"Do you know how to make God laugh? You tell him your plans." Hari Sheldon – Foudation's Fear
Posted in Blog Post on Jul 29th, 2010
Unreal Blog Physics, Philosophy and Money The Bush Deficit Bamboozle – Paul Krugman Blog – NYTimes.com. OK, even by contemporary standards, this is rich: the official Republican stance is now apparently that Bush left behind a budget that was in pretty good shape. Mitch McConnell: The last year of the Bush administration, the deficit as [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Jul 2nd, 2010
Unreal Blog Physics, Philosophy and Money Paul Krugman continues to tilt at windmills: Op-Ed Columnist – Myths of Austerity – NYTimes.com. Which brings me to the subject of today’s column. For the last few months, I and others have watched, with amazement and horror, the emergence of a consensus in policy circles in favor of [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Jun 21st, 2010
Unreal Blog Physics, Philosophy and Money Krugman continues tilting at windmills in his quest to get policy makers to understand Economics 101: The Congressional Budget Office, in its analysis of President Obama’s budget proposals, predicts that economic recovery will reduce the annual budget deficit from about 10 percent of G.D.P. this year to about 4 [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Jun 15th, 2010
This should annoy most everyone: Since June 1, when federal unemployment benefits began to expire, an estimated 325,000 jobless workers have been cut off. That number will swell to 1.25 million by the end of the month unless Congress extends the benefits. The Senate, so far, has failed to act. Some senators, including Democrats, have [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Apr 16th, 2010
Senator McConnell is in bed with bankers to derail serious financial reform. He’s following a script given to him to serve that end. Op-Ed Columnist – The Fire Next Time – NYTimes.com. In his speech, Mr. McConnell seemed to be saying that in the future, the U.S. government should just let banks fail. We “must [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Apr 15th, 2010
I just can’t muster much pity for these clowns. It seems to me that these exotic financial instruments serve no purpose other than to obfuscate in order to allow them to sell crap to suckers, I mean investors. Dimon Sees Big Price Tag for Derivatives Rules – DealBook Blog – NYTimes.com. JPMorgan Chase could lose [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Apr 15th, 2010
When talking about the Tea Party movement, the largest number of respondents said that the movement’s goal should be reducing the size of government, more than cutting the budget deficit or lowering taxes. And nearly three-quarters of those who favor smaller government said they would prefer it even if it meant spending on domestic programs [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Apr 6th, 2010
Considering that we’re the only country to actually use nuclear weapons, this is an excellent idea. President Obama said Monday that he was revamping American nuclear strategy to substantially narrow the conditions under which the United States would use nuclear weapons. via Obama Limits When U.S. Would Use Nuclear Arms – NYTimes.com.
Posted in Blog Post on Mar 27th, 2010
All the bitching, groaning and outright threats from the right are all too familiar: What has been really striking has been the eliminationist rhetoric of the G.O.P., coming not from some radical fringe but from the party’s leaders. John Boehner, the House minority leader, declared that the passage of health reform was “Armageddon.” The Republican [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Mar 1st, 2010
This was a gem from Krugman, I don’t usually copy an entire post, but this was worth it: Jonathan Chait and Robert Waldmann, in slightly different ways, highlight a crucial dynamic in American political debate: the extent to which public figures are punished for actually knowing what they’re talking about. It goes like this: Person [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Feb 17th, 2010
The problem with the stimulus bill was that it was too small. