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

Research Makes Economists Happy From “The Labor Market for New Ph.D. Economists,” AER Papers and Proceedings, v. 94, n.2 (May 2004): … In response to the questions “How do you feel about your job?” 55% said they like it very much, 39 percent said they like it fairly well, and 6 percent sad they dislike […]

Grumpy Old Man See this rather unfriendly (by both Salon founder Dave Talbot and two time presidential candidate Ralph Nader), but entertaining and brief, interview in Salon. AB [typo corrected]

On the wages of these new jobs The Kerry camp routinely sends out interesting news articles on the economy with the latest one being this discussion of the June jobs report. OK, we all know payroll employment rose by only 112,00 (which had Jack Snow saying he NOW wants to look at the household survey […]

Anonymous Economist: Real Wages are Rising? Lawrence Kudlow wants us to believe real wages are rising rapidly: According to the New York Sun, one economist at a large Wall Street firm, speaking on condition of anonymity, suggested that the recent broad-ranging economic expansion is a plus for the Bush-Cheney campaign. “Wage growth is outstripping inflation […]

Impugning Joseph Wilson’s Crediblity The following passage from Susan Schmidt’s July 10, 2004 article in the Washington Post are being used by many of Bush’s defenders to suggest Joseph Wilson lied: Wilson’s assertions – both about what he found in Niger and what the Bush administration did with the information – were undermined yesterday in […]

Work Yet to Do The Democrats have some work left to do in getting across the point that I linked to yesterday: Bush has a long record of position-changing and general hypocrisy. This is apparently not widely recognized: WASHINGTON – President Bush is viewed by more American voters as decisive and arrogant than Democratic rival […]

The Monster Turns on its Creators France and Germany (especially Germany) were among the principal architects of the EU’s “Monster” — the Stability and Growth Pact, an agreement written in 1992 wherein all countries joining the euro are required to keep any budget deficits below 3.0% of GDP. The economic reasons for imposing such a […]

Oak Ridge Today, the president gave a speech in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, proclaiming once again that the invasion was the right thing to do: Faced with polls that show many believe the terror threat against them has increased due to the Iraq war, Bush argued that wars against Iraq, Afghanistan and al Qaeda have made […]

President Bush: Flip-Flopper in Chief The Center for American Progress has updated and expanded their handy list of Bush’s flip-flops. It makes for some good summer reading. Especially if you’re suffering from outrage fatigue and need to be bucked up a bit. Maybe they should start a list of Cheney’s flip-flops, too. Kash

Al Qaeda, the US Elections, and a Little Logic Item #1: This past week the Bush administration warned that Al Qaeda is seeking to “disrupt the democratic process” by launching terrorist attacks in the US during the period leading up to the November election. Item #2: Nearly everyone (at least nearly all of those whose […]