TV during this (possibly) pennant-winning season, is backing down.
Another Wall Street alarm: Income inequality hurting states' bottom lines
September 15, 2014
Economic analysts at Standard & Poor's sounded the alarm last month on how rising income inequality was putting a damper on U.S. economic growth. They've now followed up that finding with a report outlining its dampening effects on state tax revenues.
Tesla is taking Nevada for a ride
September 13, 2014
The state of Nevada, of all places, should understand the gambler's adage about how if you can't pick out the sucker at your card table, it's you.
Your most important NFL game day analysis tool tracks player arrests
September 12, 2014
Many years ago, I was a cub reporter covering the New York statehouse during a period of amazing corruption. In Albany, the late great investigative reporter Jack Newfield quipped that the arrest rate in the state legislature was higher than it was in the South Bronx. On a metaphorical level, he was right enough.
A 'fact-checking' website doubles down on its Social Security errors
September 12, 2014
It's natural for a self-described "fact-checker" to circle the wagons when his fact-checking is called into question. So the defensive reaction of Dana Tims, the author of a "fact-check" about Social Security that we questioned earlier this week, is understandable.
RIP: The Apple iPod, 2001-2014
September 11, 2014
Quietly, even stealthily, Apple this week brought about that moment that many of its most loyal followers dreaded would happen: It killed off the iPod.
Is Apple stepping into a huge regulatory morass with Apple Pay?
September 11, 2014
Whether Apple Pay is the mobile payment service everyone's been waiting for, or something no one wants, won't be known until it's formally rolled out and given time to either thrive or wither away.
Another 'fact-checker' gets Social Security wrong
September 10, 2014
The rise of fact-checking websites, which aim to run the statements of politicians through the truth wringer, should be a positive development for the Republic. In theory.
What's the problem for which Apple Pay is the solution?
September 10, 2014
The late, great social critic Neil Postman used to pose a question that had to be asked whenever a new technology appeared in the marketplace: "What is the problem to which this is the solution?"
What's wrong with the new conservative answer to Obamacare
September 10, 2014
The best sign that conservatives have finally given up their campaign to repeal the Affordable Care Act is that they've been cooking up proposals to keep some of the ACA's most important provisions in place, without fully abandoning Republican nostrums like tort reform.
Free speech, 'civility,' and how universities are getting them mixed up
September 9, 2014
When someone in power praises the principle of free speech, it's wise to be on the lookout for weasel words. The phrase "I favor constructive criticism," is weaseling. So is, "You can express your views as long as they're respectful." In those examples, "constructive" and "respectful" are modifiers concealing that the speaker really doesn't favor free speech at all.
If government is bad and companies are good, explain San Onofre
September 9, 2014
From the American Enterprise Institute, where private industry goes to have its head stroked and be told it's a good boy, comes the latest installment of a series one could call, "Public sector bad, private enterprise good."
How come nobody talks about the 'Obama bull market'?
September 8, 2014
It was widely noticed two weeks ago that the Standard & Poor's 500 index, the most important stock market indicator, hit a milestone by crossing 2,000 for the first time.
How baseball can dig itself out of its offensive -- and ratings -- slump
September 8, 2014
Those of us reveling in how the Angels have outdistanced the rest of Major League Baseball this season may not have noticed, but the sport has been suffering from a more than decade-long slump in offense. There are signs that the falloff in slugging generally and home runs especially is taking a bite out of the game's TV ratings, which have fallen by roughly 25% or more over the last decade.
The WSJ again wrings its hands over our struggling 1%
September 7, 2014
In the latest example of a curious journalistic genre--the pain and suffering of the 1%--the Wall Street Journal asks us this weekend to commiserate with six-figure income-earners facing bankruptcy.
What's behind health regulators' bickering over Prop. 45?
September 6, 2014
Tolstoy's line about all unhappy families being unhappy in their own way hardly needs validation from us in the 21st century. But still it would be interesting to see what he'd make of the increasingly bitter division between two state agencies that should be working hand in hand to improve health insurance coverage for Californians: the state's individual health insurance exchange, Covered California; and the Department of Insurance.
The November election is already drowning in big, secret donations
September 5, 2014
Labor Day is past and the race is on to fill the pockets of political campaign committees of all stripes, ahead of November's midterm election.
That predicted double-digit rise in Obamacare premiums? Not happening
September 5, 2014
Another stake in the heart of a popular anti-Obamacare claim has arrived from the Kaiser Family Foundation, which compiled the projected premium changes for 2015 in 15 states and the District of Columbia.
Bulletin: Economist magazine rediscovers that slavery was bad
September 5, 2014
The award for fastest climbdown of the year (so far) goes to The Economist. The magazine already has withdrawn and apologized for a review in its latest issue that criticized a forthcoming book by Cornell historian Edward Baptist for being just too negative about the institution of slavery in the South.
A discredited old yarn resurfaces about who 'invented' email
September 4, 2014
The Huffington Post has been running an enormous five-part series about the invention of email. It's a heartwarming story. It begins:
The Rove rule: When all else fails, make 'Obamacare' a dirty word
September 3, 2014
The disconnect between what Americans think of most provisions of Obamacare (love them!) and what they think of "Obamacare" (hate it!) has been the most perplexing aspect of rollout of the Affordable Care Act.
Rich, educated and stupid parents are driving the vaccination crisis
September 3, 2014
The most shocking and disheartening story you'll read in the Los Angeles Times today may be our piece on the stunning decline in vaccination rates among California's kindergarten-age children.
Dog-abusing CEO is out at Centerplate
September 2, 2014
Those ill-placed kicks at a defenseless, cowering puppy have cost Centerplate CEO Desmond Hague his job. The company announced Tuesday that he has resigned and replaced on an acting basis by Chief Operating Officer Chris Verros.
The homecoming: Eric Cantor lands on Wall Street
September 2, 2014
One of the unappreciated pleasures in this fame-besotted world is reading a celebrity newspaper or magazine profile and thinking: I wonder what the truth is, really.
Just who would be 'freed' if the Obamacare subsidies are thrown out?
September 2, 2014
The most cynical claim made by the promoters of the Halbig lawsuit over Affordable Care Act subsidies is that they're standing up for "freedom."
Los Angeles joins the local movement to raise the minimum wage
September 2, 2014
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti marked Labor Day on Monday by proposing a minimum wage increase for workers in LA, to $13.25 an hour by 2017. The city would join a host of municipalities nationwide that have taken matters into their own hands in the face of resolute inaction by Congress.
A sour mood despite sweeter outlook
August 29, 2014
This week brought another nugget of good economic news for the U.S. economy. Gross domestic product expanded at a healthy annual rate of 4.2% in the second quarter — a slight upward revision from the earlier reading by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
The Josh Shaw case: Another sign that big-college football must go
August 28, 2014
The joke around Southern California long has been that Los Angeles doesn't need an NFL team because it already has a pro franchise -- USC football. The Josh Shaw case is another indication that the joke's on USC.
A (rather misleading) message from Comcast on net neutrality
August 27, 2014
Say this for Politico and the daily Playbook emails it blasts out to a large circle of Washington opinion makers and their ilk: They make it easy to keep track of the latest lobbying balderdash put out by big corporations. That's because the lobbying messages show up as advertising messages in the Playbook emails.
The right wing steps up its attack on the teaching of U.S. history
August 27, 2014
It appears that the right's effort to suck the teaching of advanced U.S. history into the culture wars won't be going away soon.
