Last month PGL told us about an upcoming debate on Bush Jr.’s economic policies between Brad DeLong and Bush Sr.’s CEA economist Richard Schmalensee. The debate was held last week at UCSD. For those who are interested, DeLong gives an interesting recap of the debate. It probably didn’t go the way you’re thinking. Kash

Krugman does a nice bit of debate preparation in today’s column. He points out several stock statements about the economy that Bush typically makes, and will probably repeat during the debate tomorrow night. He then points out why those statements are all incomplete, misleading, or wrong. I’ve taken the liberty of presenting you with a […]

…in the oil markets. Today’s record price is above $54. Is this a speculative bubble? It looks kinda like one, just because of the increasing rapidity of the price increases over the past couple of weeks… but on the other hand there do seem to be genuine trends in supply and demand that support higher […]

In both of the first two debates, Kerry charged that “95 percent of our containers coming into this country are not inspected today. When you get on an airplane, your bag is X- rayed, but the cargo hold isn’t X-rayed. Do you feel safer?” Both times, Bush responded “we’ve tripled the homeland security budget from […]

Via the Gadflyer, the center-right British magazine, The Economist, sent surveys to 100 academic economists (“We chose their names, at random, from among the referees of the American Economic Review, one of the profession’s more prestigious publications.”) of their views of Bush’s handling of the economy; 56 responded: More than 70% of the 56 professors […]

Editorial Note: Because this post turned out so long, I’m breaking it into two parts. The current post gives some motivation and then describes and presents the data, but with little interpretation. I’ll give my interpretation and comments in Part II. In a fantastic post on Friday, Kash showed how truly poorly the Bush II […]

This year’s winners are Kydland and Prescott. Atrios and Stirling Newberry provide nice summaries for non-economists of some of their principal insights. Let me just add two quick thoughts. First, I’ve never been convinced that the “real business cycle” model (i.e. the idea that recessions are the result of negative supply shocks rather than demand […]

Failure in Iraq would be a disaster. I think most of us, including Bush and Kerry, agree to that statement. If Iraq remains a state steeped in chaos and lawlessness, it will remain a breeding ground and safe haven for terrorists. It will ensure that US credibility in the Middle East remains in tatters. So […]

Uggabugga’s got the details. In fact, the market seems to already be exacting a price for SBGI’s nonsense — this plan may not make it past the shareholders. AB UPDATE: A quick check of Sinclair’s board reveals 4 inside and 4 outside directors, with the insiders including the CEO David “Solicitation Arrest” Smith. So this […]

The transcript of Wolf’s interview with the Treasury Secretary can be found here. After Wolf noted the fall in employment per the Payroll Survey, Snow first makes excuses and then offers: If you look at, Wolf, and this is important to make – a point to make. If you look at the broader survey of […]