Bloggers don’t seem to be pay much attention to Hastert’s claim that Al Qaeda favors John Kerry even if CNN pays a lot of attention to this pathetic remark all too typical of the Speaker. Of more interest might be this report from Reuters. Ivor Roberts, the UK ambassador to Italy, apparently said “If anyone […]

National polls of the presidential race have been unusually wide-ranging over recent weeks. Here is a summary of some of their results: 1. Economist, 9/15: Bush +1 2. Harris, 9/13: Kerry +1 3. ICR, 9/12: Bush +4 4. Pew, 9/14: Kerry +0 5. Rasmussen, 9/16: Bush +4 6. Zogby, 9/9: Bush +2 7. ABC, 9/8: […]

I was about to fire off a really angry post about Bush’s jokes on the political stump yesterday: something about Kerry having eight positions on Iraq when he should have been talking about how the NIE flat out contradicting his happy talk (shorter version: lies) about the situation in Iraq. But the email from the […]

Economists for Kerry notifies us of a breakfast debate worth getting up earlier to see: Presidential Economics: Experts Assess Bush, Kerry Policies By Barry Jagoda Two of the nation’s leading economists will offer differing views on the economic programs of the Republican and Democratic candidates for President in a face-off at the University of California, […]

Kerry’s plan to have the government provide reinsurance for health insurance represents a major attempt at addressing the health care problem that the US is currently facing. The heart of the proposal boils down to this: the US government would agree to cover 75% of any employee’s medical bills that are in excess of $50,000 […]

Postcards from Old Europe – Tales from the Soft Patch US policy makers have been adamant about the fact that the economy is in (or coming out of) a transitory soft patch. The comments usually sound something like this: “I’m hopeful that the soft patch is mostly behind us. I don’t see any good reason […]

This is the title of a story from Reuters story reported here: WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. household wealth swelled to a new record in the second quarter of 2004, while borrowing outside the financial sector grew at a slower pace, the Federal Reserve said on Thursday. In its quarterly Flow of Funds report, the Fed […]

While fellow free trader Daniel Drezner says he’s leaning towards Kerry (and has zero probability of voting for Alan Keyes), his latest blog notes a couple of places where Jadesh Bhagwati has expressed concern about John Kerry’s rhetoric on trade and outsourcing. Dan asks the following question of Kerry supporters who also are for free […]

U.S. intelligence pessimistic on Iraq future From this MSNBC story: Estimate contrasts Bush statements, says civil war possible WASHINGTON – A highly classified National Intelligence Estimate assembled by some of the government’s most senior analysts this summer provided a pessimistic assessment about the future security and stability of Iraq. The National Intelligence Council looked at […]

The BLS released its estimates of consumer prices in August. They rose 0.1% in August, as did prices excluding food and energy. Somewhat worryingly, inflation seems to be falling from its already low levels. As I explained in this post last month, this is probably an indicator of weak demand. The 12-month change in prices […]