Warren Buffett is 'betting against America' on Burger King. Or is he?
August 26, 2014
Back in February, in his annual message to shareholders in his company Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett said this:
Another GOP state may be signing up for Medicaid, and the reason is obvious
August 25, 2014
Reports out of Cheyenne say that Wyoming is finally talking to federal officials about expanding Medicaid.
Wisconsin shows how job incentives are handed out -- in Bizarro world
August 25, 2014
Via the Wisconsin State Journal of Madison, we learn of the zany way that political officials in that state are handing out job-creation funds. Long story short, they've voted to hand over $6 million in taxpayer cash to a company that's planning to cut its Wisconsin work force in half.
A women's rights victory as California nixes an attack on abortion coverage
August 25, 2014
With minimal fanfare, California state officials have nixed an underhanded effort by two Catholic-affiliated universities and their insurers to deprive the universities' employees of insurance coverage for abortions.
Big business takes aim at corporate activists
August 23, 2014
"Shareholder democracy" long has been derided as an oxymoron, like "military intelligence" or "jumbo shrimp." Yes, corporate managements bow endlessly to the mandate that they act exclusively in the shareholders' interest, but in real life they treat the poor sap with a few hundred shares as hardly more important than the night janitor.
What the history of Medicare Part D can tell us about Obamacare
August 22, 2014
How Americans will take to the Affordable Care Act over the long haul may be hard to predict, but mapping out its future course need not be entirely the product of guesswork. That's because we have a model on which to base our predictions: Medicare Part D, the prescription drug benefit enacted just over 10 years ago.
The case against school vouchers in one blistering court ruling
August 22, 2014
Of all the self-interested scams perpetrated by school "reformers" against public education, the school voucher scam may be the most dishonest.
Economic harassment and the Ferguson crisis
August 21, 2014
Scratch any social crisis, and you're likely to find economics not far below the surface. Via ArchCity Defenders, a St. Louis legal-aid nonprofit, we can see how this has worked to create the dismaying spectacle of the breakdown of justice in Ferguson. (H/t Alex Tabarrok, via Kevin Drum.)
A fair-minded pundit falls into a right-wing trap on Social Security
August 20, 2014
New York Magazine's Jonathan Chait is usually a judicious and perceptive analyst of the intersection between politics and economics. So it's disappointing to see him blindly falling in step with a conservative attack on Social Security.
Republicans throw a conniption over the teaching of U.S. history
August 19, 2014
As students prepare to return to school in the next few weeks, there's no better time for a conservative freakout over education. The issue of the moment is a new outline, or "framework," issued by the College Board for advanced placement classes in US history.
A few (impolite) questions about the ice bucket challenge
August 18, 2014
Americans are probably not unique in the world in treating philanthropy as a sort of game, with the goal of making it go down painlessly.
NCAA antitrust ruling barely chips at college sports dysfunction
August 17, 2014
On Sept. 4, 2010, at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, I was part of what the public address announcer proudly told us was the largest crowd ever to watch a football game anywhere in the world, college or pro.
A judge just rescued Sherlock Holmes from an extortion threat
August 15, 2014
When last we visited with Sherlock Holmes, a federal judge had just saved him from the clutches of perhaps his most menacing foe ever -- the copyright law.
New data: How the attack on contraceptive services targets the poor
August 15, 2014
The political attack on contraceptive services and family planning is often depicted as an attack on all women. So it is, but new data show how it's become a particular burden on low-income women.
Did Los Alamos fire a researcher for questioning U.S. nuclear doctrine?
August 15, 2014
Los Alamos may be a government laboratory with lots of classified secrets, but it also guarantees its researchers intellectual freedom on a par with that enjoyed by university professors. Political scientist James Doyle says that freedom was violated when he was fired last month after questioning U.S. nuclear weapons doctrine in a published article.
Latest Obamacare freakout: enrollment 'plummeting' (Spoiler: not so)
August 13, 2014
In the latest leg of their endless journey to find bad news about the Affordable Care Act, conservative analysts and websites have seized on some ambiguous figures to declare that enrollment is "plummeting," "shrinking," "sinking rapidly"--choose your headline.
Politically connected companies get a break from the SEC, study says
August 12, 2014
The working assumption of business executives and ordinary taxpayers alike is that political donations can buy big favors from Congress.
Racism, the misuse of genetics and a huge scientific protest
August 12, 2014
"A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race, and Human History" is the new book by science writer Nicholas Wade that asserts a genetic basis for certain human behaviors and distinguishes them by race. It's been widely panned in book reviews, especially by experts in the fields of science and social science touched on by the work.
A timely warning from the feds: Bitcoins are the 'Wild West'
August 12, 2014
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, that whipping boy of big-business conservatives everywhere, demonstrated its value to the average consumer this week by explaining the pitfalls of bitcoins and other such "virtual currencies."
Is US academic freedom a casualty of the Israeli-Palestinian debate?
August 11, 2014
Steven Salaita is a respected scholar in American Indian studies and Israeli-Arab relations, which got him hired recently to a tenured position at the University of Illinois.
How a public panic can cast a long shadow: The Nazi summer camp story
August 11, 2014
Audrey Amidon of the National Archives has unearthed and documented a fascinating glimpse of pre-World War II America--films of a Nazi summer camp in upstate New York in 1937, built to indoctrinate the children of German American families in Nazi values. (H/t to Erik Loomis for bringing Amidon's post to our attention.)
Obama strikes a blow against the scourge of forced arbitration
August 8, 2014
Little noticed in coverage of President Obama's signing of the Fair Play and Safe Workplaces executive order July 31 was a provision that has been called "one of the most important positive steps for civil rights in the last 20 years."
The mystery of the missing Social Security data
August 8, 2014
Retirement expert Alicia Munnell of Boston College has brought a simmering Social Security mystery out into the open: Why were key figures about the program's benefits for retirees deleted from the latest trustees' report?
A Koch op-ed that USA Today should have fact-checked -- but didn't
August 7, 2014
Ever solicitous of underprivileged people who have no other way to get their voices heard, USA Today turned over some of its precious op-ed space Wednesday to billionaire Charles Koch, so he might offer his views on "how to really turn the economy around."
Here's how an unhappy judge approves a Wall Street wrist-slapping
August 6, 2014
New York federal Judge Jed S. Rakoff has been the strongest voice on the bench for bringing Wall Street wrongdoers to justice.
A newspaper fact-checks its own right-wing op-ed; hilarity ensues
August 5, 2014
The Kansas City Star probably thought it was on solid ground when it published an op-ed by Stephen Moore defending the draconian, and economically debilitating, tax cuts instituted by Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback. (We reported on how the tax cuts have turned Kansas into a smoking ruin here.)
Dire warning from Wall Street: income inequality hurts U.S. growth
August 5, 2014
Academic economists have been warning for years that rising economic inequality in the United States is hampering economic growth and punching holes in the social fabric. (See, for example, Piketty and Saez.) But they're only professors, after all, so it's been easy for their views to be ignored by bankers and investment types.
The NLRB-McDonald's ruling could be the beginning of a franchise war
August 4, 2014
It has been accurately observed that a single sentence in a terse ruling issued last week by the general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board has the potential to bring U.S. labor law into sync with the 21st century.
The economics of Ebola, or why there's no cure
August 4, 2014
Of all the horrific features of Ebola disease--its deadliness, its virulence--perhaps the scariest is that there's no cure.
Close loopholes that let U.S. firms avoid taxes by using inversions
August 2, 2014
It's both endearing and infuriating to watch American corporate executives wring their hands about how the injustices of the U.S. tax code are forcing them — forcing them! — to reincorporate overseas through the procedure known as inversion.
What happens when a state tries to make Obamacare work -- or not work
August 1, 2014
There were signs almost from the start that the great unknown about the Affordable Care Act was how effectively individual states would implement the law. The question got more complicated after the Supreme Court turned one of the key provisions, the expansion of Medicaid, into a state option.
Neel Kashkari goes slumming, misses the bus
August 1, 2014
Former investment banker Neel Kashkari, who is the Republican candidate for governor of California, staged a bravura act of political agitprop the other day.
PG&E, our indifferent regulators, and the 8 dead of San Bruno
July 30, 2014
If you're curious about how Pacific Gas & Electric managed to flout gas line safety rules for years, and why there's reason to doubt that the California Public Utilities Commission will hold the company fully responsible for the explosion that destroyed a California neighborhood in 2010, here's the answer.
When universities sell their souls, why do they have to sell so cheaply?
July 30, 2014
Via Erik Loomis comes this report of a university engaging, not to put too fine a point on it, in the world's oldest profession.
The dollar store merger shows just how badly Americans are doing
July 29, 2014
Mergers-and-acquisition types on Wall Street are no doubt cackling over the proposed $8.5-billion merger of Dollar Tree and Family Dollar Stores -- and why not, since it was spurred in part by corporate sharpshooter Carl Icahn?
This billionaire is still trying to make you panic about federal debt
July 29, 2014
Crusaders know they're nothing without something to crusade against. That's undoubtedly why hedge fund billionaire Peter G. Peterson keeps harping on the federal debt.
Good news and warnings in the Social Security and Medicare reports
July 28, 2014
The release of the annual trustees reports for Social Security and Medicare customarily give rise to an outburst of disinformation from the enemies of these social insurance programs -- that comes with the territory when you're putting out documents of hundreds of pages densely packed with graphs, charts and statistics.
Finally! An app to turn the ordinary person into a criminal
July 28, 2014
Via this recent piece in Wired, we are introduced to a breakthrough in technological services that could make everyone's home or office immeasurably less secure and give almost everyone with a cellphone the opportunity to become a burglar.
Here's the single best analysis of the Halbig anti-Obamacare ruling
July 28, 2014
Northwestern University law and political science professor Andrew Koppelman moves past the absurd legal theory underlying the Halbig ruling on the Affordable Care Act -- in which a federal appeals court invalidated subsidies provided to insurance buyers on federal, as opposed to state, insurance exchanges -- to ask why the lawsuit's backers brought the case in the first place.
Conservative hostility to Dodd-Frank continues unabated
July 25, 2014
You might have thought, listening to the general political discourse, that the Affordable Care Act is the single greatest economic threat foisted on us by Congress in recent years.
The poison pill at the heart of Paul Ryan's poverty plan
July 25, 2014
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), this week revived his quest to be taken seriously as a "reformist" conservative ("reformicon" is becoming the preferred terminology) by releasing a position paper on refashioning the federal government's poverty programs.
California's stem cell scandal gets worse
July 25, 2014
Anyone who cares about the advance of medical science and about the promise of biotechnology should be dismayed by how badly the California stem cell agency has handled its latest conflict-of-interest scandal.
Dr. Strangelove explains the stupidity of Halbig ruling on Obamacare
July 25, 2014
The controversial appeals court ruling Tuesday in the Halbig case turned on the question of whether Congress intended to withhold health insurance subsidies from people who enrolled through federal rather than state exchanges.
A new right-wing claim: Obama must be lying about inflation!
July 23, 2014
Obama birth-truthers are so 2008. (When your movement's leading intellectual is Donald Trump, you know your time has passed.) The new meme on the right appears to be inflation-truthing. This is the assertion that President Obama is deliberately low-balling inflation numbers to make his economic record look better.
The latest Obamacare rulings: A roundup of the damage reports
July 23, 2014
For a brief moment Tuesday, it looked as though the Affordable Care Act was in big trouble, for a three-judge panel of the federal appeals court for the District of Columbia had overturned federal insurance subsidies for insurance buyers in 36 states.
Conflicts of interest pervasive on California stem cell board
July 19, 2014
There's no good time for a public agency to be embroiled in a conflict-of-interest scandal, but this is an especially delicate time for California's stem cell agency.
Who is taking California's water?
July 16, 2014
As California's drought really starts to bite--the mandatory water use restrictions approved by the state Tuesday are just the beginning--questions are bound to be raised about the indescribably wasteful use of water to retail bottlers.
Hobby Lobby's harvest: A religious exemption for LGBT discrimination?
July 16, 2014
Events in the real world continue to mock the assertion by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito that his majority opinion in the Hobby Lobby case is a "narrow" one.
Proof that the point of the IRS 'scandal' was to cut the IRS budget
July 15, 2014
It was obvious almost from the inception of the ginned-up IRS "scandal" that its goal was to intimidate the agency into allowing bogus nonprofits to funnel cash into election campaigns.
Listen: Is this the all-time most horrible cable service call, ever?
July 15, 2014
Last week Ryan Block, the former editor of Engadget, called Comcast to disconnect his cable and Internet service. His intention was to shift to Astound, a local provider in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The grim warning for the gambling industry in Atlantic City's implosion
July 14, 2014
The news from the casino industry in Atlantic City, N.J., has been implacably, relentlessly horrific.
Who gains from those drug discount deals? (Spoiler: Drug companies)
July 14, 2014
The pharmaceutical industry has been bragging for nearly a decade now about its efforts to help cash-strapped patients pay for expensive prescription drugs.
The Supreme Court and the flow of history
July 11, 2014
The Supreme Court doesn't only make history. Sometimes it's swept along by historical waves, and sometimes it's caught up trying to resist them.
Is literature dead? Or, how to read books in the digital age
July 11, 2014
Several recent articles appearing online have pointed to a couple of burning questions about book-reading in this overstuffed era: Why do people buy books they have no intention of reading? And, how can one ever find the time to read a book at all?
Why are 600 brain scientists protesting a huge brain research study?
July 11, 2014
You don't often see scientific researchers turning up their noses at nearly a billion and a half dollars in government funding. Still more rarely will the elite of a research field threaten to boycott a huge international project in their field en masse.
How Tea Party tax cuts are turning Kansas into a smoking ruin
July 10, 2014
Sam Brownback, the Republican governor of Kansas, doesn't just believe in whistling past the graveyard--he's willing to stroll past it in full-throated song.
A fraud accusation like nothing you've seen before
July 9, 2014
It can be hard to keep up with the latest examples of fraud rings and other organized wrongdoing, but here's one that takes the cake: the scientific monthly Journal of Vibration and Control is retracting 60 articles "implicated in a peer review and citation ring."
The right sharpens its knives for Social Security disability, again
July 9, 2014
As we all know, the official animal of Washington, D.C., is the scapegoat. Today's example is Carolyn W. Colvin, the acting commissioner of Social Security.
Corporate tax scam watch: The 'inversion' craze
July 8, 2014
Apple's done it. Herbalife has done it. Pfizer wanted to do it. What could be wrong with a corporate maneuver eyed by these fine, upstanding American corporations--and nearly 50 others in the last decade?
