Another day, another article claiming that (for better or worse) Rahm Emanuel is bringing a new form of government to Chicago, casting off its patronage legacy and bringing the city into the 21st century of civic governance. It’s a lot more complicated than that.
The proposal for the Chicago Infrastructure Trust, recently presented to City Council, is making news as America’s first civic infrastructure bank. But it’s a familiar idea overseas, as a response to familiar fiscal crises.
The “middle-class rich” want the things that define middle-class America, and they want them in the country’s wealthy big cities. Meanwhile, the really rich are pulling away from them at an increasing clip. It’s no wonder they’re pessimistic.
The wealthy are different from you and me: they’re actually a lot more pessimistic about their expected incomes in the near future. And as a whole, we’re as pessimistic as we’ve ever been, at least as far back as the data goes.
Did the “vaporized” MF Global money dry up, like a raisin in the sun? Or did it explode? Probably none of the above—as investigators hunt for the missing cash, the answer will probably be much less abstract. Meanwhile, Midwestern farmers are sweating the firm’s incompetence.
The increase in the Medicaid rolls isn’t just a problem of the Great Recession and high unemployment rates—the percentage of wage earners enrolled in the program has doubled over the past 30 years.
A poll of economists from the University of Chicago shows near-unanimous support for the idea that the stimulus increased employment. Now, about those long-term costs….
We want to raise taxes on the rich, because we think the tax code favors them. But we don’t want to raise taxes to pay down the deficit, and we want to cut government benefits. If you can put these pieces together, you might make a good politician. How’s your hair?
Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital has brought discussions of money, mergers, and power to the fore. So far it’s mostly just caused a bunch of trouble for Romney, but could it change the way we invest taxpayer money as well?
Just making the coffee at the world’s largest carrier takes a whole beverage committee; Mayor Emanuel on the long-delayed O’Hare express; the ethics of shoppping; and more.
