Rethinking the Economy

Normally I’m too cynical to get pissed off when I read the news. But reading about how Wall Street’s looting local taxpayers made me so furious I’ve been stewing over how we let ourselves get so screwed. What would’ve happened if Obama had cut a tougher deal right at the start?
Take the bailout of [...]

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It’s the holiday season, so if you’re on Wall Street you’re probably asking yourself, is there any way I can repay taxpayers for saving my ass and helping me earn big fat, record-breaking bonuses this year? Turns out there is — finding new ways to hose taxpayers.
I don’t mean Wall Street finding new ways to [...]

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From inside US Trade, courtesy of David Sirota:
Business groups are worried by the potential effects of provisions banning the import of all goods made with convict labor, forced labor, or forced or indentured child labor that were included in a customs bill sponsored by Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and Ranking Member Charles [...]

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I’m stepping down the amount of pain medication I use for my hands. It’s a good thing — it means my hands are finally beginning to recover from the flareup 2 years ago — but it does mean I have to be extra careful right now.
So, I’m either going to skip blogging altogether or [...]

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In case you’re feeling the blues after last night’s elections, the Progressive States Network’s put together an interesting analysis of several polls taken in the last few months. The bottom line: “Progressive Values Dominant– But [We] Need to Rebuild Trust in Effectiveness of Government Action.” Some highlights:
•Six in 10 Americans believe that [...]

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The Urban land Institute’s got a smart idea about how to get more bang out of federal transportation bucks: ‘Channeling Funding Through “the Three Bs”’ of Base, Bonus, and Bank.
1) Use Base Formula Funds to Maintain the System
Base formula funds should be the primary funding source for system maintenance and preservation. [...]

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Now that I’ve used Getting Green Done to flesh out part of my argument, here’s the latest version of my framework.
The conventional economic framework, a.k.a. Econ 101, says the economy can be broken into 3 layers:

People are calculators: they rationally pursue their self-interest given near perfect information about the world
Organizations are calculators
[...]

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