Question George Tenet yesterday, before the Senate Armed Services Committee: I’m not going to sit here and tell you what my interaction was … and what I did and didn’t do, except that you have to have confidence to know that when I believed that somebody was misconstruing intelligence, I said something about it. I […]

Stop Digging I like this line from Kerry today: He called the president too “stubborn” to admit his policies weren’t working and said Bush’s economic prescription “begins and ends with tax giveaways.” “When you’re …in the hole, step number one is pretty simple: stop digging.” Being from Massachussets, I suppose Kerry knows something about digging. […]

Argentina Avoids IMF Default… …at least for now: Argentina agrees to meet IMF debt deadline FT.com: Argentina on Tuesday agreed to make a $3.1bn payment to the International Monetary Fund, narrowly avoiding what would have been the biggest single default in the fund’s history… Details of how the IMF and Argentina broke the impasse were […]

The Role of Progressive Blogs Kos wrote an excellent post yesterday about (arguably) the most important roles that progressive blogs have assumed: fact-checkers for the media, and tactical assets for the Democratic party in the battle to unseat George Bush. If the phenomenon of blogging interests you, take a look at it. Kash

Exuberance in the Bond Market Check out what’s happened to the yield on the 10 year treasury note in recent days: Ever since last Friday’s weaker-than-expected employment report, the bond market has been going like gangbusters. Yields on 10 year government bonds have plunged from over 4.0% to 3.7% in a matter of just a […]

From Kash to the NYT in 30 days Figure accompanying Krugman’s editorial in the New York Times today, March 9th, 2004: Kash at Angry Bear on February 10th, 2004: AB

The Sunshine State The Sunshine State is looking sunny for one presidential candidate, and it’s not Bush. This despite Florida’s modest (2.8% in 3 years) job growth: If, as I’ve argued before, job losses hurt Bush (e.g., in Ohio and Pennsylvania) then why won’t job increases help him in Florida? In a nutshell, Florida’s working-age […]

Further Declines in Consumer Confidence From CNN/Money: NEW YORK (CNN/Money) – Consumer confidence slid further in early March, according to the results of a relatively new private survey released Tuesday. The monthly consumer confidence measure compiled by Investor’s Business Daily and TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence, a private research firm, slid to 54.5 in March from 56.5 […]

Fixing His Own Mistakes? Last Thursday President Bush talked about the economy while visiting Bakersfield, CA. As usual these days, he used the chance to lobby for making the 2001 tax cuts permanent: [W]e need to make sure the tax cuts are permanent. See, the tax cuts are set to expire. That’s what a lot […]

Consumer Debt I just took a look at last week’s release of the Fed’s Flow of Funds Report for 2003. It shows debt levels, especially among consumers, that have increased very rapidly in recent years. Much of this is due to the famous increase in mortgage debt that consumers took on last year, but other […]