Blog Profile / Ezra Klein

Wonkbook: Could the scandals help immigration reform?

Welcome to Wonkbook, Ezra Klein and Evan Soltas’s morning policy news primer. To subscribe by e-mail, click here. Send comments, criticism, or ideas to Wonkbook at Gmail dot com. To read more by Ezra and his team, go to Wonkblog. Our thoughts … Continue reading ?

The best sentences we read today

- ”Since 2006, Slate has declared email, the independent bookstore, the American pun, and instant gratification dead.” - “Of the country’s top 10 congressional districts with the highest capacity of wind-powered electricity, nine are represented by Republicans.” - ”Thanks, Texas, the birdiest … Continue reading ?

How to make $30 billion and pay no corporate income tax, the Apple way

Apple went to Ireland, and it found a pot of gold. Or more precisely, it managed to bring in $30 billion in overseas profits over a four-year period without paying a dime of corporate income tax to the Irish, American … Continue reading ?

Senior poverty is much worse than you think

One frequent knock on the official poverty rate is that it generally excluded income from some government programs like food stamps and the Earned Income Tax Credit, but included income from others, like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and … Continue reading ?

How net neutrality regulations could undermine the open Internet

In recent years supporters of network neutrality have tried and failed to get Congress to enact neutrality regulations. In 2010, Julius Genachowski, President Obama’s choice to lead the Federal Communications Commission, decided to act anyway, relying on a controversial interpretation … Continue reading ?

Only 27 percent of college grads have a job related to their major

Here’s some interesting new data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The vast majority of college grads work in jobs unrelated to their major: In 2010, only 62.1 percent of U.S. college graduates had a job that even … Continue reading ?

Here’s why the ‘scandals’ aren’t affecting Obama’s poll numbers

If you’ve been reading the newspapers, you know that the Obama administration has had a very tough week. It was “a bad week for the White House,” according to the National Journal. USA Today said it was ”one of the most challenging weeks … Continue reading ?

Oregon may be the White House’s favorite health exchange

Welcome to Health Reform Watch, Sarah Kliff’s regular look at how the Affordable Care Act is changing the American health-care system — and being changed by it. You can reach Sarah with questions, comments and suggestions here. Check back every Monday, … Continue reading ?

Here’s what snake venom does to blood

This neat video is a bit old, but it’s resurfaced thanks to David Grann’s always-excellent Twitter feed: “A single drop of venom (from a Russell’s viper) is dripped onto a petri dish of blood, and in seconds the blood clots … Continue reading ?

The question for Yahoo: Will Tumblr turn out to be more like Google or more like Craigslist

Yahoo has concluded that Tumblr, the social blogging service, is worth a whopping $1.1  billion. Will the bet prove a good one? The answer depends on whether the combined company can turn its many millions of users into a interlocking … Continue reading ?

No, the federal government does not profit off student loans

If you’re sick of having to make student loan payments, you’re not alone. A recent report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau estimates that there 38 million student loan borrowers in the United States and the total debt load has … Continue reading ?

Yahoo can’t decide if it’s a media company or a tech company

Yahoo’s acquisition of Tumblr for $1.1 billion is a big gamble by Marissa Mayer, the company’s recently-hired CEO. The microblogging site is a valuable asset, but media accounts of Mayer’s thinking suggest she hasn’t come to terms with Yahoo’s fundamental … Continue reading ?

What’s the best way to pass a climate bill? Fix the economy first.

Wondering why Congress doesn’t pass more environmental legislation? The poor economy probably has a lot to do with it. A new study finds that U.S. senators are far less likely to take green votes when the unemployment rate in their … Continue reading ?

Is the future of American health care in Oregon?

“The governor has a notion that you can move away from medical billing and towards a more flexible approach to health-care spending that makes more sense for the community,” John McConnell, a health economist at Oregon Health and Science University, … Continue reading ?

Wonkbook: What we’re learning about the IRS’s Cincinnati office

Welcome to Wonkbook, Ezra Klein and Evan Soltas’s morning policy news primer. To subscribe by e-mail, click here. Send comments, criticism, or ideas to Wonkbook at Gmail dot com. To read more by Ezra and his team, go to Wonkblog. “I was … Continue reading ?

Bill Gates: ‘In rich-world health, innovation is both your friend and your enemy’

How foreign voices influence American wars

Poli-Sci Perspective is a weekly Wonkblog feature in which Georgetown University’s Dan Hopkins and George Washington University’s Danny Hayes and John Sides offer an empirical perspective on the issues dominating Washington. In this edition, Hayes looks at the way foreign … Continue reading ?

Here’s why hospitals set high prices

“The most expensive hospital in America is not set amid the swaying palm trees of Beverly Hills or the luxury townhouses of New York’s Upper East Side,” Julie Creswell, Barry Meier and Jo Craven McGinty wrote last week in the … Continue reading ?

Ben Bernanke on robots, lasers and the Great Stagnation

Every year, it seems, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gives a commencement speech, and every year, the occasion provides him with a rare opportunity to venture far beyond his usual monetary policy-speak. This year, he mentions robots and lasers! In … Continue reading ?

Scientists agree on climate change. So why doesn’t everyone else?

This might be the least surprising finding of the week: Since 1991, roughly 97 percent of all published scientific papers that take an explicit position on the question agree that humans are warming the planet. That stat comes from this extensive new survey … Continue reading ?