Brad DeLong rebuts the presumption that Bernanke will be too soft on inflation. Now where would some lame brain get such an idea anyway? Brad is ably assisted by Mark Thoma. Even those at the National review who endorsed Bush’s very good selection are clueless. Bernanke’s critics from the left-leaning Keynesian camp are worried that […]
Rich Lowry noted the big news from the New York Times last night: Brace yourselves – this will be lighting up Washington tomorrow. The only comment from the Corner today even remotely related to this story from the Corner today is another attack on Bill Clinton. So much for the National Review’s concern with national […]
David Altig gave a good summary of the “missing inflation” arguments in a post from yesterday. The essence of his argument is, I think, that core inflation is simply not rising because inflationary expectations have not risen (which in turn is due to a very credible Fed promise to keep inflation low), and thus wage […]
Brad DeLong finds a Kudlow comment at The Corner and just shakes his head. But it was Michael Darda that was chosen to offer this critique: Up until this point, my hope was that Vice President Dick Cheney’s influence on the nomination process would tip the scales toward former Council of Economic Advisors chairman Glenn […]
I was not surprised to see Bush apologist Byron York attack the efforts of Patrick Fitzgerald with “A Cover-up Without a Crime?” But I was delighted to see that as soon as the ink was dry on this op-ed that President Bush called the investigation of the outing of a CIA agent “very serious”.
Deborah Solomon of the New York Times interviews former Senator Connie Mack on tax reform: Q: Can you tell us about the report the tax-reform panel will be filing on Nov. 1? It’s been reported that you’re hoping to reduce some popular tax breaks, including the deduction for home mortgage interest from a $1 million […]
Initial reports suggest that Bush is going to make an announcement this afternoon nominating Ben Bernanke to be the next Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. This is actually a pretty good choice, I think. (Full disclosure: he was one of my professors in grad school, so I accept the […]
I rarely comment on the Iraq debacle on this blog, but I feel that this week’s events require me to do so. Today or tomorrow, most likely, we will pass a very grim milestone: the total number of Americans killed in Iraq will reach 2,000. This milestone will undoubtedly make some minor headlines, and serve […]
This week’s news will probably be dominated by Wilma and Fitzgerald. And the top economic story will likely be Q3 GDP. But I’ll also be looking at the Existing Home Sales and New Home Sales reports for further clues of a housing slowdown. Expectations are for strong volumes for both existing and new home sales. […]
Kevin Drum unloaded on Scott McClellan and President Bush for their opposition to raising the minimum wage from $5.15 to $6.25: Whoa, Nelly! Sure, it’s been eight years since the last increase to the minimum wage, but even so an increase of $1.10 over an 18-month period might “price people out of the job market.” […]