Public opinion surveys provide a wealth of information about beliefs in America and around the world. For example, they document how much public approval for same-sex marriage has been increasing, how Facebook has infiltrated many of our daily lives, and how humanitarian aid affects how citizens of other nations view America. But pollsters face a [...]
Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
Is the Reliability of Public Opinion Surveys Declining?
Posted in Data, Politics, tagged Public opinion on May 20, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Fixing Medicare’s Double-Counting Problem
Posted in Budget, Politics, Taxes, tagged Budget, Budget Process, Health, Politics, Taxes on May 18, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Last week I argued that budgeting for Medicare’s hospital insurance program is flawed. Today, I offer two ways to fix it (and reject a third). Medicare Part A is one of several federal programs that control spending through a “belt and suspenders” combination of regular program rules (the belt) and an overall limit (the suspenders). [...]
The Fight over Medicare Double Counting
Posted in Budget, Politics, Taxes, tagged Budget, Budget Process, Health, Medicare, Taxes on May 9, 2012 | 6 Comments »
The recent double-counting dispute isn’t just about politics; it also reveals a flaw in budgeting for Medicare Part A. Budget experts are waging a spirited battle over the Medicare changes that helped pay for 2010’s health reform. In April, Chuck Blahous, one of two public trustees of the program, released a study arguing that the [...]
Canada Will Eliminate the Penny
Posted in Budget, Politics, tagged Budget, Penny on April 3, 2012 | 3 Comments »
Canada just announced that it will eliminate the penny. Noted penny opponent (yes, such a thing exists) C.G.P. Grey’s explains: The United States should follow suit. Why pay 2 cents to print an almost-useless coin worth only 1 cent? ht: Kottke
More on “Tribes” and Perception
Posted in Life, Politics, tagged Politics, Psychology on March 8, 2012 | 1 Comment »
My recent post on “tribes” inspired some thoughtful reader comments about natural selection and stereotyping, and two book recommendations to steel yourself against your brain’s instinctive us vs. them wiring: True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society by Farhad Manjoo Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman I’ve added both to my aspirational reading pile [...]
How Your “Tribe” Affects Your Perception
Posted in Life, Politics, tagged Politics on March 5, 2012 | 5 Comments »
NPR aired an interesting trio of segments this morning about inconsistency and flip-flopping. I particularly enjoyed Alix Spiegel’s report on Jamie Barden, a psychology professor at Howard University. Barden’s work considers how “tribal” affiliation affects our perceptions of inconsistent behavior by politicians. In one experiment, Barden asked students their view of a hypothetical political operative named Mike [...]
The Coming Budget Showdown of 2012
Posted in Budget, Politics, tagged Budget, Politics, Taxes on February 27, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
My latest column at the Christian Science Monitor discusses the many fiscal pressures that will come to a head at the end of the year. Here’s an excerpt: Start with our tattered tax code, which now contains a six-pack of temporary tax cuts. The largest are the Bush-era cuts originally enacted in 2001 and 2003 [...]
Lose an Election, Gain a Think Tank
Posted in Politics, tagged Think Tanks on January 4, 2012 | 10 Comments »
Over at National Affairs, Tevi Troy reviews the evolution–and, he believes, devaluation–of America’s think tanks. He leads off by noting how many think tanks have shifted toward political combat and rapid response and away from non-partisan research: One of the most peculiar, and least understood, features of the Washington policy process is the extraordinary dependence [...]
Flat-tax Simplicity with a Progressive Twist
Posted in Budget, Politics, Taxes on November 29, 2011 | 1 Comment »
My latest column for the Christian Science Monitor. One of the perils of writing a monthly column is the multi-week lag between writing and publication. Rick Perry and Herman Cain were near the top of GOP contenders when I wrote this. Today? Not so much. But the ideas are still worth analysis. And Newt Gingrich [...]
Most Requested
Twitter
Get Updates by Email
Get Updates by RSS
Share or Bookmark
-
Recent Posts
- The World’s Most Traveled Bird?
- Is the United States the Best Place for Women?
- Is the Reliability of Public Opinion Surveys Declining?
- Fixing Medicare’s Double-Counting Problem
- Energy Security, the Infographic
- The Fight over Medicare Double Counting
- Why Free is a Bad Price, American Airlines Edition
- Jobs Report – The Soft Side of Mediocre
- Investing in Memories, Ocelot Edition
- Advanced Game Theory, Golden Balls Edition
- Entitlement Spending in One Picture
- Talking Tax Reform on the PBS Newshour
- The Federal Budget in One Picture
- Should We Blame TurboTax for Tax Code Complexity?
- How Big Are Tax Preferences?
30-Second Economics
Tags
Categories
Archives
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
Translate this blog into
