High Tax Rates Won't Slow Growth

Two notable economists write in the Wall Street Journal that we are nowhere near the top of the Laffer curve.  The best solution to the national debt issue is to raise taxes and increase spending to get the economy going again.

Start here to cut health care costs

Outfits like Abbott Laboratories game the patent system so that no generic drug is able to compete.  This is how drug companies ripoff consumers and the government.  This needs to be fixed.

Cause for Colony Collapse Disorder for Bees

The reason for the collapse of so many bee colonies has been found, neonicotinoid pesticides.

Undocumented Workers

Here are some facts for the undocumented worker debate. They have little, if any, impact on wages.  And the net immigration flow from Mexico now zero.  So what is it again that right wing are so upset about?

Conservative Case For the ACA

A conservative constitutional authority makes the definitive case defending the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act.  Here's where we find out whether we have a court of law or political ideologues.

Risk Factor for Birth Defects

Scientists have found a single risk factor that could be in play for a number of birth defects.  The culprint is hypoxia. If the oxygen supply to the developing fetus falters at a critical stage, some sort of birth defect is likely. 

Rebooting the Brain

Studies of brains as they come out of anesthesia show that the brain reboots by starting the more primitive functions first.  The higher functions don't come online until later.

No Deficit Stress Here

I'm with Ezra Klein.  There is no reason to waste energy worrying about the deficit.  If Congress continues its typical struggle and gets nothing done, it will go away anyway.  We have other real problems that need our attention.

CBS's Mark Knoller's Falsely Claim

CBS's Mark Knoller Falsely Claims Debt Has Increased More Under Obama Than Bush.  It isn't true.  Mark ignores the debt level at the beginning of their respective terms and the nature of the economy during the two time periods.  Bush had a decent economy with good revenues and debt increased by 89 percent.  Obama had a bad economy with lousy revenues and debt increased by 40 percent.  Bush is the one who went on a spending binge.  Under Obama, spending has been tight.  The bad economy wrecked the revenue stream that Bush had enjoyed.

Bush is an example of why Republicans are such an economic disaster.  They talk like fiscal hawks but, once in office, they find ways to spend like drunks.

Greenhouse gas disposal

An article examines the potential for sequestering CO2 in saline aquifers.  To look at it in a different light, consider that any place that could store greenhouse gasses should also be considered for nuclear waste disposal. After all, the hazards of a CO2 molecule is basically forever. While much more dangerous initially, nuclear waste decays over time becoming less and less dangerous to the biosphere.

Hurray for Health Reform

Krugman on the ACA:

Can such a system work? It's already working! Massachusetts enacted a very similar reform six years ago - yes, while Mitt Romney was governor. Jonathan Gruber of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who played a key role in developing both the local and the national reforms (and has published an illustrated guide to reform) has surveyed the results - and finds that Romneycare is working pretty much as advertised. The number of people without insurance has dropped sharply, the quality of care hasn't suffered, and the program's cost has been very close to
initial projections.

 Oh, and the budgetary cost per newly insured resident of Massachusetts was actually lower than the projected cost per American insured by the Affordable Care Act.

 Given this evidence, what's a virulent opponent of reform to do? The answer is, make stuff up.

Leaving Goldman Sachs

Just had to link to this one.