Food For Clark Fans Mark Kleiman’s got a bunch in this post with highlights from Gen. Clark’s recently released military records. Here’s a taste: Everyone knows that the army has carried grade inflation to a point only dreamed of in the university, and that Hollywood has its press agents study efficiency ratings to learn hyperbole. […]

Widespread Fantasy Update II On Monday, I took issue with Michael Kinsley’s silly statement that liberals widely believe that Colin Powell will resign and turn on the administration (Kinsley wants you to see that liberals who place faith in any general(s) are misguided). I also asked for just one person who believed this to stand […]

The Three-Way Currency Contest The Economist’s Buttonwood column (subscription required) poses an interesting dilemma: the managers of each of the three largest currencies in the world – the dollar, yen, and euro – would like their currency to depreciate. Yet it is impossible for all three to simultaneously depreciate against the others. I’ve previously written […]

Secretary Snow Answers My Question #2 CBS Marketwatch was kind enough to try to get an answer to question #2 from the seven in my “California Questions” post that followed Arnie’s coup in CA. They went right to the top (almost), and asked Treasury Secretary John Snow. NEW YORK (CBS.MW) — If Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger […]

CPI Shows Continued Disinflation The BLS released its monthly report on consumer prices this morning. The core rate (excluding food and energy prices) rose .1% in September, bringing the annual rate of core consumer price inflation down to 1.25% over the past year. So the trend of declining inflation, called “disinflation,” continues, as I suggested […]

Widespread Fantasy Update The title of this post is much more exciting than the content. Yesterday, I initiated my search for just one liberal reader of Angry Bear who believes that Colin Powell will resign as Secretary of State and turn against the administration. Michael Kinsley, you may recall, says that belief is “widespread” among […]

Sneaky Lou Dobbs Making a regularly scheduled visit to Eschaton, I see his latest “Torture Lou Dobbs.” Always happy to strike a blow against pseudo-science, I quickly followed the link to Dobbs’ latest poll. Here are the questions: LOU DOBBS TONIGHT QUICKVOTE Whose view of the situation in Iraq do you believe most? Bush administration’s […]

George Soros The three most famous super-rich liberals are George Soros, Warren Buffet (notwithstanding his advising the Shwarzenegger campaign), and Bill Gates Sr. (Gates Sr. is not personally rich, but as head of The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation he still makes the list). The upcoming issue of Fortune has a medium-length piece on Soros […]

Will Bernanke be Right Again? Fed governor Ben Bernanke testified today on Capitol Hill as part of his confirmation process for a full 14 year term. He had some pretty bullish things to say, particularly about the prospect for an improvement in the US labor market. Here are some excerpts from his testimony: After several […]

Is the US Heading for Financial Disaster? Several commentators have been posing that very question recently. The concern is that the US might be heading for a major financial crisis due to increasing debt. For example, in Krugman’s piece in the NYTimes today, he writes The timing of [economic] crises is hard to predict. But […]