Kerry: Rich and Privileged; Bush: Salt of the Earth Everyman Nedra Pickler’s really earning her GOP Team Leader points with this one, spotted by the incomparable Daily Howler: PICKLER: After a week of campaigning for the less fortunate, John Kerry went on vacation with the fabulously wealthy. Kerry is a rich man who promotes the […]

Income versus Assets Stephen Roach argues that the US economy has undergone a fundamental change over the recent past from being income-driven to being asset-driven. The punch line: In the asset economy, the rules of traditional macro have been rewritten. Income-based metrics that have long been used to scale deficits, debt, and saving are depicted […]

Make Conservatives Angry Tuesday is the day for My Life, Bill Clinton’s book. Here I shall write for you, the reader, a list of what you will hear over the next few days, so that you can safely ignore the blathering pundits: Clinton is hurting Kerry by stealing the spotlight. Clinton is hurting Kerry by […]

Spending Money With Little Return … That’s something at which this administration is pretty good. Based on this NYT story, not only can they spend a lot yet end up with little to show for it in Iraq, on a Medicare prescription drug benefit, or on protectionism, they can do it with campaign spending, too: […]

It’s Friday That means it’s time for another installment of What’s New from cranky physicist Robert Park: 3. MISSILE DEFENSE: SENATE REJECTS CALL FOR INDEPENDENT TESTING. The Senate Armed Services Committee voted this week to proceed with President Bush’s proposed missile defense system, which is scheduled to be deployed in October. Amendments that would subject […]

The Daily Howler The Daily Howler really is a must-read information source. Bob Somerby’s been doing for years what Media Matters’ David Brock just got a two million dollar grant to do: monitor the media and point out the inanities therein. It’s dirty work and every once in a while I wonder if (when?) Somerby […]

Kerry’s proposed $7 minimum wage John Kerry is proposing setting the minimum wage at $7. This graph provides a nice time series of the nominal v. real value of the minimum wage over time with real done in terms of 1999$ (this series ends in 2001). With the price level in 2003 being 8% higher […]

Postcards from Old Europe – Policy Traction Last week’s installment saw me try to do some Fed-watching, this week sees me hop back to the other side of the Atlantic to briefly examine the differing effects of monetary policy in Europe and the US. The difference revolves around the efficacy of the so-called monetary policy […]

Were They Wrong? In a semi-apologia for backing the Iraq Invasion titled Were We Wrong?, The New Republic editors write But saying he was a threat does not mean he was a threat urgent enough to require war. We lack John Kerry’s confidence that waiting to confront Iraq would have produced a broader coalition for […]

Another Inflation Indicator Ticks Higher Regarding this morning’s PPI report: WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A bigger-than-expected rise in U.S. producer prices in May, the largest in 14 months, and falling jobless claims last week provided fresh evidence Thursday of strength in the world’s largest economy. Prices received by farms, factories and refiners shot up a hefty […]