Farewell to the big-screen plasma TV
July 7, 2014
Via Reuters comes the news that Samsung, one of the last major manufacturers of plasma TV screens, will shut down production by the end of November. Panasonic had already stopped making plasma panels, and South Korea's LG will end production soon.
Memo to The New Yorker: yesterday's plutocrats weren't 'progressives'
July 7, 2014
In a piece about the whining crybabies among our privileged 1%, James Surowiecki of the New Yorker compares the plutocrats of today to those of the past, to the contemporary breed's disadvantage.
The BBC takes a strong stand against promoting fake science
July 7, 2014
Last week, the British Broadcasting Corp. disclosed an ongoing effort to teach its staff how to distinguish real science from bogus science, and the importance of keeping the latter off the airwaves.
Does America have the political maturity for single-payer healthcare?
July 3, 2014
Responding to my post about how the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby ruling demonstrates the necessity of a single-payer healthcare system, Ezra Klein raises the specter of unrestrained political interference in healthcare decisions.
Facebook on its mood manipulation study: Another non-apology apology
July 2, 2014
There may be no company on Earth more experienced at saying "we're sorry, but not really" than Facebook.
Danger sign: The Supreme Court has already expanded Hobby Lobby decision
July 2, 2014
The Supreme Court wasted no time in delivering a message to anyone who thought its Hobby Lobby ruling was limited to religious objections to coverage of purported abortion methods:
A scary science mystery: What happened to the ocean's plastic trash?
July 1, 2014
Today's science mystery comes courtesy of researchers from Australia, Spain and Saudi Arabia, who have been traveling the seven seas tracking ocean-borne human refuse, much of it plastic. According to their report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, some 99% of the expected debris is missing.
A Nobel laureate punctures the myth of the American 'golden age'
July 1, 2014
Nobel economist Joseph E. Stiglitz has taken aim at the enduring and dangerous myth that the postwar years ushered in an American golden age of opportunity that can, or should, be recaptured today.
The Hobby Lobby case proves the necessity of single-payer healthcare
July 1, 2014
Is there anything more absurd than the American way of delivering healthcare coverage?
Supreme Court on unions: Could have been worse, but still not good
June 30, 2014
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia could have ridden to the rescue of public employee unions in Harris vs. Quinn, the important labor rights case the Court decided Monday, as some scholars thought he might. But he didn't.
Facebook's user manipulation study: Why you should be very afraid
June 30, 2014
Facebook just doesn't get it.
Supreme Court: Yes, (some) corporations can pray--and you'll all pay
June 30, 2014
In its decision Monday in the Hobby Lobby case, the conservative Supreme Court majority that upheld corporations' religious objections to birth control spends an inordinate amount of time defending itself from the reasoning and wrath of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's dissent.
Healthcare debate lacks factual arguments against Obamacare
June 28, 2014
Americans have always been a politically contentious lot. But one topic seems to produce more pure vitriol than any other: the Affordable Care Act.
Infrastructure building is historically cheap. Why has it stopped?
June 27, 2014
Via Twitter, Erik Brynjolffsson of MIT posts a graph similar to the one above and asks:
I doubted Heritage could run a 'straight' news site. I was right.
June 27, 2014
Back in May, the right-wing Heritage Foundation launched the Daily Signal, which it said would be a paragon of nonpartisan "just true, straight-down-the-middle journalism."
Stupid customer service math, health club edition
June 27, 2014
Tell me if this has happened to you:
The war on the have-nots: How Detroit resembles Ukraine
June 26, 2014
You may have read recently about the daily struggle for survival in parts of Ukraine and Crimea, where warring pro- and anti-Russian forces are using basic necessities of life, such as water, as weapons against the civilian population. The consequences shock the world's conscience.
Meet today's right-wing political football: The Ex-Im Bank
June 24, 2014
The new House majority leader, Republican Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield, wasted no time this week establishing his bona fides with the right wing of his party. He went on "Fox News Sunday" to declare that he was in favor of shutting down the Export-Import Bank.
Water war bubbling up between California and Arizona
June 20, 2014
Once upon a time, California and Arizona went to war over water.
Dr. Oz, still shilling as fast as he can
June 20, 2014
My colleague Robin Abcarian caught up this week with the antics of Dr. Mehmet Oz, that outstanding shill for oils-of-snake of every description.
Can we finally agree that Obamacare is working?
June 20, 2014
At the end of a war, some people will remain holed up in the trees, thinking they can still turn the tide of a lost cause. Increasingly, that's the best description of the anti-Obamacare dead-enders, including congressional Republicans, who continue to depict the Affordable Care Act as a failure despite facts like these:
American Apparel saga: Why did it take so long to sack Dov Charney?
June 20, 2014
The American Apparel story is a saga of sleazy behavior and flagrant dereliction of duty. No, we're not talking about the Los Angeles company's founder, chairman and CEO, Dov Charney, though he's bad enough.
How risky investment bets helped cripple a major university
June 19, 2014
Yeshiva University in New York fessed up years ago to having lost more than $100 million in Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme.
Social Security's continuing assault on its own customer service
June 18, 2014
It would be incorrect to call the dramatic deterioration in customer service and outreach at the Social Security Administration a dirty little secret.
U.S. patent office agrees: 'Redskins' is racist
June 18, 2014
Dealing a blow to efforts by Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder and the National Football League to defend the team's nickname, a panel of administrative judges at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Wednesday canceled the team's trademarks.
The U.S. healthcare system: worst in the developed world
June 17, 2014
The U.S. healthcare system notched another dubious honor in a new comparison of its quality to the systems of 10 other developed countries: its rank was dead last.
Bad government programs watch: Promoting milk as a health food
June 16, 2014
In a detailed new report, public health advocate Michele Simon examines the distinct drawbacks of government programs to promote dairy consumption.
Why did NBC reportedly pay Chelsea Clinton $600,000 a year?
June 16, 2014
NBC's hiring of Chelsea Clinton as a "special correspondent" in its news division was widely recognized as an exercise in corporate cynicism when it was announced in November 2011.
Why did NBC pay Chelsea Clinton $600,000 a year?
June 16, 2014
NBC's hiring of Chelsea Clinton as a "special correspondent" in its news division was widely recognized as an exercise in corporate cynicism when it was announced in November 2011.
Santa Susana toxic cleanup effort is a mess
June 13, 2014
Any way you cut it, the situation at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory site outside Simi Valley is a mess.
Teacher tenure case: Another sign the judge's ruling deserves an F
June 12, 2014
That most percipient education critic, Diane Ravitch, takes a closer look at Judge Rolf Treu's verdict overturning California's job protections for teachers, and finds indications that he approached his task with a closed mind.
A physicist looks at Cespedes' incredible throw vs. Angels
June 12, 2014
People will be talking for ages about the incredible throw uncorked by Oakland A's left fielder Yoenis Cespedes on Tuesday night to nail the Angels' Howie Kendrick at home.
Why that ruling against teacher tenure won't help your schoolchildren
June 11, 2014
Tuesday's ruling by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Rolf Treu declaring all sorts of job protections for teachers "unconstitutional" is being hailed by a certain category of education activists.
Did a computer finally pass the Turing Test? Signs point to 'no.'
June 11, 2014
The world of high-tech hype was thrown on its ear over the weekend by the news that a computer had passed the "Turing Test" for the first time. The idea was that a machine had finally breached a threshold distinguishing human intelligence from artificial intelligence.
The House readies a new attack on scientific research
June 10, 2014
There's something about science that makes politicians nervous. The scientific process is unruly. It takes longer to bear fruit than the two-year congressional election cycle. Its results almost always undermine political ideologies.
