tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post4706625774780716534..comments2023-12-20T04:18:41.617-06:00Comments on The Hunting of the Snark: How To Fix Megan McArdle's PovertySusan of Texashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00076915322771385454noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-79815565975712377102013-12-13T09:34:05.991-06:002013-12-13T09:34:05.991-06:00http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-08/the-holid...http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-08/the-holiday-gift-guide-kitchen-edition.htmlAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-76731901198767924892013-12-05T01:34:29.115-06:002013-12-05T01:34:29.115-06:00If the poor didn't want to be poor, they could...If the poor didn't want to be poor, they could've been born into privilege, like Megan McArdle.<br /><br />(Or learned to shill for plutocrats, like Megan McArdle.)<br />Batocchiohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02193752396025012825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-31296068287196988022013-12-04T20:25:08.805-06:002013-12-04T20:25:08.805-06:00KLo has gone completely around the bend - https://...KLo has gone completely around the bend - https://twitter.com/kathrynlopez/status/408411953799770112<br /><br />"POTUS sure has audacity when he quotes pope when it serves his purposes, ignoring what F1 had 2 say, say, re US Bishops & "<br /><br />Code words KLo - Remember your code words!<br />Downpuppyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10312490198813632190noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-85739548402886949742013-12-02T07:09:06.052-06:002013-12-02T07:09:06.052-06:00http://slickdeals.net/f/6508880-himalayan-pink-sal...http://slickdeals.net/f/6508880-himalayan-pink-salt-25lbs-bag-for-32-25-10lbs-23-99-free-ship?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SlickdealsnetUP+%28SlickDeals.net+-+Upcoming%29Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-87789235136394420932013-11-25T07:09:32.808-06:002013-11-25T07:09:32.808-06:00http://www.newrepublic.com/article/115688/heritage...http://www.newrepublic.com/article/115688/heritage-foundations-michael-needham-tears-apart-right-wingAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-89267380251787044742013-11-24T00:20:18.069-06:002013-11-24T00:20:18.069-06:00http://www.forbes.com/sites/harrybinswanger/2013/0...http://www.forbes.com/sites/harrybinswanger/2013/09/17/give-back-yes-its-time-for-the-99-to-give-back-to-the-1/<br /><br />found this: dying of laughterAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-56709976398153435292013-11-19T18:34:44.205-06:002013-11-19T18:34:44.205-06:00McBargle's boosting of marriage doesn't ex...McBargle's boosting of marriage doesn't extend as far as support for recognition of all marriages, or paying heads of households living wages.<br /><br />It extends no further than putting Suderman in his booster seat.Rogerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17803231988989969133noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-14657562878832108262013-11-16T15:56:06.033-06:002013-11-16T15:56:06.033-06:00"Some of the left-wing commentators I’ve seen..."Some of the left-wing commentators I’ve seen seem to be under the impression that health insurers make fabulous profits..."<br /><br />http://alicublog.blogspot.com/2013/11/in-what-should-be-nadir.htmlAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-29749595931626843742013-11-15T13:05:01.244-06:002013-11-15T13:05:01.244-06:00http://alicublog.blogspot.com/2013/07/libertarians...http://alicublog.blogspot.com/2013/07/libertarians-theyre-lovin-it.html<br /><br />A brief look back in time.<br />Yup, she's still wrong.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-89851393835695015162013-11-13T19:34:08.094-06:002013-11-13T19:34:08.094-06:00The one thing that gives me hope that Obamacare wi...The one thing that gives me hope that Obamacare will one day right itself and become viable (if imperfect and a huge payout to the insurance industry)is Megan's tireless opposition and doomsaying towards the ACA. I mean, can you imagine five years from now looking back at all this and having to say "well, McMegan was right"? It's impossible. It's never happened before. She's as wrong about this as she was about 9/11 and Iraq. So I read this shit and I relax.John E. Williamshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02337331081503642601noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-14599623818794665862013-11-12T15:18:52.255-06:002013-11-12T15:18:52.255-06:00Which reminds me that she was going to vote for Ob...Which reminds me that she was going to vote for Obama and his dreaded Obamacare. And Obamacare is a mostly Republican plan from the Heritage Institute.Susan of Texashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00076915322771385454noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-76561104170545940722013-11-12T15:11:32.911-06:002013-11-12T15:11:32.911-06:00If conservatives can come up with a better one
Wh...<i>If conservatives can come up with a better one</i><br /><br />When your starting premise is "Liberals are proposing what is currently the best solution (though imperfect)", shouldn't you be <i>promoting liberalism</i>? Perhaps joining the movement, in order to push it towards less imperfect solutions?Smut Clydehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09409476490132867809noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-15772005337128538312013-11-12T13:04:50.814-06:002013-11-12T13:04:50.814-06:00Failure is only a good thing when it's accompl...Failure is only a good thing when it's accomplished by a conservative. They will always be backed by the rich so they win even when they lose.<br /><br />Actually, McArdle must be delighted by the Obamacare rollout. Its failures will teach the government how to succeed!<br /><br />I am very relieved that everyone who ripped off their customers and then ripped off the taxpayer does not have to suffer. Think of the Prada-wearing children!Susan of Texashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00076915322771385454noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-44790741540024387802013-11-12T12:53:19.530-06:002013-11-12T12:53:19.530-06:00But let's not overdo it!
