Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Dear Journalists — You can Smarten Up Now

by Noni Mausa Dear Journalists — You can Smarten Up Now Oh snap. Once again the papers demonstrate that when it comes todogs, the First Law of Journalism goes right out the window withoutregret or even apparently noticing it. That law? “First, Do Your Homework.” What annoyed me today was an editorial in the NYT, […]

Partisan is as partisan does – reflections on writing a book

by cactus The other day I had a post about a book I’m co-authoring; the book is slated to come out in the spring. As I noted then, the book looks at at how a large number of variables – everything from abortion rates to economic growth, evolved over the length of each presidential administration […]

National manufacturing policy

rdan WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), chairman of the U.S. Senate Banking Subcommittee on Economic Policy, will conduct a hearing tomorrow on how best to establish a national manufacturing policy. Brown is a leading advocate in Congress for a manufacturing policy to strengthen the industry and ensure its future global competitiveness. Brown’s […]

Progress Report on my book

by cactus Progress Report, and a Plea For Help Regular readers may recall that together with a co-author, I’ve been writing a book. The topic should be familiar to the coterie of merry madmen/madwoman who lurk at the blog as writers or readers or both: we look at how a large number of variables – […]

Putting the ‘no’ in innovation?

by cactus The inimitable TBogg sums up one of the big arguments against having the gubmint involved in healthcare: Because, when it’s on the governments tab, innovation dries up, which might explain why our military men and women are currently fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan with pointy sticks and small but sharp-edged pebbles. A few […]

The Fed and pumping money into the economy

by cactus We all know the Fed has been pumping money galore into the economy lately. It makes sense, after all – the economy sucks right now and will for the foreseeable near future. Even if the NBER concludes in a few months that the Great Recession ended in the first half of the year, […]

Battle of the (Senate) Titans

by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Battle of the (Senate) Titans Senators Kennedy (Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee) and Senator Dodd (Kennedy’s wingman while he fights cancer) are seemingly lined up as opposition forces to Senator Baucus (Chairman, Senate Finance Committee ) on some aspects of health care reform legislation. Various […]

Megan McArdle Has a Question

by cactus Megan McArdle Has a Question Megan McArdle has a question: What happens to the cottage industry among Democratic-leaning armchair economists grinding out analyses proving that Democratic presidents are, like, totally awesome for the economy? Presuming that we’re stuck–as seem very likely–in at least a couple of years of really grinding low-to-no growth, Obama […]