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

Public Option Hardest Ball

Robert Waldmann The proposal made here in “Public Option Harder Ball” received enthusiastic support when it was coincidentally semi proposed as opt-in by Sen Carper (D-Bankruptcy Reform) and modified to to opt-out by Senator Schumer (D-tough guy). As presented here on September 4 it was clearly unconstitutional and needed work. Now I have another idea. […]

Lieberman Says He Will Support a Filibuster

Robert Waldmann Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said Tuesday that he’d back a GOP filibuster of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s health care reform bill. Lieberman, who caucuses with Democrats and is positioning himself as a fiscal hawk on the issue, said he opposes any health care bill that includes a government-run insurance program — even […]

Opt Out Going to the Senate Floor

Robert Waldmann Harry Reid is sending a health care reform bill with a public option and an opt out clause to the floor of the Senate. . Josh Marshall explains why it is good policy and notes “the importance that an outside-the-box idea can have in significantly changing the terms of a major policy debate.” […]

Wobegone Finance

Robert Waldmann The average person thinks he has higher than average intelligence. This is an empirical fact [citation needed]. It is not incorporated into standard finance theory, but it matters a lot. It has been argued that the high volume of transactions on financial markets can be understood easily. If two people with equal quality […]

Schizzo Welfare Economics

Robert Waldmann I think that a popular approach to welfare economics requires simultaneously holding two contradictory beliefs. 1) Utility is not comparable across individuals so we can only say whether an outcome is Pareto efficient or not.2) Models which are not reality but which approximate reality are useful. Both are really central to many policy […]

Moody’s Blues

Robert Waldmann This McClatchy article by Kevin G Hall seems important to me. It does rely a lot on accusations by disgruntled ex employees, but I guess that is unavoidable. The lede WASHINGTON — As the housing market collapsed in late 2007, Moody’s Investors Service, whose investment ratings were widely trusted, responded by purging analysts […]

Tubes !

Robert Waldmann Not the intertubes, 18 mile long tubes held up by helium baloons releasing S02 into the stratosphere. Daniel Davies writes if you find yourself writing, in all seriousness, as a practical proposal, the phrase “pumping large quantities of sulphur dioxide into the Earth’s stratosphere through an 18-mile-long hose, held up by helium balloons”, […]

WaPo Headline and Abstract III

Robert Waldmann I think that something has changed at www.washingtonpost.com, because I am infuriated by many headlines and abstracts of articles. I don’t know if the same headlines appear in the dead trees version. Today we get Record-High U.S. Deficit May Dash Obama Goals Budget gap of $1.4T, while an improvement over worst projections, means […]

Rasmussen

Robert Waldmann The Rasmussen polling agency has two reputations. They have a good record predicting the vote in elections (which means especially primary elections give schduling and attention and stuff). On general public opinion, they ask questions which sure sound like Republican push polls. The theories are that they want to become Republican’s favorite pollster […]

Just Kill Me

Robert Waldmann Don’t kill the guy who writes headlines for www.washingtonpost.com. Nonviolence. First amendment. Free press. Don’t do it. I have already complained about another headline today, but I must admit that “Stagnant Prices Prevent Social Security Increase” totally leaves “Cap-and-Trade Would Slow Economy, CBO Chief Says” in the dust. OK so now the inflation […]