Froomkin also reminded me about this depressing tidbit out of Iraq: “Human rights abuses in Iraq are now as bad as they were under Saddam Hussein and are even in danger of eclipsing his record, according to the country’s first Prime Minister after the fall of Saddam’s regime. “‘People are doing the same as [in] […]

Dan Froomkin asks some good questions today: What does it say about the president of the United States that he won’t go anywhere near ordinary citizens any more? And that he’ll only speak to captive audiences? President Bush’s safety zone these days doesn’t appear to extend very far beyond military bases, other federal installations and […]

After a rise in long-term interest rates earlier this fall, they have fallen back down a bit over the past week or two. Meanwhile, short term rates have been on a steady upward march all year. The result is that there is now virtually no difference between long-term interest rates and short-term interest rates. The […]

Those of us living in California’s 48th Congressional District are suffering election fatigue. Our Representative, Christopher Cox, is the new SEC Chairman and his congressional seat is vacant. We will now be voting in our third election in just over two months: October 4th was the district primary and November 8th was the California statewide […]

The Medium Lobster puts it perfectly: America must win the war in Iraq. This isn’t mere rhetoric, or some militant call to arms. It is merely a statment of fact. There is, at present, no way for America to lose the war, because there is no readily comprehensible plan to win. Since the start of […]

Cheney asks this question: “Would the United States and other free nations be better off or worse off with (Abu Musab al-) Zarqawi, (Osama) bin Laden and (Ayman al-) Zawahiri in control of Iraq?” he asked. “Would be we safer or less safe with Iraq ruled by men intent on the destruction of our country?” […]

I thought I’d follow up on the FT story from earlier this week which noted that manufacturers claim that, even though they are laying off large numbers of workers (generally their less-skilled workers, they say), they are still very interested in hiring more highly educated workers such as technicians, engineers, and so forth. Unsurprisingly (at […]

I guess we can give thanks as we headed out on our commutes to friends and relatives that gasoline prices were not as high as they were two months ago. Keeping in the spirit of the holidays – James Hamilton declares the windfall profits tax proposal a real turkey as he links to Arnold Kling […]

This has nothing to do with economics, nothing to do with politics, and only a little to do with Thanksgiving. But that slight connection is enough of an excuse for me to recycle this old Angry Bear post. After all, Thanksgiving makes me think about football season, and football season makes me think of… Friday […]

In today’s NYTimes, Cornell economist Robert Frank suggests that perhaps they didn’t. He argument consists of two primary elements: Since happiness seems to depend more on relative wealth (compared to one’s peers, for example) than absolute wealth, and since all of the wealthy are getting wealthier together thanks to the Bush tax cuts, having more […]