Category: Politics

Nate Silver has become a modern political hero after his groundbreaking site fivethirtyeight.com provided clear, consistent and accurate predictions of the 2008 presidential and congress races. Recently he took on John Ziegler, a failed right wing radio show host turnedContinue reading… Push Polling and Nate Silver

Prop 100: Don’t tax our houses yo! UPDATE: Passed 77% to 23% Arizonans hate taxes Prop 100 is an amendment to the state constitution to prevent any new taxes on sales or transfers of property by government. By and largeContinue reading… Rundown of Arizona Ballot initiatives for 2008

Here’s a good bit from 60 minutes detailing credit default swaps, which are essentially a shadow insurance market for securities. I’ve only seen these discussed in a few places, but there’s good reason to suspect that they are largely theContinue reading… More Financial Meltdown Stuff

I’ll try and squish together some time to write a semi-coherent overview of the proposed $700b bailout of the financial industry, but first I just wanted to dispel a nice piece of spin that’s been accompanying it. Namely, that theContinue reading… The Bailout

I’ve been going back and forth between being disgusted with politics and being fascinated by it. There’s a lot of things to be genuinely interested in, but all in all, I hate the presidential election process. I know it shouldn’t,Continue reading… Current Thoughts on Election 08

A couple of weeks ago on right wing radio the topic was oil industry profits, and how insane it is that people are angry over how much money oil companies make. The defense being offered is that the gross marginContinue reading… Oil company profits