in the Games the budget is more like a fictitious minimum that is consistently overspent. --Flyvbjerg & Stewart There's one question to ask when it comes to hosting the Olympics in 2024:  are they worth it? To address this question, … [Read more...]

Noah Smith, an economist I'm accustomed to considering not crazy, says the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal is no big deal. Although he writes enough about liberals and conservatives to make me think he's some sort of moderate, … [Read more...]

I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass. — Maya Angelou I started laughing before Elizabeth Warren was even quoted this morning. The story characterized the … [Read more...]

And the protests start when? NYPD Officer Brian Moore dies from injuries. --Kevin Cullen Tweet It's always sad, indeed usually tragic, when a cop is killed in the line of duty. When it happens, police from everywhere show up. Every cop … [Read more...]

If this is March, it must be Charter School Propaganda Celebration Month! A couple of weeks ago, we had some of Boston's white shoe wonders threatening a civil rights suit against the charter school cap. Everyone who wasn't laughing was … [Read more...]

white shoe: In its early days, the adjective was used in an envious, resentful way by those with less-privileged backgrounds; now it is either a dispassionate description of elitism or a passionate derogation of old-fogeyism. If you lose … [Read more...]

I happened to be on Twitter three hours ago when Governor Baker's team let loose with a number of tweets about his blue-ribbon committee to study the MBTA. I'm not a frequent tweeter, but 5 overlapping tweets in minutes seemed like overkill … [Read more...]

Many of the biggest budget busters are on Wall Street, not Main Street. --Thomas Ferguson Whatever happened to the swaptions--the crazy, derivative financing that the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority (MTA) used to provide an influx of … [Read more...]

My local public radio affiliate WFCR occasionally interviews Smith College professor and sports economist Andrew Zimbalist. Over the years, I've heard him interviewed several times and respect his opinion. He's very level-headed in my … [Read more...]

It’s honeymoon time in Boston. The transition from Governor Deval Patrick to Governor Charlie Baker couldn’t have been much smoother. Baker has talking, and even seems to walking, the bipartisan line. Referring to talks to close the gaping … [Read more...]