Overdoing alms for t...<i>But let's not overdo it!</i><br /><br /><a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303763804579183680751473884" rel="nofollow">Overdoing alms for the rich, on the other hand...</a><br /><br />=>Where are we today? The Fed keeps buying roughly $85 billion in bonds a month, chronically delaying so much as a minor QE taper. Over five years, its bond purchases have come to more than $4 trillion. Amazingly, in a supposedly free-market nation, QE has become the largest financial-markets intervention by any government in world history.<br /><br />And the impact? Even by the Fed's sunniest calculations, aggressive QE over five years has generated only a few percentage points of U.S. growth. By contrast, experts outside the Fed, such as Mohammed El Erian at the Pimco investment firm, suggest that the Fed may have created and spent over $4 trillion for a total return of as little as 0.25% of GDP (i.e., a mere $40 billion bump in U.S. economic output). Both of those estimates indicate that QE isn't really working.<br /><br />Unless you're Wall Street. Having racked up hundreds of billions of dollars in opaque Fed subsidies, U.S. banks have seen their collective stock price triple since March 2009. The biggest ones have only become more of a cartel: 0.2% of them now control more than 70% of the U.S. bank assets.<=<br />~ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®©https://www.blogger.com/profile/06252371815131259831noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-20337613066179510202013-11-12T12:43:44.024-06:002013-11-12T12:43:44.024-06:00Now that you've reminded me...
I hope there...Now that you've reminded me...<br />I hope there's a chapter in her book on failure about Part II of her Elizabeth Warren takedown. <br /><br />I wish Tyler Cowen would just keep writing books about food instead of working for Mercatus's PR division. He's about the last person you'd want to believe has intellectual honestly.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-69924856280022910752013-11-12T09:22:41.728-06:002013-11-12T09:22:41.728-06:00Yes, marriage will help the economy unless it'...Yes, marriage will help the economy unless it's a gay marriage, which will destroy families because bigots will be so outraged by gay marriage that they will refuse to marry, thus ensuring their inevitable illegitimate children will be raised on her tax dollar. That's pretty much her entire "reasoning."<br /><br />If you look at the numbers, something every marriage booster seems to avoid, it's very unclear. Women who wait to marry make more money, men who wait make less. But men who can't afford to marry will wait. Women who marry young tend to make less but they are also frequently women with fewer economic prospects. There are a multitude of variables that complicate the issue. But when you want to push Catholic doctrine or cut entitlements you tend to dismiss anything that doesn't support your bias.<br /><br />I don't think she's told us why marriage automatically means economic security. She has linked to Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry, who has made that statement, so she's probably just going by what others tell her. He says:<br /><br />"There also exists a marriage wage premium, which is roughly as significant and as consistent as the college wage premium. To say that the marriage wage premium doesn’t get the same amount of attention is an understatement. Economists recoil at the idea of praising marriage and supporting public policies that increase marriage. They are much more likely to dismiss the marriage wage premium as reflecting selection bias (it’s not that marriage makes people earn more money, it’s that people who would have earned more money anyway tend to get married) or intone that “correlation is not causation”–criticisms that apply equally to analyses of the college wage premium. I would bet a goodly sum of money that if you picked at random ten tenured economists from top-20 economics departments, and asked them to list what an 18-year-old should do to increase his chances of getting high wages, none of them would say “get married and stay married”–even though the data on the marriage wage premium supports this conclusion to the same extent as it does going to college."<br /><br />He does not link to any studies proving his hypothesis; perhaps he has done so elsewhere. Gobry also adds:<br /><br />"To clarify: my point here isn’t “I’m right, economists are wrong” or, worse, “No need to evaluate economists’ arguments on the merits, because they’re biased anyway.” And by the way, yes, I am a practicing Catholic and a social conservative, so my pro-marriage, pro-natality views have plenty of bias too. My point here is to praise Tyler Cowen for recognizing that economists have bias, and to note that fellow economists have cheered him for doing so. It’s a great step for intellectual honesty. Let’s be even more honest, and let’s have economists who are willing to look beyond their biases. I’ve suggested two places to start. I’m sure there are more."<br /><br />http://www.forbes.com/sites/pascalemmanuelgobry/2013/03/18/finally-economists-acknowledge-that-theyre-biased/#<br /><br />McArdle poo-pooed Elizabeth Warren's The Two Income Trap, which showed that two incomes doesn't always mean financial security. McArdle also ignores such things as death, divorce, job less, everything that might mess up her tidy theory.Susan of Texashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00076915322771385454noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-10929490555317676802013-11-12T07:14:52.229-06:002013-11-12T07:14:52.229-06:00I should note that Megan is also on record as bein...I should note that Megan is also on record as being against gay marriage because umm...yeah she really had no logical reason for this one. <br />It was "well it's always been that way, there might be drawbacks even though I can't think of any."<br />Happiness for me, but not for thee. That's our Lady of the Poverty of the Soul.<br /><br />Megan also fails to understand that welfare services have done wonders for women in bad marriages and for women to get jobs, but she does not care very much for this sort of person who needs a hand. Everyone's a leech who ends up bad circumstances in her mind, but she's always been a victim blamer.<br /><br />Ruta has done some great work on AIDS reporting in the past, but she has a soul and all.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-16999353875327745222013-11-11T21:16:20.308-06:002013-11-11T21:16:20.308-06:00Too funny. I had the one guy who asks about Pease ...Too funny. I had the one guy who asks about Pease & PEP (151(d)(3)) collar me this morning. He gives away half his income, but doesn't want to pay an extra penny in tax. <br /><br />Reality is that Megan is probably going to be in AMT & neither will matter. She is likely to get hit by the Medicare surtax.<br /><br />Seriously - a $3000 hit to deductions for every $100,000 AGI exceeds $300,000 is the least sympathy grabbing section in the entire IRC.Downpuppyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10312490198813632190noreply@blogger.com