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

Once is History, Twice is Parody and Ignorance

Gary Farber (so far only via Facebook) (UPDATE: Now here) finds a reprint from the 8 March 1933 issue of The Nation: At the risk of gilding the tinsel, let the record be set down finally as The Nation takes leave this week of the “only party fit to rule.” American memories are short. Four […]

Galbraith: Unemployment Statistics Of The New Deal Era

by Bruce WebbA little antidote to Amity Shlaes and the other New Deal Deniers. From TPM Cafe J.K. Galbraith introduces Marshall Auerback The view that the New Deal was too small and accomplished little, that only WWII ended the Depression, is very widely held. But it is not correct. It is based on a mis-reading […]

petitio eleuchi … were they smarter in 1932 than now?

rdan Noni Mausa in comments reminds us: (We forget)….how essential it is to understand sound and unsound arguments. Arguments are one tool of winning or losing in the struggle against your opponent and his definition of reality — a definition which will effect your life and improve his (or else why would he bother?) If […]

Prof. Pollkatz: Bush Approval & the three Commander in Chief Moments

Stuart Eugene Thiel is a retired lawyer and economics professor (at least he taught at Wash. St and DePaul U’s) who comments around the blogosphere here and there. But to me he will always be Prof. Pollkatz proprietor of a really fantastic polling website with a concentration on Bush approval as aggregated from 15 national […]

Bush’s economic report released

rdan Economistmom points to the Bush administration’s final economic report, remarking how lackluster it is and how scarce in quantitative data even concerning the overriding flagship notion of ‘tax cuts as driver of the economy’ meme. Bush Economic report 2009. Works now. Clinton Economic report 2001 Ok, go for it. Update: The links worked this […]

rdan Please double check your user id on js-kit carefully until you know what to check automatically. Sometimes it is the cookie which is deleted. Too many anonymouses makes for confusion…do not feel embarrassed by popping in your name in reply…we all understand. Anonymous will eventually be considered impolite. This note will be deleted in […]

This is why Krugman Makes the Big Bucks

The Quote of the 21st Century: And you’ve got Greg Mankiw — well, I don’t know what Greg actually believes, he just seems to be approvingly linking to anyone opposed to stimulus, regardless of the quality of their argument. Either that, or it’s a description of everything that is wrong with the field of Economics […]

If Ever There Were a Tipping Point in the Nationalisation Discussions…

Willem Buiter, whose early posts at Maverecon were the epitome of restraint, calls for nationalisation: By throwing cheap money with little conditionality at the banks, the Fed and the US Treasury may get bank lending going again. By subsidizing new capital injections, they reward bad porfolio choices by the existing shareholders. By letting the executive […]

Unleash your Inner FDR: Social Security as political opportunity

In recent days there has been a lot of gnashing of teeth among Social Security supporters at the prospect of even having Social Security on the table during next month’s economic summit. I gave a few reasons a couple days ago why we don’t need to let ‘fear itself’ rule us Obama and Social Security: […]