Digby: There were many honorable ways to behave during the Vietnam era. There were those who believed in the war and volunteered to fight it. There were those who were drafted and went as a matter of duty. There were those who fought the war, came to believe it was wrong and came back to […]
Kevin Drum points out that on Tuesday, Bush said this about a national sales tax: “It’s an interesting idea. You know, I’m not exactly sure how big the national sales tax is going to have to be, but it’s the kind of interesting idea that we ought to explore seriously.”(*) Kevin addresses the politics of […]
Today’s Washington Post has a lengthy article examining their coverage of the Bush administration’s assertions about Iraq during the period leading up to the war. They contritely conclude this: In retrospect, said Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr., “we were so focused on trying to figure out what the administration was doing that we were not […]
Credit has to go to conservative Bruce Bartlett who writes in his National Review column: There is no indication of what tax rate Speaker Hastert thinks would be necessary to replace all federal revenue. A current proposal by Rep. John Linder (R., Ga.) says that a 23 percent rate would be adequate. But such a […]
A few weeks ago I noted that perceptions of how the economy is doing seem to vary widely depending on one’s political affiliation. Some new survey results by Gallup may offer some insight into why: Recent Gallup Poll data show substantial differences in the way Americans in core Democratic states and those in core Republican […]
In the previous post I raised the question of whether we can expect business investment spending to increase fast enough to propel the economy forward through the second half of the year, as Alan Greenspan seems to be arguing. Curious, I thought I’d try to take a rough look at where business spending currently is […]
This week’s Buttonwood column in The Economist does a good job of summarizing the current state of the US economy, points out the signs of potential danger, and asks the right question: [T]he economy is about to slow down… which is unlikely to be favourable to risky assets. The question is: how sharply? To a […]
Go. Now. Listen. Laugh. Then cry. Via TBogg. AB
I’ve hidden a ridiculous joke somewhere on this page. The current time is 1:17 a.m., Eastern. Who will be first to find it? AB UPDATE: Ragout’s Chef got it in no time: Uh, Maureen Dowd’s new book? Chef Ragout | Email | Homepage | 08.11.04 – 1:55 am | # It’s not really a book, […]
The BLS released its second quarter estimates of productivity growth in the US. The headline numbers were a 2.9% increase in business productivity (excluding the farm sector), and a 4.9% increase in real hourly compensation. These are both high numbers, suggesting that businesses are continuing to find ways to boost labor efficiency. The latter number […]