Incredible Via Atrios, from the NYT: ROEMER: Would it have made any difference if you had mentioned — did you ever mention it, for instance, to the president — your briefing the president from August 6th on? TENET:: I didn’t see the president. I was not in briefings with him during this time. He was […]

It’s Your Children’s Money, Quick Take It! WASHINGTON – Uncontrolled U.S. budget deficits would pose a serious threat to global prosperity in coming years as rising interest rates depress economic growth in the United States and around the world, the International Monetary Fund (news – web sites) warned Wednesday. The IMF released a new analysis […]

The Lost Art of Diplomacy In Iraq, the standoff between Sadr’s militias in Najaf and 2500 US Army troops (and their tanks, artillery, and air support) is a tense and extremely dangerous one. However, it looks like some careful diplomacy by an Iranian delegation may be easing the situation there. The Iranians, being from the […]

CPI Release The BLS just released the CPI data for March. It shows a surprisingly large increase in prices: +0.4% for consumer items excluding food and energy. That means that prices have increased over the past 12 months by 1.6%, which is the fastest rate of price increase since mid-2001. Even the chained core CPI […]

Favorite Moments Two favorite moments from Bush’s press conference last night come to mind. The first was already alluded to by AB’s post from last night. (“Something will pop into my head…”) The second is this one, which I’ll simply reproduce straight from the transcript: Q. Mr. President, Why are you and the vice president […]

Jesus H. … Read. Laugh. Weep for your country. Ok, then. AB P.S. No, this is not from The Onion.

Tomahawk = Lawyer? Ashcroft on Tuesday: Mr. Ashcroft said that to the contrary, he personally went to the national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, on March 7, 2001, and urged her to scuttle what he characterized as an ineffective policy of the Clinton administration specifying that Mr. bin Laden had to be captured, and only in […]

What, No Press Conference Post in Real Time? READER: Hey, Angry Bear, where’s your real-time commentary on Bush’s press conference? ME: Sorry, I’m out of ideas at the moment. “I wish you would have given me this written question ahead of time, so I could plan for it.” But, “… something will pop into my […]

Consumer Confidence and Consumer Spending, Part II Today the Commerce Department reported rapidly rising retail sales in March. Some read this as renewed evidence that the recovery is roaring ahead. The bond market is dutifully plunging in response. Note one interesting thing: this follows closely on the heels of several reports that consumer confidence has […]

Bush’s Approval Ratings Perhaps surprisingly, Bush’s approval ratings have held roughly constant over the past month. The chart below shows the running average of 10 national polls from January 1 of this year to today, with 95% confidence bands. (For context, take a look at this post about Bush’s approval ratings on the American Street.) […]