Obamacare explained in a comic

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Friday October 31, 2014 · 12:39 PM PDT

2014/10/31 · 12:39

Tired of all the misinformation about Obamacare? So was I, so I wrote a comic explaining it (one might say, explaining it to death).

A sample page is below, but I can't seem to make it display at an adequate size; for a readable version, check out http://economixcomix.com/....

Let me know if I got anything wrong!

Explaining Social Security in comics

Manfromporlock

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Sunday December 30, 2012 · 2:08 PM PST

2012/12/30 · 14:08

So in honor of the latest Fiscal Cliff insanity, where Republicans openly demand that we gut our Social Security to pay for their tax cuts, I thought I'd post a comic explaining what exactly is going on with Social Security and why it shouldn't be cut. I made the comic a while ago, so the fiscal cliff isn't mentioned per se, but it gives the background.

I can't seem to figure out how to insert the images into a diary while keeping them readable, so I put the whole shebang on Imgur.com here:

http://imgur.com/...

A downloadable version available at my website here; feel free to share with anyone you think needs convincing.

Debunking the "three for one deal"

Manfromporlock

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Saturday December 01, 2012 · 2:31 PM PST

2012/12/01 · 14:31

It's impossible to keep track of all of the falsehoods that circulate in the right-wing echo chamber, but when one threatens to escape that rarefied world and join the conventional wisdom, it's worth trying to stomp it.

The latest falsehood, and the stomping, below the jump.

Manfromporlock

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Wednesday November 28, 2012 · 11:40 AM PST

2012/11/28 · 11:40

Alex Seitz-Wald has a good article on Salon on the problems with the filibuster (summary: it's probably unconstitutional, it's definitely undemocratic, and it's bad policy). But Seitz-Wald doesn't go into detail about one thing: The filibuster, and all similar departures from majority rule (with certain explicit exceptions), aren't just innovations with no justification in the Constitution; they were explicitly considered and rejected by the framers of the Constitution.

Explanation below the jump.

Manfromporlock

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Monday October 01, 2012 · 1:37 PM PDT

2012/10/01 · 13:37

There’s been a lot of press about Mitt Romney’s comments in a private fundraiser about how 47% of Americans are parasites living off productive members of society (like him). But I’m more interested in another part of the same speech, one that’s gotten less play. Here’s Romney:

“[W]hen I was back in my private equity days, we went to China to buy a factory there, employed about 20,000 people, and they were almost all young women between the ages of about 18 and 22 or 23. They were saving for potentially becoming married, and they worked in these huge factories, they made various small appliances, and as we were walking through this facility, seeing them work, the number of hours they worked per day, the pittance they earned, living in dormitories with little bathrooms at the end with maybe ten rooms. And the rooms, they had 12 girls per room, three bunk beds on top of each other. You've seen them.
“And around this factory was a fence, a huge fence with barbed wire, and guard towers. And we said, "Gosh, I can't believe that you, you know, you keep these girls in." They said, "No, no, no—this is to keep other people from coming in. Because people want so badly to come work in this factory that we have to keep them out, or they'll just come in here and start working and try and get compensated. So, we—this is to keep people out."

See how disturbing that quote is after the jump. . . . Read More

The Real Meaning of Ron Paul's Investments

Manfromporlock

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Monday January 02, 2012 · 11:40 AM PST

2012/01/02 · 11:40

The Wall Street Journal had a good post a week or two ago analyzing Ron Paul's investment strategy, which is, um, a little out there.

Basically, the guy has a huge amount of stock in gold and silver mining companies, which is a big bet that the price of gold and silver will go up.

This has been reported as Paul preparing for Doomsday, but that misses the real story. See why after the jump.

Manfromporlock

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Friday January 15, 2010 · 2:29 PM PST

2010/01/15 · 14:29

There’s some buzz about a new study in the International Journal of Biological Sciences, which states that the studies Monsanto used to justify the use of three varieties of genetically modified corn are flawed.

