Jonathan Weisman, writing in the Washington Post today, reports that Kerry’s plan won’t balance the budget. Sen. John F. Kerry’s pledge to reduce record federal budget deficits is colliding with an obstacle that may be growing higher by the week: his own campaign commitments. This is true enough. The credibility of Kerry’s pledge to cut […]

Ben Ginsberg’s resignation may be the big story as far as linkages between Bush-Cheney and the infamous Swift Boat liars. Brad Delong notes the sad tale of how Robert Dole will say anything to help Bush in this campaign. So what has been up with the fellow that Scooter Libby got to out a CIA […]

Max Cleland wanted to personally deliver this letter to the President. Of course, George W. Bush is trying to avoid responsibility for the Swift Boat smears any way he can. I figured Bush’s running ability might allow him to stay ahead of Cleland in his wheelchair and it looks like I was right: (CNN) — […]

Has it peaked? Will it fall? Data on existing home sales in July was released yesterday by the National Association of Realtors. It showed a slight drop in sales, but still a very active market. From CBSMarketwatch: July’s drop was larger than expected. Economists had been expecting a decline to 6.85 million from the initial […]

Greg Mankiw’s Sunday New York Times oped is critically reviewed by Brad DeLong here. Mankiw tries to convince his readers that the unemployment rate is a better measure of the labor market than the payroll employment figure (interestingly both show we are worse off than when Bush took office). In a rather long disagreement with […]

According the a Zogby telephone poll from last week, “voters with active passports prefer Kerry 58% to 35%, while those without a passport are for Bush 48% to 39%.” Perhaps there’s some subtle interpretations of this finding: maybe passport holders are more common along the Canadian Border, and states like Washington, Minnesota, and Maine tend […]

I always enjoy reading Economic Reporting Review, which offers a dozen or so short, mild-mannered, critiques of economic reporting each Monday. Oh, after you’ve read it for a few years, it becomes a little repetitious, and you become a little tired of Dean Baker’s hobby horses, but it’s still well worth reading. This week’s issue […]

Proponents of the Bush Social Security partial privatization plan wish to pretend there is some free lunch as if taking $10 out of the Social Security Trust Fund and placing it into private retirement accounts would turn the $10 bill into a $20 bill. Free lunch proposals are often based on flakey economics or bad […]

While President Bush has asked that these lies be removed from television ads, his words are insufficient. Asked specifically whether the ads by the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth should be stopped, he said: All of them. That means that ad, every other ad. Absolutely. I can’t be more plain about it. I hope […]

For some reason, this letter to the editor from Vietnam veteran Jim Russell is in the Telluride Daily Planet instead of the New York Times and Washington Post. Nevertheless it’s a must read: … Three things that are forever pictured in my mind since that day over 30 years ago are: (1) The No. 3, […]