I won’t post it here—the full text would be so NSFW that Lee Papa might hesitate—but here’s the outline: UPDATE: I was correct about Mr. Papa’s likely reaction being more moderate, but he’s more lucid that Ezra (or Greg Sargent) has been so far today. Of course, “more lucid than people employed by the Washington […]

Mark Thoma, who supported (and probably voted for) the man during the primaries, is dumuch more gracious than I am: A vague promise from Democrats about the future is all but worthless right now, we’ve had too many promises broken already. Obama’s promises in particular mean nothing. The nicest thing I can do is describe […]

I was taking the day off, but this is the best news the Obama Administration could get right now.* Wonder how they’ll screw it up? I second the (self-)nomination of Dr. Black, on condition he commit to bringing me on as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Markets, which was held in its Glory […]

This is why Andrew Leonard (h/t Yves Smith) gets paid for blogging and I don’t. He tries to do the impossible: make sense out of Michelle Bachmann’s “economics“: 1) The interest can easily be paid for … Bachmann is making the argument here that the U.S. can choose to pay its creditors — the various […]

Mark Thoma joins Dr. Black, putting him one-up on some Liberal Bloggers Who Should Know Better.* Thoma: 1. You have to make the Republicans pay in terms of eroded public support before they will agree to cooperate at all. The president in particular has not played a long-run strategy, the Republicans have, and the results […]

Yahoo! News, Tuesday early afternoon Dr. Black, Wednesday, just before noon. Brad DeLong, about fifteen minutes after Dr. Black Me, Monday morning. But this isn’t a “First Mover” claim. It’s a note that there are no “savings” in getting rid of the website. There aren’t even the “registration fee” that applies to private enterprises. Commenter […]

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 […]

by Mike Kimel Update: McClatchy tackles the question here. GW Broke with Clinton. Did Obama Break with GW?Cross-posted at the Presimetrics blog The following major initiatives had occurred toward the end of April 2003, about two years and three months into the GW Bush administration: 1. Marginal income tax rate cuts in 2001, 2002 and […]

AB, late Thursday: If you want to stop a dictator from killing his people, freeze any of his personal assets that are held out of the country. In cases where the dictator is likely to fall, it sends a clear signal to other countries. (In cases where the dictator is likely to succeed, the worst […]

Update: Brad DeLong appears to confirm that Obama’s inner circle would be best served by being placed in a circular firing squad, given live ammo, and being told to “do what is right.” The plethora of disingenuous claims that Barack Obama “won” with the McConnell-Obama “compromise” are legend. See, for instance, the idiocy of Andrew […]