Last June, Gov. Jay Inslee made headlines when he signed a state budget totaling $43.4 billion in spending for 2017-19. Which of the following statements about that budget is true? A. State spending will grow 15.3% by 2019. B. State spending will grow 6.1% by 2019. C. State spending will grow 3.2% by 2019. D. […]
Economics
A tale of two studies: poor research leads to poor findings on minimum wage
Seattle’s economy is booming: construction everywhere, crowded streets and transit, housing costs soaring, bustling neighborhood restaurants, and a 2.6% unemployment rate. Much of this growth is driven by high wage-tech jobs and the spillover effect of all those workers eating out, shopping, and paying premium prices. It’s in this context that Seattle instituted its higher […]
Bloomberg: Sweden's economic miracle based on high taxes
Sweden’s economy has outperformed its OECD peers over the past two decades High taxes, strong unions and an equal distribution of wealth. That’s the recipe for success in a globalized world, according to Magdalena Andersson, the Social Democratic economist who’s also Sweden’s finance minister. The 50-year-old has been raising taxes and spending more on welfare […]
Unregulated capitalism is brutal, and there's no Magic Hand guaranteeing good outcomes
Reaganomics killed America’s middle class. — This country’s fate was sealed when our government slashed taxes on the rich back in 1980
Can conservatives manage what baboons can do?
Robert Sapolsky — MacArthur fellow and professor of biology, neuroscience, and neurosurgery at Stanford University — pursued decades long research into baboon societies. He found that most baboon troops were dominated by aggressive alpha males who abused other members of the troop, had pick of the females, and enjoyed good health and low levels of […]
Four solutions for Washington state’s budget dilemma
Adopting a budget will be the main task of Washington’s legislature in 2015. The state’s elected leaders face a big challenge. Income inequality is constricting family budgets and the whole economy, here in Washington and nationwide. Washington also has an outdated tax system that no longer fits our economy. As a result, public revenues from […]
David Stockman on the corruption of capitalism and the GOP
I’m reading David Stockman’s book The Great Deformation — the Corruption of Capitalism in America. Stockman was Reagan’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget. He criticizes the GOP for its militarism and its whoring for the rich. He says there was no need to bail out Wall Street. The speculators who would have […]
TPP Protest, Federal Office Bldg, Seattle, Tues Nov 11, 5PM
Both parties may be counting on us to be exhausted and out of the loop when it comes to this ghastly Trade Agreement which has been kept out of the public eye. And in the spirit of compromise, it could easily be passed to show a country weary with gridlock that compromise is possible. Furthermore […]