October 1st, 2013 is a great day !!!

Many people may not realize it, but tomorrow maybe the greatest day for social justice in the past / next 20 years. It is a historical day.  It is the day the United States extends health coverage to every Citizen of the United States. Every man, woman and child will have the opportunity to buy health insurance at a reasonable price.  It will take years to cover everyone, but 30 years from now society will look back and wonder what took so long.   Tomorrow is a great day for America. 

Conservatives have been wrong about every major government policy over the last 50 years

The Evil Black Economist was reading a story about the affordable care act(ACA - Obamacare). In the article someone pointed out that conservatives have been wrong about every major public policy over the last 80 years. We immediately thought: that cannot be possible.  So we tried to find a counter example and tried and triedand tried...

Here is what conservatives have been wrong about...

Integrated armed forces
Civil RIghts
The New Deal
Social Security
Medicare
Food Stamp
Unemployment Insurance
Enviromental protection
Food and Drug laws
Minimum Wage
Child labor laws, OSHA, 40 hour work week
Marriage Equality


What they have gotten right...

General support for business and the economy(all adiministrations)
National Highway system(eisenhower)
No Child Left Behind(Bush)
Pubic Safety (all conservatives emphasis public safety, usually overdoing it like stop and frisk or spending too much money on local police when there is no crime)
Counter Terrorism(too much money wasted on contractors and privacy invasion)
Family Values (except Marrige Equality)

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Bank of North Dakota: The best state run bank in the United States

The only state run bank in the US is the Bank of North Dakota. It is a well managed, profitable institution operating in the public interest. The bank operates in areas other banks ignore.  It makes student loans, rural loans, affordable housing loans and economic development loans.

Bank of North Dakota

Here is a good summry presentation evaluating the idea of creating a bank in Massechuettes similar to the Bank of North Dakota.


The bank is periodically studied as an example for other states to imitate.  But the proposals never go very fars because of entrenched business interests.

Here is a review paper from the Boston Fed on the possibility of starting a similar bank in Massacheuetts. Here is the formal paper. They also have a nice video presentation on the same topic.

Biased reporting of study results from Cato Institute: Work versus Welfare Trade-Off

The Cato institute published an update to a 2005 study on financial inventives that may discourage work. The work is actually quite good factually.  It's when the Cato Insititue reports the results that the poblems arise.

The most biased part of the report is to call any government beneift: "Welfare" because it goes to help poor and middle class people. Most of the benefots are not cash benefits but other forms like foods stamps or healthcare.

The Work versue Welfare Trade-Off

The work itself is a pretty good review of the total benefits available to families in proverty.