Lifted from Robert’s Stochastic Thoughts: All evidence from the debates notwithstanding, there is a Republican with a brain. Asif Mandvi, reporter for the “Daily Show,” tried to prank Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, asking for a sample of her urine. She immediately forked it over, though it was only apple juice — yazakchattiest. I want […]

Note: I wasn’t going to post this, but after all the flack Willard Romney is receiving about offering to bet his fellow millionaires $10,000, I find myself in the unusual position of being sympathetic to him.  Therefore, the story of the day in early November of 1992 on which I offered to bet $10,000: UPDATE: […]

Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) poses a question that needs a careful look and response: In its top of the hour news segment NPR reported that President Obama hoped that voters would give him credit for avoiding a second Great Depression. If this is an accurate representation of what President Obama said then […]

By Jeff McCord of The Investor Advocate Impending SEC Recommendation on Anti-Investor Supreme Court Decision a Bellwether on Regulator’s View of “Public Interest” In one of its filings prior to U.S. Judge Jed Rakoff’s celebrated November 28th refusal to rubber stamp an SEC-Citicorp deal allowing the bank – a “recidivist offender” — to escape significant […]

Mike Kimel to the blue courtesy phone 6:05 PM PT: Newt Gingrich begins by taking credit for creating 36 million jobs, 25 under Reagan, he says, 11 under Clinton. My problem isn’t Newt claiming credit for everything good which happened before he resigned in disgrace, it’s the numbers. Employment increased by less than 17 million […]

by Mike Kimel Holiday Gift Guide Advice Megan McArdle just put out what she calls the “Holiday Gift Guide 2011: Kitchen Edition. Not surprisingly, it doesn’t contain the sort of things that I (or I think, most Americans) would likely buy. A Chinois, a KitchenAid KICA0WH Ice Cream Maker Attachment (which apparently is only useful […]

There is a amazing piece in Forbes that Tim Worstall (also at Forbes) notes reporting on scary news that is misleading: I’m very confused by this piece from fellow Forbes contributor Rick Ungar. He tells us that there’s a bomb buried in Obamacare (or more formally, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) and that […]

Via Mark Thoma Tim Duy looks at reporting that misses the point even though information can be teased out of the piece. The article can be found here. I think the article would have felt better if it began not with the impression that baby boomers are the driving force behind recent declines in the […]

by Robert Waldmann (lifted from Stochastic Thoughts) Fiction In the Washington Post I don’t want to make this a daily feature but Anthony Faiola and Michael Birnbaum made it hard for me to get past The Washington Post (my home page) without an angry blog post. In what is supposed to be a news article, […]