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

The People-as-Props That Obama SHOULD Use During His Speech Tomorrow Night: John Boehner and Joe Barton. And They’re Already Invited!

Speaker John Boehner  @SpeakerBoehner House GOP has voted to replace the president’s sequester twice. Here’s why, courtesy @whitehouse: http://j.mp/WzhNgY #obamaquester — Twitter, h/t Politico, Boehner’s office dubs it “Obamaquester,” Feb. 8 Oh, dear.  I guess this is going to be a regular thing.  A few days earlier, our dignified House Speaker created the twitter hashtag #spendingstheproblem. […]

Stories That Will Continue to Get Far Too Little Attention As Long As Obama Allows Them To. [Appended]

* Don’t forget about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Paul Krugman has the goods on a story that’s getting far too little attention: In filibustering Richard Cordray, Obama’s choice to head the consumer protection bureau, and demanding major changes to the agency, Republicans are trying to transform it into something that’s essentially unable to carry […]

Joe Scarborough on the Deficit

Pro Growth Liberal at Econospeak also takes Joe Scarborough to task on Krugman and Keynes: Joe Scarborough on the Deficit After his interview with Paul Krugman this morning Joe Scarborough wrote: Mr. Krugman’s view is that Americans would be better off if its government ran deeper deficits and ignored its longterm debt.To suggest that Keynesians like […]

Paul Krugman, Angry Bear, and Jazzbumpa

Update: Noahpinion takes on the same in How to win arguments by pretending to be stupid.  The comments section offers other points of view. Ron T. aka Jazzbumpa received an unusual thank you from Paul Krugman for this post on a Mish Shedlock post about debating PK. Krugman recommended Beverly Mann  on January 15th this year […]

How To Debate Paul Krugman

On Saturday Mish wrote a really awful article with those words in it’s title. The article borrows these words and includes a quote from an even more awful article by Austrian school economist and author Detlev Schlichter.  Part of that quote is presented here. What makes him [PK] so annoying is his unquestioning, reflexive and […]

Brian Williams Thinks Raising the Debt Ceiling Means Increasing BUDGET APPROPRIATIONS. O Peter Jennings, Walter Cronkite, and Edward R. Murrow, Where Art Thou? — [UPDATED]

I watched NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams last night.  Big Mistake. Big mistake. Because now I’m really confused.  I was pretty darn sure until then that “raising the debt ceiling” meant allowing the Treasury Department to pay financial obligations already incurred, such as interest on bonds, Medicare payments, and contract obligations, and to allow […]

What Dana Milbank’s Stunningly Awful Column Today Reveals About the Washington Press Corps – [UPDATED]

Okay.  There’s no way to do justice to Washington Post centerist columnist Dana Milbank’s column today about Obama’s “presser” yesterday by just summarizing it or quoting a sentence or short paragraph from it.  And justice for that column, titled “President Congeniality talks tough,” is what I want. So here are the first six (blessedly short) […]

Eh. I’ve changed my mind. [UPDATED, twice!]

I want to remove the post I posted this afternoon called “Harry Reid Throws Down the Gauntlet In Front of … Obama.  Hurray.”  I think Reid has done exactly that, and I think he’ll play a much larger role in the debt ceiling debate and other fiscal-policy debates going forward, as will the other Dem […]

Harry Reid Throws Down the Gauntlet In Front of … Obama. Hurray. [UPDATED]

Obama pushed forward despite strong reservations expressed by top congressional Democrats — especially Reid — who privately described it as a “bad deal” that would increase Republican leverage in future budget fights. … Reid figured Democrats could get a more favorable agreement if they waited. When Reid saw an offer that Obama had considered pitching […]

Paul Krugman changes his mind on impacts of automation

In the past discussions at Angry Bear on the impacts automation might have on our lives, and the economics   involved,  gathered comments such as “You are a neo luddite”. As if widespread use of automated systems was automatically good for us overall because we would have access to ‘more higher wage and higher skilled […]