I live in Michigan, a state which felt in its infinite Republican legislator wisdom it was important to remove all input from the cities, counties, and townships and leave the industry unfettered with any controlling influence. For those who are worried about capitalism and free enterprise if you own the land, there is such a […]
An understanding between Iran and the 5+1 countries about Iranian nuclear technology has been announced. Given my lack of expertise, no one should care what I think of the deal. That warning typed, I will write as if I were expert after the jump.
“Two Cheers for Corruption” and Bill Black’s Response Plunder has become a way of life for many elite Corporate CEOs, Bill Black argues in response to Deirdre McCloskey supposition: “But corruption can be efficient and just, too. It can be good for efficiency if, say, bribes are paid to get around bad laws (such as […]
Via Daily Kos, we learn that Wikileaks has released the investment chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). This is a critical chapter, as it was in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), because it establishes investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanisms. Despite its neutral-sounding name, ISDS is actually a radical concept. Instead of using the […]
I was intrigued by a very puzzling tweet (by @billmon1) which noted that Jonathan Chait had compared Benjamin Netanyahu to Yasser Arafat. I thought that a very odd comparison as they don’t seem similar to me, except for the part about participating in negotiotiations but never actually accepting a final peace agreement. But I now […]
Continuing my efforts to demonstrate that a little knowledge of the law is a dangerous thing (and adding a superfluous Wald to the name of the AngryBear competent to discuss this) I wonder how and why Senators decided that the President must seek their advice and consent before performing any foreign policy (including for all […]
In many ways, [Clinton] did a good job at her press conference on Tuesday. The part of her speech talking about her daughter’s wedding and her mother’s funeral arrangements being off limits, that certainly resonated. She absolutely was right when she said, “No one wants their personal e-mails made public.” — Hillary Clinton Is Turning […]
The 47 senators who wrote their absurd ignorant improper and (almost) unprecedented letter in an attempt to undermine Nuclear negotiations between Iran and the (5)+1 are not traitors. The Constitution defines treason “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and […]
The Ezra Kleinless wonkblog remains excellent. In particular Matt O’Brien is about as young, smart, witty, and hard working as Klein. However, I think he may not have read everything. He notes that the allegedly reformicon tax plan includes the Bush tax cuts for the rich on steroids. Then he reviews recent, but only recent, […]
Today, Martin O’Malley, the former Maryland governor who has been talking about challenging Clinton from the left, was repeatedly asked by reporters to comment on Clinton’s emails, and he repeatedly refused. Not because he doesn’t think there are legitimate questions here, but because his advisers say raising them might reflect badly on him: “His advisers say there’s […]