Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Government is Not the Problem. Bad Government is the Problem

Having gone from trump to Biden. a person who I thought would never make a good president makes Steve’s argument on Bad Government being the problem when trump was the president. Asymptosis » Government is Not the Problem. Bad Government is the Problem, Steve Roth. And the solution to bad government is … good government. […]

Chatting With AI On Better Government

J.P. at J.P. McJefferson blog took up a rather interesting conversation with AI/ChatGPT. J.P. McJefferson: Chatting With AI On Better Government, jpmcjefferson.blogspot.com. ME What ideas do you have for improving U.S. governmental decision-making? ChatGPT Improving U.S. governmental decision-making is a multifaceted challenge that involves addressing various aspects of the political process. Here are some ideas […]

David Simon via Bill Moyers

I can’t get past just how juvenile the thought is that if you just let the markets be the markets, they’ll solve everything.  And if profit is your only metric, man, what are you building?  David Simon This is the first part of an interview with David Simon.   He is a “journalist and creator of the […]

Data Integrity Requires Personal Integrity and Vetting

Anyone who has ever worked with data knows that making certain the information is “clean” is much more important than what you do with it. Brilliant analysis of inaccurate data may make heroes (Chamley, Prescott, etc.), but it doesn’t make sensible policy. Witness the release of “public” data from the state of Texas. Jeremy once […]

Because He Would Never Name N. Gregory Mankiw or R. Glenn Hubbard as Arsonists Screaming for a Fire Hose

Go read Mark Thoma. Because he’s a kinder, gentler human being than I am: The time to stand up to the budget busting was when it happened, and when members of the list had the power to affect policy, not many years later in an article at Politico. Many on the list were either part […]

Mandate Up

Mandate Up by The Bell offers some advice to his readers on the mood of the country: Their Promised Approach to Governance Didn’t Work Out So Well for the Last Guys During one of their debates, Nevada Tea Party Senatorial candidate Sharon Angle famously told Majority Leader Harry Reid to “Man up!” meaning he needed […]

…being a good mother

by Linda Bealecrossposted with Ataxingmatter Friday Animations–being a good mother These days the tea partiers and libertarians have tended to mock those who think that we should all tax ourselves to take care of those who are less fortunate, and that the wealthiest amongst us–corporate managers, private equity managers, and shareholders–should pay more in taxes. […]

"Run Government Like a Business" = Deficit Spending

We’re used to that line by now. Ross Perot—one of the more prominent people who got rich due to government contracts—used it, Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman are using it (while desperately hoping you don’t pay attention to how they ran Lucent/HP or eBay), and Aaron Sorkin even had Charles Grodin say it in Dave, […]