BP loses another round in its battle to stiff oil spill victims
June 10, 2014
Oil giant BP this week extended its .000 batting streak in its effort to kill its own settlement in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster, losing a bid to have the Supreme Court halt payments to spill victims while it stretched out its appeal.
Latest sign the tech bubble's really here: Uber valued at $17 billion
June 9, 2014
The ride-sharing app company Uber last week raised $1.2 billion in venture capital on terms that valued the company at $17 billion. As Will Oremus at Slate.com observed, that's almost as much as Hertz and Avis combined.
Inequality fact: The rising tide stopped lifting all boats in 1970
June 9, 2014
Reliable conservative Stephen Moore of the Heritage Foundation purported to discover an embarrassing fact about income inequality last week: inequality was greater in "blue" states than in "red" states.
City attorney takes aim at big banks
June 7, 2014
Much of what Los Angeles City Atty. Mike Feuer alleges in his lawsuits against four big banks for their mortgage and foreclosure practices isn't debatable.
Bobby Jindal's huge favor for his pals in the oil and gas industry
June 6, 2014
Despite frantic warnings from legal experts around the country and from his own attorney general, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on Friday signed a bill killing a local coastal agency's lawsuit against the oil and gas industry.
How to solve a consumer ripoff by creating a new ripoff
June 6, 2014
Several weeks ago, Ticketmaster settled a long-running class action lawsuit over its ticket fees by agreeing to give aggrieved concertgoers a discount on future fees.
The jobs report, in 7 easy charts
June 6, 2014
It took a demoralizing 76 months, but with Friday's report of a gain of 217,000 nonfarm jobs in May, U.S. employment has finally exceeded prerecession levels.
U.S. appeals court endorses wrist-slaps for bank wrongdoing
June 4, 2014
U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff, the federal judiciary's most outspoken critic of court settlements that let Wall Street bankers off easy, has been slapped down again.
Why baseball has gotten a lot less fun to watch this year
June 4, 2014
Devoted baseball fans surely have noticed that a certain tradition has been missing from the game this season. Yes, it's those volcanic, spittle-flecked donnybrooks between managers and umpires that used to lend so much sudden drama to the action on the field.
Ex-Sen. Scott Brown, business doofus
June 3, 2014
Via Charlie Pierce and the Boston Globe comes this priceless vignette of the bizarre marriage pairing former Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) with a publicly traded would-be West Palm Beach, Fla., gun manufacturer named Global Digital Solutions Inc.
Seattle's grand experiment with the minimum wage
June 3, 2014
Seattle this week saw and raised skeptics on the minimum wage, as its City Council unanimously approved a $15 hourly minimum for the lowest-paid workers. The nation's highest minimum wage will kick in over the next seven years, depending on the size of the employer and the benefits paid.
Environment trumps politics: The U.S. takes a stand on climate change
June 2, 2014
In a single stroke Monday, the Obama administration opened a two-front war against the forces of scientific ignorance and political inertia.
A conservative tries in vain to show his 'compassion' for poor kids
June 2, 2014
In his continuing effort to prove that cutting government benefit programs such as disability is actually good for beneficiaries, such as the disabled -- after all, that's what "compassionate conservatism" is all about -- Scott Winship responds to my earlier post describing the underlying theme of his program as "contempt for the underprivileged."
Cholera cure or basketball: What's the best way to spend $2 billion?
June 2, 2014
Kevin Outterson of Boston University's School of Public Health raises the question, a little mischievously, of whether Steve Ballmer's $2 billion is really being put to the greatest possible social use.
Edison's San Onofre settlement mirrors bailouts of banks
May 30, 2014
The concept of a corporation "too big to fail" is typically applied to big banks, usually as an explanation of why they haven't been brought to book for their role in the 2008 crash and why their top executives still roam free through corporate suites and across country club fairways.
Patent trolls win a huge victory in Congress; consumers lose
May 30, 2014
A couple of weeks ago, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), killed a major piece of patent reform legislation, presumably for the year. The tech community is still shaking in dismay, and you should too.
The anti-vaccination movement drives measles to a 20-year record high
May 30, 2014
The measles threat continues to grow, thanks to the anti-vaccination movement.
How Justice Scalia could become the savior of public employee unions
May 29, 2014
Organized labor is on tenterhooks these days over a pending Supreme Court ruling that could spell life or death for public employee unions.
Did Sheryl 'Lean In' Sandberg turn her back on Boston hotel workers?
May 28, 2014
Sheryl Sandberg may be finding that the problem with turning herself into an advocate for unappreciated women in the workplace is that there are a lot of unappreciated women out there who need her help.
Do people really overuse healthcare when it's free?
May 28, 2014
Call it the "skin-in-the-game" argument: the notion that people will use medical care more sparingly -- and presumably more prudently -- if they have to pay a larger share of the costs out of their own pockets.
A 'porno-troll' gets slapped down by another federal judge
May 27, 2014
Lawyers formerly associated with the strange legal phenomenon known as Prenda Law Group, who have inspired disdain among judges all about the country, added to their brigade of critics Tuesday.
Conservative 'compassion' for the underprivileged blows another fuse
May 27, 2014
The conservative movement last week unveiled another effort to show that compassion for the downtrodden of society is what really animates its economic policies, which on the surface appear designed to widen the gap between the haves and the have-nots.
Comcast deploys its army of revolving-door lobbyists against the FCC
May 27, 2014
Every big company tries to snag former Washington insiders for its lobbying team; the revolving door, after all, is what makes public service a stepping stone to personal wealth in the modern age.
Will PokerStars be dealt out of legalized online poker in California?
May 24, 2014
In legislative proceedings, the most important words in a debate often are the ones left unmentioned. At a hearing held by a California state assembly committee last month about legalizing online poker, the unspoken term was PokerStars.
Addicted-doctors bill dies in committee -- and good riddance
May 23, 2014
Word reaches us today from Sacramento of the death of a shameful bill written by California medical lobbyists to resurrect a failed addiction treatment program for doctors. Patients should be happy to see the measure laid to rest.
Charles Blahous says I misquoted him. The record disagrees.
May 23, 2014
Charles Blahous, one of the public trustees of Social Security, has been on the warpath over how I reported his views on the burning question of whether Social Security contributes to the federal deficit.
Tim Geithner gets FDR very wrong (but so did Obama)
May 23, 2014
It's necessary to correct an old canard repeated by former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner about Franklin Roosevelt's behavior in the long interregnum between the 1932 election and his 1933 inauguration.
Party doesn't govern lawmakers' stance on net neutrality -- money does
May 22, 2014
It's tempting to think of the network neutrality battle as one fought in Washington along party lines -- after all, that's true of almost everything in the capital.
On the gulf oil spill, BP moves to prolong the courtroom agony
May 21, 2014
Running true to form, BP announced today that it will continue its effort to undermine a legal settlement the company itself helped craft by taking its campaign to the Supreme Court.
Could Microsoft quietly be winning the tech wars?
May 21, 2014
Is Microsoft actually beating its high-tech competitors? That could be the hidden message in the presentation by Cisco Systems Chairman and CEO John Chambers at a company conference this week.
The effort to reform Proposition 13 advances, by a very tiny step
May 20, 2014
It's not always politics that makes strange bedfellows, but urgency. That's what's driving the sudden popularity of an effort to reform Proposition 13 by eliminating what has long been one of its most flagrant loopholes for commercial property owners.