Thing is, in another life I’m a medical writer (mostly whoring for the drug companies, but that’s a story for another time), which means long bitter years of experience reading medical articles, so I figured I’d take a look and see if I could make sense of what’s going on.

If that's your cup of tea (and if you're pressed for time, RBC's diary got to the meat of the matter much faster than I'm going to), follow me below the jump.
EDIT: And see the edit at the end.

Manfromporlock

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Wednesday January 06, 2010 · 8:10 AM PST

2010/01/06 · 08:10

As in, "I threw it away."

It's here.

WARNING: Graphic photos of dead and decomposing birds.

I know a diary should have more substance, but I really have nothing to add to the photos, except that right now I'm remembering every time I didn't bother to recycle a stupid bottle cap.

Hat tip to Ethicalreasoning on Reddit, which is where I found the link originally.

Insider Trading and Nontrading

Manfromporlock

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Wednesday December 30, 2009 · 1:07 PM PST

2009/12/30 · 13:07

The most gratifying part of paying attention to the economy is watching, at the end of every bubble, almost as a natural part of the financial cycle, the predictable spate of arrests.

There’s Madoff, of course, but his Ponzi scheme seems to have been a one-off (unless you think the whole stock market is a Ponzi scheme, which makes sense—after all, the problem with a Ponzi scheme is that nobody can take a dollar out that wasn't put in by someone else, and that's true of the stock market as well). More typical, though, are the arrests of insider traders. More below. . . .

Manfromporlock

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Thursday September 17, 2009 · 10:57 AM PDT

2009/09/17 · 10:57

Okay, so I read the entire freaking health care bill (the July 14 version). Here’s a summary, along with some suggestions how to make it better. Yeah, it’s long, but it’s less than 1% of the original, so there's that.

To start, here's our current system, in a handy-dandy chart:

title=

NOTE: I'm having trouble hotlinking the images from Flickr--If the chart doesn't show, you can see it here. To see the charts in context, this whole monster essay is crossposted on my blog, economixcomix.com.

Anyhoo, more below the jump....

Manfromporlock

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Wednesday September 09, 2009 · 12:15 PM PDT

2009/09/09 · 12:15

So I read all 1018 pages of the health care bill (the July 24 version). I’ll summarize it in another post, but here’s a summary of the summary:

--There’s a lot to like in it. Most of the bill seems to have been written with care and thought by very knowledgeable people who genuinely want to reform the health system in the country. It’s not single-payer, but it’s okay.
--Which is too bad, because we’re not likely to ever see most of the reforms in the bill, even if it’s enacted in its current form.

See why below the jump:

Manfromporlock

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Friday July 31, 2009 · 1:23 PM PDT

2009/07/31 · 13:23

Floyd Norris has an article in today’s New York Times, neatly summarized by the headline: “It May Be Outrageous, but Wall Street Pay Didn’t Cause This Crisis.”

Norris argues that:
A) The crisis wasn’t caused by risk-taking behavior because Wall Streeters didn’t understand the risks that were being taken.
B) Wall Street’s pay structure, with all its rewards for high profits now now now, couldn’t have caused risky behavior in the first place because banks run by CEOs who owned lots of stock did worse in the crisis than banks whose CEOs relied more on their salary.

I'm a fan of Norris's blog, which is a good clearinghouse of current numbers as they come out, but these points are just silly. Still, Norris put some useful information in the article too--info that we can use. More below the fold….

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Obamacare explained in a comic

Explaining Social Security in comics

Debunking the "three for one deal"

The Framers of the Constitution vs the Filibuster

Another reason Romney must never be president: he's gullible

The Real Meaning of Ron Paul's Investments

The Monsanto data: a (semi) medical view

Now I know where "away" is

Insider Trading and Nontrading

A Summary of the Health Care Bill

The big honking flaw in the health care bill

A Couple of Ideas on Wall Street's Pay