Era of Big Government, Cont’d. John McCain sums it up nicely: “Congress is now spending money like a drunken sailor,” said McCain, a former Navy officer, “and I’ve never known a sailor, drunk or sober, with the imagination that this Congress has.” [snip] “The administration originally supported an energy bill that would cost about $8 […]

Free Trade and Retaliation Up to now, most of my arguments — and Kash’s — in favor of free trade have been premised on the idea that access to inexpensive imports is good for U.S. consumers and also good for the countries selling the goods. A second line of argument is that when the imports […]

Are Faculty in the Humanities Liberal? Yes, almost surely so. But Stanley Fish, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago, has what I think is the right response: David Brooks is only the most recent sage to point out that, especially in the humanities and social […]

Even the Pro-Free Trade Paul Krugman Via Matt Yglesias, Paul Krugman offers some thoughts that I think a fair number of Angry Bear readers will agree with: First and foremost, the promise of export-led growth has failed in too many places. In particular, Latin America has signally failed to replicate Asia’s success: Latin nations have […]

More Reading For Your Thanksgiving Enjoyment This one is suitable for children, but should be digusting to everyone. Bob Novack, in the Sun-Times: On the House floor, Nick Smith was told business interests would give his son $100,000 in return for his father’s vote. When he still declined, fellow Republican House members told him they […]

The Era of Big Government, Continued In the NYT today: Broad Bills Stuffed With Lawmakers’ Pet Items. Some highlights: “A provision benefiting a specific hospital in Tennessee was added to the Medicare bill at the last minute in an effort to get the vote of Representative Harold E. Ford Jr., Democrat of Tennessee … Mr. […]

In Case You Haven’t Seen It Yet … … I offer you this exchange for your Thanksgiving amusement (warning: not suitable for children): [Neil Bush’s] ex-wife’s attorney sounded skeptical. “Mr. [Neil] Bush, you have to admit it’s a pretty remarkable thing for a man just to go to a hotel room door and open it […]

Medicare Drug Benefit The Washington Post has an impressively informative piece on the new Medicare drug benefit–they numbers are detailed and useful. In fact, I hereby nominate the authors, Edward Walsh and Bill Brubaker, for the Bush Budget Beat through at least the 2004 elections. Had work like this been common throughout 1999 and 2000, […]

Why are Bond Yields Still so Low? One of the fundamental conclusions of basic macroeconomics is that when the economy booms, interest rates should rise. That’s because when the economy is doing well, people and businesses borrow more money to finance their spending and investment. When the demand for borrowed money rises, we know that […]

Reflections on Medicare and the Democratic Party Take a look at this bit of fascinating analysis of the Medicare fight by the Washington Post: For Democrats, A Wake-Up Call Democrats have owned the Medicare issue for nearly 40 years. But this week, the Republicans climbed into the driver’s seat and mashed the gas pedal. In […]