
My Gedanken Experiments
Sinister Writings (from the left)
Economy
I got my degree in Economics with honors from the University of Missouri. I was honored to have the professor Tim Kaine cited as an inspiration, Dr. John Kuhlman, as my advisor. It appears that the things I learned from him need to be shared more generally. In this section, I use a lot of his words to explain why the economic policies being pushed from the right these days make no sense.
The Big Insurance War on Patients – a Personal Story
It was an emergency. It was Sunday, two days before Christmas. She was in excruciating pain. My son took her to urgent/emergency room care. The urgent care doctors said she needed to have her gall bladder removed right away, because they were afraid infection was setting in. As a Type 1 brittle...
The Law of Diminishing Returns – or Why Tax Cuts for Wealthy Corporations Won’t Create Jobs
It seems to me that even the economists, who should have been all over this, have missed the boat about tax cuts for the wealthy and for wealthy corporations will not create more jobs. They have also missed why tax increases on the wealthy will not cost jobs. It is the Law of Diminishing...
The Negative Multiplier Effect and the New Tax Bill: Tanking the Economy
I have read a lot of articles about how the new tax bill will impact people in this country and our economy. But I have read none that include the multiplier effect. That is probably the scariest aspect of the new tax bill and we had better understand it. I ran the model of the multiplier effect...
There Was Only One David
This is my next installation in my economic series about the coming Corporate Feudalism and how we avoid it. I was raised in a Christian family, more specifically, a Methodist family. (I'm Catholic now, but was Methodist then.) In our church, while the adults attended services, the children...
Duty to Die. What the Republicans are Pushing in AHCA
The Republicans are racing to enact AHCA under cloud of secrecy and distraction provided by the Russia investigation. They are intent on their mission and won't be denied. But why the hurry, why the secrecy, why the subterfuge and why the cruelty? The AHCA and other upcoming bills tell us the...
The Antidote to Corporate Feudalism
In my last posting, I discussed the similarities between medieval feudalism in Europe and corporate feudalism that we are entering today. I also promised to identify what finally brought an end to medieval feudalism, and thus, the antidote to corporate feudalism today. I am not a historian, and...
Where We Are Headed: Corporate Feudalism
In my last posting, I wrote about the indefensible theory of supply side economics. Today I posit where this theory is heading. Whether or not it is the goal of supply side proponents, the result will be corporate feudalism. Let me explain. Feudalism is defined as "the dominant social system in...
The Lie of Supply Side
I graduated from the University of Missouri with a bachelor with honors in Economics in 1975, the year before Tim Kaine enrolled. I majored in Economics for the same reason Tim Kaine did - Professor John Kuhlman. Tim sent a letter to Professor Kuhlman that cited why he changed majors. “You told...
It’s a Lie That Unions Cost us Jobs
Today the feather I pull out of the featherbed is the meme that unions are the reason for our deficits and loss of jobs. The conservatives claim that costs resulting from unions and their activities is the reason our country is in such an economic mess and the only way out is to break the unions....
Where Is the Gold of Toulouse
In this episode, the feather I am removing from the featherbed of lies deals with the tax cuts for the rich. Or, rather, how the rich seem to have this notion that the more they amass at the expense of their fellow citizens the more comfortable they will be and that their wealth will prevent...