Continuing a series from Marginal Utility, link here:

Without further comment, since I’m trying to avoid figuring out how stupid the McCain Machine thinks female voters will be, even as their house organ (CNN) continues to declare that Obama is “not ready.”

…how are people who, eight years ago, were proudly displaying “Sore/Loserman” bumper stickers going to react if/when McCain announces Loserman as his pick for VP?* UPDATE: Otoh, if the NYT and Reuters are correct, any claim that Obama is “too inexperienced to be President” just went out the window. *This is not necessarily going to […]

Since I’m cash-strapped for the next few years, I’m looking for ways (legally, semi-legal, other) to make money. Thank the L-rd for WaMu. Let’s see: HELOC is at Prime – 0.76%, currently 4.24%. So I can: Take $25,000 from HELOC. Invest in FDIC-insured WaMu CD for 12 months at 5.00%. Profit until the fourth 0.25% […]

Ladies and gentlemen, Tyler (“So Right It Hurts“) Cowen presents the following, er, argument: Excessive bank regulation is another danger. To be sure, the regulatory structure for financial institutions failed in the current crisis, and change is in order. But we shouldn’t reform in a way that will discourage bank lending and weaken the tie […]

There is a strange meme in the blogsphere—most recently made in comments here by Movie Guy—that Obama “should have a double-digit lead over McCain at this stage as has been the case with previous presidential primaries.” So I went searching for double-digit leads among two-person Presidential races in the past several elections. August 2004 (Bush […]

“On days like this, I wonder if I’m still a Republican.“ I gave up on the Party long ago; I gave up hope when a (very) distant relative wrote an op-ed for the NYT on why he would not support impeachment in 1998, and was attacked by the party for the next few years, before […]

The traditional annual list of Party Schools now has a jump-start. In no particular order, except the way CNN listed them: DukeDartmouthOhio StateSyracuseTuftsColgateKenyonMorehouseMiddlebury CollegeRhodes College The reasoning is such that Only the Current Attorney General could love: “This is a law that is routinely evaded,” said John McCardell, former president of Middlebury College in Vermont […]

Responding to EconomistMom, he ends his breakdown of flows with: Aiming for a balanced unified deficit over the business cycle would, I think, be a good thing economically–but I really do not see how we could possibly get there. Apparently, spending eight years Serbing the budget has worked. As the current Administration surely knew it […]

My Loyal Reader sends this link, with this pull quote: “They had four major and respected law firms advising them, as well as Lazard,” said Markel. “And all of them, all of them were advising the board that there was zero value in a bankruptcy for shareholders as well as losses to creditors.” When are […]