“I just don’t think it makes much sense,” he shrugged. “His college is paid for; he can go anywhere he wants to go, anywhere in the state. I’m not dishing out forty-two thousand dollars so that–” “It’s not going to cost him forty-two thousand dollars! It’s not going to cost you anything. He’s paying for Read More
PostBourgie: The Podcast, Episode 4: “Black Women Should Just Quit Life.” Monica, Jamelle and I are back with a discussion about That Study on women of color and wealth; marriage equality in D.C., and Marc Thiessen on the Daily Show. Listen to the podcast here on the blog (and subscribe). Click once to play, click Read More
Cross-posted from TAPPED. After I wrote a column supporting New York’s latest effort to tax sugary drinks, I read RaceWire’s column on how it’s just another tax to hurt poor people. While, yes, sales taxes are regressive, decrying this tax as a social justice issue misses the point. For starters, as I wrote in my Read More
Don’t have a ton to say about the “black women have a net worth of $5” meme (which comes from this study), but allow me to quote Ta-Nehisi Coates on that somewhat inaccurate Pittsburgh Post Gazette story about the study that’s been making the rounds: The headline announces, presumably, that all single black women are Read More
There are a few things in personal finance as aggravating as overdraft fees: you make a $55-dollar purchase with your debit card, and you only have $53 in your account. Your bank honors your charge anyway — for a $35 fee. In theory, customers willingly sign up for the service in order to avoid embarrassment Read More
This analysis of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (aka: the stimulus), by New York Times reporter David Leonhardt, is the most important thing you’ll read today: Imagine if, one year ago, Congress had passed a stimulus bill that really worked. Let’s say this bill had started spending money within a matter of Read More
Cross-posted from TAPPED. Megan McArdle has been questioning the benefits of health insurance and has been attacked for some pretty lazy reasoning. The basis of her argument is that one study showed there wasn’t a big difference in mortality when 64-year-olds go on Medicare — and that somehow shows having health insurance doesn’t provide much Read More
Matt Yglesias does the admirable work of explaining President Obama’s bizarre plan for a three-year freeze on non-defense discretionary spending (via Dara): The freeze would not apply to the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Homeland Security, or to the foreign operations budget of the State Department. The official emphasized Read More
“Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.” -John Maynard Keynes In The Myth of the Rational Market, Justin Fox, the “Curious Capitalist” columnist for Time, traces the lineage of the efficient market hypothesis, a school of thought backed by the economic powerhouse Read More
by Syreeta McFadden, x-posted from Bellewether State. ”This is the spiritual capital of the African diaspora. Something had to be done.” IBO BALTON, the housing department’s planning director for Manhattan, on Harlem. February, 2001 Ibo wandered in my office and was flattered that I had a photocopy of his NYT Quote of the Day taped Read More
