David Warsh has a useful overview of the move to replace the income tax with a consumption tax. Tracing the current administration’s policy makers to the Ford years, he seizes on a Treasury Dept. treatise called Blueprints for Basic Tax Reform. According to its its author, David Bradford,
The great advantage of consumption taxation would be […]
The winning design teams for the Big Dig’s greenway parcels have been announced for a couple of weeks now, but I’m just now getting around to putting my two cents in. (Proposals are on display at the Boston Public Library. Click here for the Globe’s interactive section on the Big Dig planning). All that’s up […]
Dan Kennedy seems to think it’s too early to tell if Gov. Romney’s privatization and decentralization plan for the University of Massachusetts will improve things or not. There is the off chance that it might work by heightening the contradictions of higher ed in Massachusetts. Right now there’s no political impetus to improve the university […]
The Economist had a short article about overcrowded blockbuster exhibits at art museums. I can second their verdict that the crowds can be overbearing; I went to the travelling Musee d’Orsay show when it was at the High Museum (Atlanta) and have to say that even the surprising highlights of the exhibit were tainted by […]
So far I’ve argued (hardly in an original fashion) that geo-politics is the only thing that explains the administration’s push for war - why this oppressive dictator of all oppressive dictators, or why this threat of arms proliferation out of all threats. To which point the liberal hawks might argue: so what? If Bush and […]
I have to agree with Josh Marshall: John Judis’s article in the American Prospect is the best analysis I’ve seen for why the Bush administration seeks overthrow of Saddam Hussein. As I have written before, pure economic logic does not explain why the U.S. would embark on a risky and costly war, but the geo-political […]
I didn’t watch the Grammies this year, but there’s something I find interesting that isn’t about the ceremony proper: namely, the interplay between the ongoing commercialism of the event, even compared to other awards, and the noted emphasis this year on “realism” and “seriousness” in the awards given. The Grammies are always a striking contrast […]
NYT’s Nicholas Kristof gives the common liberal assessment of hyrogen-fuel-cell cars: that they are the solution to our energy dependency. Unfortunately, the picture is more complicated. Two recent pieces (in the Economist and the New Republic) point out the major problem with the plan: that energy is required to create hydrogen feul. At best the […]
Maureen Dowd went to town on Tom Ridge in this weekend’s Times. Rightfully blasts the marketing and spin obsession of the Homeland Security people. To which I might add: why has Tom Ridge made it a point to appear only in Electoral College swing states? Shouldn’t he be embarrassed to reduce civil defense to such […]
The Globe finally has a piece on the T’s problems during the storm. Too bad the reporting and editorial staff don’t seem to be talking to one another.
Just saw on Greater Boston that the WPRI camera crew were there shooting B-roll for a run-of-the-mill story on club safety after the Chicago nightclub stampede earlier this week. The club was chosen precisely because Derderian had access to it. Surreal.
The fire in the Rhode Island nightclub was simply tragic, on top of which is the added pathos that it was so unnecessary - happening just because a heavy metal band wanted to pretend it was still playing arenas when in fact it was playing in tiny state-highway clubs with drop ceilings. It was like […]
Why does local news coverage keep saying that the T has been running smoothly when, in fact, it hasn’t? Wednesday’s Metro had an article to that effect and today the Globe editorializes that the city and MBTA both need to encourage commuters to ride the T during snowstorms like the last one. It argues, “Boston […]
The Economist this week has a great analysis of the likely economic costs of a war in Iraq. It argues against the overly optimistic forecasters who make simplistic historical arguments (such as the notion that stock markets always rise after war gets underway) by pointing out that on almost every front - stock valuations, oil […]
Today Paul Krugman’s NYT op-ed points out the obvious cultural difference between US and Europe that American cultural commentators seem to overlook: the differences between the news media. Krugman’s bone of contention is clearly cable TV news, and I think he undersells the transatlantic differences between print news media in framing international events. One of […]