Jim Wheeler
BS, USNA, Annapolis, 1959; MSA, The Geo. Washington U., 1975; Submariner, Commander, USN, 1959 - 1981; Aerospace battery engineer & mgr., 1981 - 1999; Political affiliation: Mainly of the Democratic persuasion but not a fan of the extremes on either side.
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Still Skeptical After All These Years by James R Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at jwheeler59@me.com. Copyright 2015 James R. Wheeler
Tag Archives: economics
On Money
Money is something we take for granted, but economics is complicated and it’s not as intuitive as it seems. I’m no economist, my background is engineering, but since I’ve been blogging on politics I’ve realized that misconceptions about money and … Continue reading
Major Economic Oops!
Who was right and who was wrong about the Great Recession and how to deal with it, Republicans or Democrats? Henry Blodget has an opinion on that, an opinion buttressed with facts. Blodget is a former senior equity research analyst … Continue reading
Posted in Economics
Tagged austerity, austerity economics, Debt-to-GDP ratio, Economic, economics, European austerity, GDP, Greece, Henry Blodget, Merrill Lynch, Paul Krugman, United States
15 Comments
The Dismal Truth
Economics, the “dismal science”, is at the heart of our national political distress these days. Each party has its version of what is right, but is either one what is best? It isn’t, I know it isn’t, and on my … Continue reading
Posted in Economics
Tagged demagoguery, dismal science, economics, IRS, madness of crowds, Obama, political bias, politics, Romney, tax code, taxes
5 Comments
Ready For A Little Test?
A classmate of mine recently sent me a link to an interesting and fairly short “civic literacy” test. It is sponsored by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI), a conservative educational non-profit organization founded by, among others, William F. Buckley. It’s … Continue reading
Posted in Politics
Tagged citizenship, civics, economics, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, literacy, voters, voting, William F. Buckley
7 Comments
Said The Tortoise to the Hare
Who says old dogs can’t learn new tricks? Last fall I got tired of listing to my iPod playlist while working out at the Y and learned to download pod-casts to listen to. My favorites include Car Talk, Garrison Keillor, … Continue reading
Posted in Economics
Tagged economic crisis, economics, GDP, national debt, Planet Money, Tea Party
12 Comments
What Role, Government?
When human beings were hunter-gatherers living in small tribes, life was simple. There was no need for the concept of money and possessions were limited to what one could carry – tools, weapons, animal skins, maybe some crockery. This state … Continue reading
A Chicken Solution
Economics has dominated the Joplin Globe blogs and other media lately, especially since the debt-ceiling crisis. The debt crisis is not over, of course. The Congressional SuperCommittee consists of partisan hardliners for the most part and is unlikely to come … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Politics
Tagged debt-ceiling crisis, economics, game of chicken, super committee
7 Comments
What’s It All About?
My current study interest is economics, so here is an economics question for you. Is there “good” economic activity as opposed to “bad”? Does the quality of economic activity matter? As the “wealthiest” nation in the world, are we getting … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Economics, Philosophy, Sociology
Tagged Culture, economics, meaning of life, Picasso, toys
8 Comments
Flip That Bank!
In political blogging about the Great Recession it is a common thread to find someone or something to blame. Amidst all the mud-slinging and counter-arguing the easiest thing for the beleaguered voter to do is to blame the president. He … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Federal Government, Fiscal Policy
Tagged Culture, David Smick, economics, Great Recession, greed, unemployment
3 Comments
American Dream, Dismal Science
Economics is sometimes called “The Dismal Science”, and for good reason. One president, Harry S Truman, kept getting evasive and contradictory advice from an economist who kept offering alternatives with his advice. After almost every assertion the professor would then … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Federal Government, Fiscal Policy, Foreign Policy / War, Government size, Government waste, Health, Medicine, War
Tagged American dream, Congressional Research Service, Culture, economics, entitlements, fiscal responsibility, government debt, Gross domestic product, Social Security Trust Fund
10 Comments
Still Skeptical After All These Years 