On the gulf oil spill, BP has an 0-for-2 day in court
May 20, 2014
BP, the giant oil company that was responsible for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, has been moving mountains to persuade the public that it's being rooked by a lot of small businessmen filing claims related to the disaster. Adding to the irony, the company is claiming that settlement terms it agreed to are at fault.
Jill Abramson proves commencement talks are meant to be forgotten
May 20, 2014
If ever there was a chance to give a rabble-rousing commencement speech devoid of forgettable platitudes, Jill Abramson had it. She declined.
'Dr. Strangelove' at 50
May 19, 2014
"It remains as outrageously prankish, juvenile, and derisive as ever," writes David Denby in the New Yorker magazine's blog. He's referring to a true monument of 1960s nuclear-paranoid culture, Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove."
The Dodgers TV debacle shows the peril in the AT&T/DirecTV deal
May 19, 2014
My colleagues Jim Peltz and Bill Plaschke both reviewed the ongoing fiasco of the Dodgers' TV rights deal this weekend. Both came to the same conclusion--that it's a disaster for the ball club and for the fans. Frankly, who could look at the facts and conclude anything else?
A conservative defends Geithner on Social Security--and gets it wrong
May 19, 2014
It's not surprising that former Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's astonishing misconception about Social Security should be seconded by conservatives. After all, his assertion that the program adds to the federal deficit (aired in his new book, "Stress Test") is a claim they've been making for years to undermine confidence in the program.
Bill about doctors' substance abuse would compromise patient safety
May 17, 2014
If anyone should know how to steer clear of cures that are worse than the disease, it's doctors.
The Bitcoin Foundation discovers the limits of anarchy
May 16, 2014
Today's obligatory shudder in the edifice that is Bitcoin is a report that several members of the Bitcoin Foundation have resigned over the recent election of Brock Pierce, an investor who has been accused of child molestation, to the foundation's board.
Proof those 'Freakonomics' guys don't know much about healthcare
May 16, 2014
Noah Smith at noahpinion reports on how those bestselling "Freakonomics" authors/entrepreneurs Steven D. Levitt (an economist) and Stephen J. Dubner (a wordsmith) revealed the limits of their brand of pop economics with an anecdote they tell about an encounter with British Prime Minister David Cameron. (Their meeting took place before he became PM.)
Today's huge surprise: House GOP opposes net neutrality
May 15, 2014
The commencement speaker boondoggle
May 14, 2014
With commencement season heading into full swing, the scandal du jour is the rising number of speakers hounded off their graduation podiums (podia?) by student protests or threats thereof.
The dirty truth about the GOP attack on Obamacare: It worked
May 14, 2014
A crucial component of the Republican Party's assault on the Affordable Care Act always has been ignorance--that is, the promotion of ignorance about the ACA's benefits among the general population.
What Tim Geithner doesn't know about Social Security is ... shocking
May 13, 2014
Former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's memoir, "Stress Test," is being picked apart fairly intensively by the Washington and Wall Street press gangs, who are busily retailing the book's snarks and slights.
SEC peeks under private equity rug, finds 'remarkable' corruption
May 13, 2014
U.S. private equity firms, which today control a record $3.5 trillion in assets, fought ferociously against a Dodd-Frank reform provision requiring that they register with and submit to examinations by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The net neutrality battle: FCC chairman backs away, but not enough
May 13, 2014
Fans of net neutrality--the idea that Internet service providers shouldn't be able to block, slow, or favor some content providers over others--should show FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler a little love.
Dept. of Yeah, Sure: Heritage to launch a 'straight' news site
May 12, 2014
Today's you-gotta-be-kidding-me moment comes courtesy of the right-wing Heritage Foundation, which claims that the mass media are all so hopelessly liberal that its only option is to start its own website offering "just true, straight-down-the-middle journalism."
The Supreme Court saddles up for an attack on retiree benefits
May 12, 2014
In an era in which corporations have been trying every possible stratagem to cut employee benefits (see our look at the Obamacare employer mandate earlier today), a new threat to retirement benefits has just arisen.
Should we kill Obamacare's employer mandate?
May 12, 2014
As complaints and cavils about the Affordable Care Act fall by the wayside, one piece of the law looms ever larger as its most controversial element: the employer mandate, which in 2016 will impose a penalty on businesses with 50 to 99 employees for not offering them health coverage.
See some hilarious charts showing that correlation is not causation
May 12, 2014
The most powerful weapon that debaters wield against the unwary is causation: marijuana use leads to heroin addiction, pornography to rape, video games to mass murder, high consumption of margarine to divorces in Maine.
ALEC fires back, but proves its 'pro-business' state index is bogus
May 10, 2014
Plainly stung by the chorus of ridicule that has greeted their latest attempt to paint anti-union policies and tax cuts for the rich as pathways to economic nirvana, the folks at the American Legislative Exchange Council have struck back with a "response to the critics."
Chumash have political backer in fight with Santa Barbara County
May 9, 2014
Considering how much money may be at stake, it was inevitable that the increasingly nasty fight between a Santa Barbara Indian tribe and its neighbors over a big parcel of undeveloped land would attract outside interest.
Come to North Dakota for the paycheck, lose your life
May 9, 2014
In some ways, North Dakota's oil boom is the envy of the nation--it's one of the few places where endless traffic jams are regarded as a sign of progress.
Corporate scapegoat watch: If earnings are soft, blame Obamacare!
May 9, 2014
Corporate executives love nothing more than a scapegoat to saddle with blame for their own mediocre performances. As we reported late last year and USA Today confirms again, they're finding the Affordable Care Act to be a gold-plated gift. It's almost as useful as the lousy winter weather, which is saying something.
The insurers speak: Yes, people are paying their Obamacare premiums
May 7, 2014
Things continue to get tough for the Obamacare dead-enders, those increasingly lonely opponents whose only comeback against the flow of good news about the Affordable Care Act is to conjure up absurd arguments against it (I mean you, Cato's Michael Cannon) or, if all else fails, make stuff up.
Did '60 Minutes' whitewash the Deepwater Horizon oil spill?
May 7, 2014
BP, the perpetrator of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, has been working assiduously over the last year to wriggle out from under a financial settlement it reached for gulf businesses harmed by the disaster.
CNN asks the most pointless poll question ever
May 6, 2014
And gets an appropriately pointless answer.
Surprise! 'Pro-business' policies hurt state economic growth
May 6, 2014
Conservative economic pundits just love to justify "business-friendly" policies to state governments as keys to job growth, which after all is the whole ballgame in economic policy-making.
Why I hope Donald Sterling fights the NBA to the last gasp
May 6, 2014
Few things are as disgusting as the sight of a big business enterprise swaddling itself in morality and sanctimony, proclaiming its high ethical standards.
Yes, Obamacare will save lives, and here's the evidence
May 6, 2014
People asking the ultimate question about the Affordable Care Act--will it actually save lives?--now have an answer, and it's yes.
Ben Affleck and the art of card counting
May 5, 2014
The film director and movie star Ben Affleck, soon to be featured as Hollywood's next Batman, did the gambling world a favor last week by placing professional blackjack back in the news. He did so by counting cards at the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas and getting ejected from the game.
If healthcare usage is surging, where are the healthcare jobs?
May 5, 2014
You may have thought the headline number from last week's report on the U.S. economy was its weak overall growth in the first quarter of this year (0.1% at an annual rate).
