Elizabeth Kolbert writes in The New Yorker about all the ways we don’t behave as rational consumers. According to "behavioral economists" (as opposed to the old-fashioned economists who believe that […]
Stupid spending: Everybody does it?
Posted inEconomy, The Download
Baby boomers may be knocking off too early
USA Today’s Sandra Block writes that Baby Boomers may be making a big mistake by retiring at 62, the first year they’re eligible for Social Security benefits:…millions of the oldest […]
Posted inEconomy, The Download
How easy is it to move on up?
The Pew Charitable Trusts just released a top-to-bottom study on income inequality, titled Getting Ahead or Losing Ground: Economic Mobility in America. (Read the press release here or a PDF […]
Posted inEconomy, The Download
Nickle and diming your way to the top
While we’re on the subject of economic mobility, author Adam Shepard has written kind of a rebuttal to one of the most popular works on how hard it is to […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Obama wins red states and blue counties
Brendan Nyhan has some nice graphs plotting Barack Obama’s support in primaries and caucuses by several variables, including education levels and the number of white Southern Baptists in a state. […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Nice and easy in Pennsylvania
Ballot Access News reports that only 49 percent of state House seats in Pennsylvania are being contested by both the Democratic and Republican primaries — even though the Democrats control […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Romney as the logical choice?
Tuesday, February 19, 2008 David Eisenthal has already come up with the theory that this year’s presidential election will follow the storyline of The West Wing. Now Peter Porcupine sees […]
Posted inEconomy, The Download
Montana left standing in housing collapse
The number of new housing units built in the US was down by one quarter from the year before, according to recent data from the Census Bureau, depicted on the […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Boulder lets Cambridge do the heavy (symbolic) lifting
Colorado’s Daily Camera reports that the Boulder City Council is unlikely to pass a resolution calling for Congress to consider the impeachment of President George Bush. Says one councilor: "I […]
Posted inEconomy, Environment, The Download
Housing slump brings together Detroit and Las Vegas
USA Today has charts on the slump in housing sales and prices. We think we have it bad in Massachusetts, but the number of home sales fell by a relatively […]
Posted inEducation, Politics, The Download
Could the subprime mortgage crisis cause more potholes and college dropouts?
Stateline.org’s Daniel Vock explains how the subprime mortgage crisis could ensnare state governments:…cities and states that issue tax-exempt bonds to raise money for such projects as road and bridge work […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Just who are these superdelegates anyway?
The Washinton Post has an easy-to-read list here, but it doesn’t include any suggestion of how they’re leaning. All Democratic congressmen and governors are included; the category "distinguished party leaders," […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
“The West Wing” election?
David Eisenthal marvels at the parallels between the last season of The West Wing and a possible Obama-McCain match-up in the fall, with Obama played by Jimmy Smits and McCain […]
Posted inEducation, The Download
State of the states on charter schools
Thursday, February 14, 2008 Massachusetts has the nation’s "14th strongest" law on charter schools, according to the pro-charter Center for Education Reform, which likes Minnesota best of all.
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Lay of the Land: The Wisconsin Democratic primary
Wisconsin, which holds a key primary on Tuesday, is a particularly kaleidescopic state in terms of past Democratic primary results. About half of the votes in the 2004 presidential primary […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
The kiss of death for Obama?
Ted Olson, who represented the Republicans before the Supreme Court in its attempt to untangle the 2000 presidential election, is gleeful that this year’s Democratic nomination may be decided by […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Obama vs. Patrick
The two maps below show how the votes for Barack Obama in last week’s Massachusetts presidential primary stacked up to the votes for Deval Patrick in the 2006 gubernatorial primary. […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
The Census view of Election 2008
Even the Census Bureau is caught up in election fever. Its website has an elections page that summarizes the demographics of each state holding a primary or caucus. Both Maryland […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Lay of the Land: Maryland presidential primary
Few states have had as many competitive presidential primaries as Maryland, which has elements of North and South, urban and rural, and white and black America. The map below shows […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Kennedy votes for Clinton, Clinton votes for Obama
More detailed numbers to follow, but I’ve been tracking how the Democratic candidates are doing in counties that were carried by certain other Democratic candidates in past primaries. Despite Ted […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Here’s why I’m supporting…
Sunday, February 10, 2008 In my column today on local politics for the Boston Sunday Globe’s City Weekly section, I look at the increasing use of personal email pleas and […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
“What do you mean ‘we,’ kemo-sabi?”
Jay Fitzgerald at Hub Blog already flagged this, but the most startling passage in today’s New York Times post-mortem of the Mitt Romney presidential campaign, written by Michael Luo, was […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Clinton vs. Obama, ward by ward
Matt O’Malley has a great rundown on how Boston’s 22 wards voted in Tuesday’s Democratic presidential primary. (It’s also on Blue Mass Group.) With most election analysis centered on county-by-county […]