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Western spotted skunk

Hooded skunk

Yellow-throated Marten

Wolverine

Archive for October, 2013

Notes on the present

Tuesday, October 8th, 2013

State of the federal budget:
US fed deficit over the last few years

Annotated with more detail:
US fed budget changes

This is the steepest set of budget cuts since the US came out of WWII.

Is this typical for the US economy coming out of a deep, deep recession. No, unprecedented:

US fed spending post recession

A sharp reduction in spending like this is slowing the recovery. If the US followed the usual course (+15% federal spending, i.e. more stimulus), an extra 2-3 million people would have jobs, and that positive feedback would be pushing the US into a full recovery.

The budget currently on the table in Washington, rejected by the GOP:
2014 US Fed budget, Senate CR

Deficit reduction since 2011:
cuts since 2011

More charts covering the federal budget, deficit, health care spending, and related matters.

Oct 2013 Links

Wednesday, October 2nd, 2013

Comic biography of Ayn Rand
Is the Advice of Economists Useful?
Repubs Worked to Engineer a Federal Budget Crisis
The MiddleMan comics and TV show
Reminder: lack of health insurance kills (Harvard Medical Schoo, 2009)
Using Windows XP in VirtualBox on Linux
Air-gap flash DIY
The roots of the 2008 financial crisis: Barry Ritholtz – November 6th, 2011 and Dean Baker Sunday, 03 July 2011
300KV Cockroft Walton multiplier
TIP120 transistor for power control
CR guide to health insurance