Economists Who Should Know Better Via the new Bush Blog, Max Sawicky caught a WSJ editorial (editorial here, subscription required) by three very sharp labor economists who should know better. Max gives their argument a quick drubbing and then issues a powerful warning to academic economists: The greatest threat to academic economists is the chance […]

The Arnold Effect in Germany From Reuters today: The straight-talking Hollywood action star’s election win in California has had an electrifying impact on Germany, leading to calls Friday for top politicians to voice clear ideas in simple language or be swept away at the polls. “The more confused we are by what they say, the […]

Producer Prices are Still Not Rising Unfortunately, the US still appears to be flirting with deflation. The BLS released new PPI numbers this morning, showing no increase in prices (excluding food and energy): The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today that the seasonally adjusted Producer Price Index for Finished […]

This Isn’t Your Father’s IMF Yesterday I came across this tidbit, published yesterday by the IMF. It’s a synopsis of a speech made by Peter Heller, IMF Deputy Director for Fiscal Affairs: Over the last decade, the IMF has moved forcefully to integrate issues of poverty reduction into the mainstream of its policy objectives in […]

Help President Bush MoveOn.org has had some so-so ideas, and some very clever ideas. I like this suggestion that it just sent out to its members yesterday: President Bush told the press on Tuesday that he doesn’t “have any idea” whether the senior administration officials who blew a CIA operative’s cover will ever be found. […]

Texas Nearly Redistricted In the end, it took the exterminator-turned-Congressman, Tom DeLay, to iron out the differences among the Texas Republicans over how best to divvy up the spoils of John Whitmire’s cowardice (Whitmire is the Texas Senator who returned to Texas and gave Republicans a quorum): …House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) spent three […]

What a Difference 30 Years Makes The Washington Post has Nixon Tapes excerpts mentioning current Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld: Using the Nixon Tapes — the gift that will forever keep on giving — Mann found Nixon one night fretting about “the Rumsfeld problem.” …In an April 7, 1971, chat, Nixon, Kissinger and then-Chief of Staff […]

Clark Update It’s been a tough week for the Clark campaign, and a lot of the controversy centers over the role that Clark’s grass roots supporters (given that it’s on the internet, perhaps that should be “fiber roots” supporters) will play versus the role that long time DC political strategists like Fabiani and Lehane will […]

Iraq and Spain The US newspapers (e.g. the NYTimes) are reporting that a “Spanish diplomat” was killed today in Iraq by unknown gunmen. Spain has about 1,300 troops supporting the US in Iraq, btw. I gleaned two interesting points from the Spanish newspaper reports of the incident, however. First, according to the Spanish newspaper El […]

As Texas Goes… …So goes the nation if we aren’t careful. If you read only one CalPundit post, read this one. If you read only one really long post, also make it that one. Either way, read it. Here’s Kevin’s basic point, and it is well-illustrated throughout: These are not the words of sane people. […]