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

The Only Modern Xmas Story

Dr. Black has already embedded one of the few worthwhile modern Xmas songs.* And I usually leave re-posting this story to Brad DeLong, but he appears to have gone all-in for Latin and skipped it this year. So, without further ado, Mark Evanier: I arrived, headed for my favorite barbecue stand and, en route, noticed […]

While You’re Busy Making Other Plans

Two Views of The Late Great Johnny Ace: 69 Years after his birth, my eldest daughter’s favorite band is The Beatles (slightly ahead of the JoBros). The main reason, apparently, is this film. (I’m trying to show her the originals on which it is based, but the best of the set is temporarily unavailable).

He’s from Georgia, but He Speaks the Language Very Well

WalterJon finds a brilliant judge’s response to a “birther” case: The Court observes that the President defeated seven opponents in a grueling campaign for his party’s nomination that lasted more than eighteen months and cost those opponents well over $300 million. Then the President faced a formidable opponent in the general election who received $84 […]

Stimulating! Stimulating! The Conservative’s Case

Andrew Samwick states the obvious, clearly and well: I think we are now 18 months behind where we should be in moving forward with sensible government spending plans. We should have pulled the fiscal policy ripcord in January 2008 with a public investment plan designed to repair our aging infrastructure. I’d rather have the 18 […]

The Economics of Michael Jackson

When I first heard that Michael Jackson died, I thought immediately of Chuck Sullivan. I met him once, probably in the early 1990s, after his sponsorship of The Jacksons’s Victory tour savaged his fortune. Unlike the other Moguls I Have Seen, it seemed his reversal of fortune impacted his mood. (More likely, I just caught […]

curiouser and curiouser capitalist

Because a world without Leonard Cohen songs readily available to all in Frisian is not a world we want to live in: plagiarism confession: This post is entirely copied from Brad DeLong who quoted Justin FoxJustin Fox. See Maureen Dowd — that wasn’t so hard was it ?