It sums up this week and what it means. I think, and dearly hope.

I will be going today: The United States and China in the 21st Century 2013 Madeleine Korbel Albright Institute for Global Affairs, Wellesley College, MA Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright ’59 and Former Secretary of the Treasury Henry “Hank” Paulson share the stage to discuss U.S.-China relations and the importance of that relationship to […]

Social Security Data Mining Mrs. Rustbelt, the sweet young lady I married, decided to investigate future benefits from Social Security, even though she is only “39.” I am her designated data entry clerk, so we sit down and establish an account and log-in for her. Near the end of the set-up process the software tells […]

Update:  Dealbook at the NYT interviews the producers of ‘The Untouchables’. Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism comments begin: Lanny Breuer, former Covington & Burling partner and more recently head of the criminal division at the Department of Justice, resigned abruptly today. The proximate cause may be a Frontline show that ran two nights ago, part […]

And Kevin Drum disappoints in his own defense. Regular readers will know that (at least sometimes) I like to seek out and highlight the very best, most cogent and convincing arguments countering my beliefs, trying to figure out what might be wrong with those beliefs, and hoping to understand what’s really going with the subject […]

Just wondering how much longer it will take the Republicans to recognize that being the Incessant Cutesy Gimmicks Party isn’t an attractive political position.

Oh, dear.  I like Ezra Klein. A lot.  So I’ll leave out the sarcasm–a necessity anyway, since I’ve already exhausted this week’s supply. But I do want to point out, because he’s so influential now, that Klein’s piece yesterday siding with those who thought Obama’s speech Monday should not have set forth liberal policy positions […]

by Linda Beale Do Good Wall Street Days Translate to Good Days for Most Americans? As usual, there was one of those all-knowing snippets in the news last Friday about what the direction in the stock market meant for the economy.  Observing high corporate profits and buoyed by the idea that the GOP might not […]

Via Robert Waldmann Richard Thaler at Bloomberg provides a different take on innovators and job creators: A recurring theme of this year’s presidential campaign is the need to encourage the formation of new businesses. Republicans in general, and Mitt Romney in particular, have stressed that the best way to stimulate such startups is via low […]

by Mike Kimel A Question About Apple My wife has been an Apple user for a long time. I on the other hand have tended to avoid purchasing Apple products for myself – I just cannot get around the concept of a single button on a mouse, nor why I should be interested in buying […]