by cactus Megan McArdle responds to a post I wrote: So Obama doesn’t count because he’s not really a Democrat. But Bill Clinton was. But Richard Nixon–the chap who implemented price controls and massively expanded Social Security and Medicare–was definitely a Republican. Jimmy Carter, who deregulated like mad: definitely a Democrat. What are these policies […]

Curv3ball at The Poor Man warms the cockles of this Northeast Philadelphia native’s heart. Go Read the Whole Thing. Gary Becker must be rolling over in his grave.

Robert Waldmann The absolutely brilliant and almost reliably reasonable Kevin Drum quotes the very smart and usually reasonable Dan Drezner and writes In a speech today in Russia, Barack Obama said that “the pursuit of power is no longer a zero-sum game.” Dan Drezner isn’t so sure: If he had said, “The pursuit of prosperity […]

Robert Waldmann I almost feel I might disagree with Paul Krugman about international economics with imperfect competition. In particular Krugman confidently asserts that the wild swings in the the price of petroleum are the result of simple supply and demand curves (which are both extremely price inelastic so almost vertical) and not of speculation. He […]

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 […]

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 […]

Credit crunch, followed by asset deflation. See also Robert’s series of essays in December/January.

Gary Farber lays out the details of who the real “silent majority” were in the Nixon Administration’s approach to Viet Nam, using Nixon’s own words. Such as this, from 20 January 1973—two years and three months before the ultimate U.S. withdrawal: Nixon realized that the Communists were going to win in Vietnam. “I look at […]

by cactus In Defense of Sarah Palin I don’t know what Sara Palin’s plans are, nor do I know precisely why she resigned. If I had to guess, there’s a scandal waiting to erupt. Perhaps not – she isn’t leaving her job for several more weeks, and if a scandal is about to erupt, she […]

rdan After looking at Spencer’s charts on job loss for the month, and the decrease in hours worked in a week I felt bad. However,the WSJ announces that: Business is back on Wall Street. If the good times continue to roll, lofty pay packages may be set for a comeback as well. Based on analysts’ […]