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

I doubt that Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee.

I’m not sure whether this is a serious post or not. — How likely is it that Donald Trump, if elected, would serve more than a few months of his term?  How likely is it that he will even continue as the nominee much beyond the convention?, Me, Angry Bear, Jun. 3 That sentence is […]

SOCIAL SECURITY, OBAMA, and the CRFB

by Dale Coberly SOCIAL SECURITY, OBAMA, and the CRFB Obama once offered to cut Social Security as part of a Grand Bargain with the Republicans.  Now he says he thinks Social Security ought to be expanded. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) answers him with their usual list of reasons why Social Security […]

Ken Burns Delivers Stanford Commencement Speech

I believe the fully and completely ignored danger in this election is believing Trump is just a flash in the pan and he will never win against HRC regardless of how much she is denigrated by Republicans trying to prove Bengahzi or DEMS who believe Bernie is their candidate. It is not a good time […]

Paul Waldman conflates two entirely different things about media coverage: media coverage of and about Trump himself and media coverage of Republican congressional policy proposals. He’s right about one of those things, but clearly wrong about the other.

[The left’s] belief that Trump’s success is primarily a media failure has a parallel in the way conservatives have always explained their own defeats. We would have won, they insist, if only the media hadn’t been against us! If only they had told the voters just how much Barack Obama hates America, or if only […]

When He’s Right, He’s Right

Brad DeLong (via Mark Thoma, since my desktop is dead and I saw Mark’s post first): I question Noah [Smith]’s description of the people as “brightest”. If you insist on trying to understand business cycles by requiring a single consumption Euler equation (rather than, say, risk-averse rich 70-somethings with short horizons; myopic middle-class 40-somethings, and […]

The Clinton Campaign Continues to Help Trump Ensure That Policy Won’t Matter in This Election

Time Magazine serves up a fascinating look at Donald Trump’s evolving campaign strategy, in which Trump and his top advisers leave little doubt that they think they can win mainly by dominating the media environment, in a way that will smash all the old rules of politics. The piece recaps several recent episodes in which Trump […]