Medicaid expansion is the final battle in war over Obamacare
May 4, 2014
The final battles of any war often are the bloodiest. They're waged by the last holdouts, dead-enders desperate to prove to themselves and their dwindling followers that their efforts were not in vain.
Cato's healthcare expert: Still clueless about health insurance
May 2, 2014
Michael F. Cannon, whom the libertarian Cato Institute courageously describes as its "director of health policy studies," is unhappy that I called him out the other day for writing "the lamest anti-Obamacare column of all."
Donald Sterling and the NBA: Your guide to the looming legal morass
May 2, 2014
The moment that National Basketball Assn. Commissioner Adam Silver said he would ask the league to eject Donald Sterling as a team owner, he handed Sterling the opportunity to cause the league a tremendous amount of pain and suffering.
Obamacare stats: Apparently we need a new definition of 'train wreck'
May 2, 2014
Positive news reports about insurance enrollments under Affordable Care Act have been coming out so steadily that they barely make headlines anymore. Still searching for a way to depict Obamacare as a "train wreck," GOP critics of the law have no option but to make up the bad news.
A blistering analysis of California's Hollywood tax giveaway
May 1, 2014
One thing Hollywood has been very good at over the last few years is extracting tax incentives from states to move production around the country.
Judges dismantle voter ID laws while voting rights 'advocates' dither
April 30, 2014
The saddest spectacle on the voting rights front lately has been the sight of progressive voting rights "reformers" giving up the fight against photo ID laws.
Bad Penny Watch: Two scamsters reappear in the news
April 30, 2014
Unlike Gen. Douglas MacArthur's old soldiers, old con men neither die nor fade away: They either resurface with new scams or relive their old ones in the pages of glossy magazines.
Your complete guide to the murder of net neutrality
April 29, 2014
You couldn't say the crime is being committed by stealth. Quite the contrary: Tom Wheeler, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, is aiming to slay net neutrality in broad daylight. The murder weapon is a proposal to allow Internet service providers to charge content companies more for faster access to their subscribers.
The Sterling scandal: What it takes to get banned for life by the NBA
April 29, 2014
We now know where the National Basketball Assn. draws the line.
Donald Sterling is a Republican, not a Democrat -- but does it matter?
April 28, 2014
The Donald Sterling controversy had much of the right wing vibrating this weekend with the revelation that the purported arch-racist Sterling was (gasp!) a Democrat. This shed little light on the Sterling affair, other than to underscore the ancient truism that some public scandals are so explosive that for at least a period of time one can write or say anything one wishes about them without fear of contradiction.
Found: The lamest anti-Obamacare column of all (thus far)
April 28, 2014
As we've recently observed, conservative opponents of the Affordable Care Act have pulled out the stops to paint the law as an unmitigated disaster--notwithstanding its documented gains in health insurance coverage for millions of Americans nationwide.
See how Hawaii's governor told Rep. Darrell Issa to stuff it
April 28, 2014
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, the House GOP's mangy attack dog, has squandered his chairmanship of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform trying to embarrass the Obama administration over a host of ginned-up purported scandals. The IRS, Benghazi--you know the list.
The Donald Sterling case: A glimpse at the dirty laundry
April 27, 2014
It's not uncommon for a business leader's personal and professional lives to intersect, but seldom does that happen as spectacularly as it has with Donald Sterling.
Donald Sterling and the problem of pro sports ownership
April 26, 2014
So Donald Sterling, owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, stands accused of having made remarks of unbelievable crassness and flavored with a racism that would bring a tear to the eye of Cliven Bundy.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1927-2014
April 17, 2014
No literary experience is rarer than reading a book that changes the way you see the world. "War and Peace" will change the way you look at the heroism and foibles of all men and women, from the ordinary to the exceptional. Certain novels of William Faulkner ("Light in August," "Absalom, Absalom!") succeed in elevating everyday life to the level of biblical parable.
A pause to refresh
April 15, 2014
Every battery needs recharging, and those that operate the Economy Hub are no exception. We'll be taking time off over the next two weeks. Blogging in that period will be sparse, on an as-needed basis only. Normal programming will resume on April 28.
Why putting photos on Social Security cards won't save voting rights
April 14, 2014
A certain William Wachtel, the co-founder of WhyTuesday, an election reform group chaired by former UN Ambassador Andrew Young, wrote me over the weekend to complain that I treated Young harshly by criticizing his proposal to require Social Security to issue photo IDs. I called it "a terrible idea."
Low-wage workers pay the price of nickel-and-diming by employers
April 13, 2014
The continuing push for higher minimum wages across the country has much to recommend it, but the campaign shouldn't keep us from recognizing a truly insidious practice that impoverishes low-wage workers all the more. It's known as wage theft.
Obamacare and the Sebelius legacy
April 11, 2014
It's doubtful that anyone ever expected the resignation of Kathleen Sebelius as secretary of Health and Human Services--whether it came last fall during the website disaster or on Thursday, when it actually was announced--to bring clarity to the national debate over the Affordable Care Act.
No, don't turn Social Security cards into voter IDs
April 11, 2014
Some Democrats have suddenly embraced the old notion of turning Social Security cards into national photo IDs. The goal is to undermine Republican voter suppression efforts that rely on demanding government-issued photos, by making these universally available.
The loss of the Thresher: Why it should be remembered every year
April 10, 2014
The lessons of cataclysmic events tend to be overlooked when we remember them only on major anniversaries. The sinking of the U.S. nuclear submarine Thresher is a perfect example.
Comcast and Time Warner Cable tell Congress: We'll be good -- promise!
April 9, 2014
Comcast and Time Warner Cable today brought their road show to the U.S. Senate, trying to prove that their proposed $40-billion merger will bring fabulous service to consumers, create new competition and, one would think, end the stalemate over the Crimea.
Another rotten retirement scheme from a Wall Street front group
April 8, 2014
Two founders of Third Way, a Washington think tank that carries water for Wall Street by pretending to be a "centrist" organization, have come out with a new proposal for a mass retirement program that, yes, will line Wall Street's pockets while promising the average worker something it can't deliver.
Rand's Obamacare stats: 9.3 million new insureds, and counting
April 8, 2014
The long-awaited Rand Corp. study of Obamacare's effect on health insurance coverage was released Tuesday and confirmed the numbers that had been telegraphed for more than a week: At least 9.3 million more Americans have health insurance now than in September 2013, virtually all of them as a result of the law.
Private charity can't replace government social programs
March 30, 2014
As often happens when the financial demands on government social programs rise, there's been a lot of talk lately about the need to return to the traditional American system of community and faith-based help for the needy: charity, not government handouts.
Where are the positive stories about Obamacare?
March 23, 2014
If there were fairness in this world, Rita Rizzo would be a media star.
A helping hand or cold shoulder for the middle class?
March 16, 2014
How's the U.S. economy doing?
Cultural production of ignorance provides rich field for study
March 9, 2014
Robert Proctor doesn't think ignorance is bliss. He thinks that what you don't know can hurt you. And that there's more ignorance around than there used to be, and that its purveyors have gotten much better at filling our heads with nonsense.
Break California into six states? A fine idea, but...
March 2, 2014
There are two broad categories of government reformer. One is the type who tries addressing government inequities where and as they occur — a housing crisis here, a water crisis there, racial discrimination here, there and everywhere. Then there's the type who advocates throwing out the old system wholesale and starting from scratch.
