Today’s new economic data fit into the larger picture of an economy that is noticeably losing steam. In the graph below I’ve presented the 3-month annualized rate of change in core consumer prices and industrial production, including today’s data. I’ve also included two other data series that reveal important clues about the health of the […]

We have two new pieces of economic data this morning, the CPI report and Industrial Production for July. The consumer price inflation report released this morning by the BLS showed a surprising fall in prices in July. Part of this was due to a small fallback in oil prices during the month (this will be […]

The political scene is getting ugly, but the Kerry economists must have been chucking when they emailed out Don Luskin’s latest from the National Review on August 13, which is entitled “The Art of Trash-Talking a Good Economy: Just how stupid does John Kerry think the voters are?” It states in part: He [Gene Sperling] […]

Not so long ago, the Bush administration was pushing covert (and not so covert) actions to oust Venezualan president Hugo Chavez. This April 15, 2004 article from GlobalSecurity.com explains some of what passed: Documents showing U.S. funding for Venezuelan opposition groups have prompted an increase in personal attacks by President Hugo Chavez against President Bush, […]

If you haven’t already seen this front page story from today’s NYTimes, then now might be a good time. Apparently the FBI has spent the past couple of weeks interviewing, and in some cases subpoenaing, people that it thinks are likely to attend protests at the Republican convention in NY. “The message I took from […]

I’m stealing this table from Kevin Drum, because this issue is particularly important (and just in case there’s anyone out there who reads my blog, but not Kevin’s.) Spearheaded by Cheney, Kerry’s “More sensitive war on terror” is on the verge of becoming this election’s “Invented the internet.”(*) So here is Kevin’s compare and contrast: […]

John King notes the source of the sensitive remark that Dick Chcney has been criticizing John Kerry over – during CNN’s Newsnight 8/12/2004 edition: KING: In a speech at issue a week ago, Senator Kerry vowed to destroy terrorist networks. And aides say by promising to be more sensitive he simply meant more diplomatic with […]

Digby: There were many honorable ways to behave during the Vietnam era. There were those who believed in the war and volunteered to fight it. There were those who were drafted and went as a matter of duty. There were those who fought the war, came to believe it was wrong and came back to […]

Kevin Drum points out that on Tuesday, Bush said this about a national sales tax: “It’s an interesting idea. You know, I’m not exactly sure how big the national sales tax is going to have to be, but it’s the kind of interesting idea that we ought to explore seriously.”(*) Kevin addresses the politics of […]

Today’s Washington Post has a lengthy article examining their coverage of the Bush administration’s assertions about Iraq during the period leading up to the war. They contritely conclude this: In retrospect, said Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr., “we were so focused on trying to figure out what the administration was doing that we were not […]