BP gets slick in trying to undermine gulf oil spill settlement
February 23, 2014
It would be perfectly proper for BP, the giant British oil company, to feel a sense of corporate remorse.
Politics cloud water debate
February 9, 2014
There are two possible policy outcomes to a severe drought like the one California is experiencing now.
Automakers stay cozy in U.S. capital
January 26, 2014
Nothing seemed to underscore the revolving door between federal regulators and the companies they regulate as vividly as the two milestones marked on Jan. 17 at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
A new front in the TV wars
January 19, 2014
The big television networks have faced all number of challenges in recent years. But they could be done in by something called Aereo.
After waging War on Poverty for 50 years, let's not surrender
January 12, 2014
Fifty years ago Wednesday, President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered what may have been the last genuinely uplifting State of the Union speech we've had.
Corporations lead taxpayers to the shearing
January 5, 2014
Here's a business practice likely to keep booming in 2014: corporate extortion.
Seeing the positive changes brought by the federal health law
December 29, 2013
This was the year that millions of Americans learned that health insurance is complicated. The landscape they discovered is ugly.
Obama is right to put spotlight on economic inequality
December 22, 2013
You may have missed it, given the launch of the Christmas shopping season and all the foofaraw about the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, but earlier this month Barack Obama gave the most important speech of his presidency.
In South Africa, inequality and economic ills persist
December 8, 2013
By the time Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990, the path to ending South Africa's political crisis through the abolition of apartheid was known, even if it would not be easy or straight.
Bitcoins: Widely known and widely misunderstood
November 24, 2013
Back in the 1980s, when I lived in Nairobi, foreign residents had a simple way of obtaining Kenyan shillings.
How much are we willing to pay for the pursuit of happiness?
November 3, 2013
Never mind the conventional speculation about whether the resolution of some political standoff in Washington favors Republicans or Democrats, liberals or conservatives, "entitlement" fans or skeptics.
CEO-to-worker pay gap is obscene; want to know how obscene?
October 20, 2013
Nothing seems to get U.S. corporations' dander up like a threat to the pay and perks of their chief executives.
Start-up founder sees a troll behind patent lawsuit
October 13, 2013
To Kevin O'Connor, the first straw was also the last straw.
Sequester's cuts will endure because of budget war
October 1, 2013
There's an ancient adage that in war, truth is the first casualty. The war being waged over the federal budget, mostly by Republicans fighting with themselves, is a perfect example.
'Sharing economy' is here to stay, so get used to it
September 27, 2013
Add these personality quirks to the qualities that mark you as a social dinosaur:
Healthcare reform heats up drugstore battle
September 20, 2013
Obamacare is driving a transformation in the way pharmacies do business, so get ready.
Inform Act won't live up to its name
September 17, 2013
As every legislative craftsman knows, the trick in giving your bill a name is, first, come up with a title that yields a catchy acronym. Second, make sure the title doesn't explain what the bill does.
Big U.S. banks keeping door open to another financial crisis
September 14, 2013
There are two ways to think about how far we've come in protecting against a repeat of the financial meltdown five years ago that plunged the world into recession.
Health law's ailments can be cured by single-payer system
September 10, 2013
With the Oct. 1 rollout of a major facet of the Affordable Care Act on the horizon, you'll be hearing a lot about the glitches, loopholes and shortcomings of this most important restructuring of America's healthcare system in our lifetimes. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind:
S&P raises desperate defense against government lawsuit
September 7, 2013
Everybody wants to see the perpetrators of the financial crisis punished, but you have to feel a little sorry for Standard & Poor's, the credit rating firm being sued by the federal government for its role in the disaster.
When public infrastructure goes private
April 12, 2013
Consider some of the things that have bound our nation together:
When government does things better than private enterprise
December 11, 2012
Budget discussions in Washington these days always seem to deteriorate into arguments over what government is supposed to do for its citizens, and what should be left aside. Is the reach of government strictly defined in the Constitution? Or tradition? And, if so, whose "tradition"?
Chick-fil-A president crossed a danger line
August 1, 2012
Despite decades if not centuries of bitter experience, business leaders apparently haven't absorbed the lesson that it's best to let your products speak for themselves and keep your big mouth shut.
Book review: 'The Idea Factory' by Jon Gertner
March 25, 2012
For generations of industry research executives, AT&T's Bell Telephone Laboratories served as an inspiration: a warren of youthful scientists and engineers assigned to go where their intellects took them, not especially concerned about serving the corporate bottom line, picking up cartloads of Nobel Prizes along the way. Bell Labs was the model for, among others, Xerox Corp.'s legendary Palo Alto Research Center, or PARC, which spun out the personal computer, Windows-style displays, Ethernet and many other advances that delivered their bounty more to society at large than to the parent company.
Inaction by regulators as weight loss surgery allegations mount
January 22, 2012
Several current or former workers for the people behind those 1-800-GET-THIN ads have made allegations about this weight-loss enterprise that government regulators should have gotten to the bottom of long ago. Taken together, the allegations are that its patients are subjected to life-threatening conditions.
Lap-Band maker needs to step up
December 17, 2011
Like most big companies, Irvine pharmaceutical giant Allergan Inc. likes to project the image of an upstanding corporate citizen. Indeed, it devotes several pages of its website to its purported good works.
It's about time that FDA took action against Lap-Band billboards
December 14, 2011
It has taken almost two years, but government regulators finally woke up to the idea that those 1-800-GET-THIN billboards plastered all over Southland freeways may be dangerous to your health.
Occupy Wall Street shifts from protest to policy phase
October 12, 2011
How do you know when a protest movement is starting to scare the pants off the establishment?
Regional investment bank aims for a reprise
May 18, 2011
Jim Freedman and his partners have been here before.
Book review: 'Common as Air' by Lewis Hyde
October 31, 2010
Common as Air
Coffeepot maker vents about doing business in California
July 30, 2009
Wilbur D.Curtis invented the globular glass coffeepot, that staple of coffee counters everywhere, in 1940. Since then his son and grandsons have turned Wilbur Curtis Co. into a manufacturing concern that earns revenue approaching $100 million by turning out commercial coffee brewing equipment from a sprawling factory in Montebello.
CalPERS appears to be a willing victim
July 27, 2009
Students of the fine art of pointing fingers know that the key thing is to not make yourself look like an idiot in the process.
File California tax system revision effort under flawed
July 20, 2009
In these budget-crisis days, when California citizens showing true public spirit are thin on the ground, I propose a tip of the hat to Gerald L. Parsky.
It's time to close a big tax loophole for businesses
July 13, 2009
Of all the ways in which California residents have slit their fiscal throats over the last 30 years, surely the most inexplicable is the bestowal of a gaping tax loophole on commercial and industrial property owners.
Mercury General using guise of benevolence to assault Prop. 103
July 2, 2009
The art of setting automobile insurance rates is incomprehensible to most of us civilians. Liability coverage, comprehensive insurance, assigned risk pools, discounts, surcharges . . . the list goes on. Just try to figure out how your carrier arrived at the figure at the bottom of your itemized bill -- I know nuclear physicists who can't do that math.
A California tax on oil drilling? Why not?
June 15, 2009
The most persistent misconception about Californians is that we hate to raise taxes. The truth is that we adore raising taxes -- as long as someone else is paying, that is.
Apple's condition linked to Steve Jobs' health
January 5, 2009
Some important questions can't be asked without sounding crass and insensitive. But there's no way around asking this one that's on everybody's mind, so here goes: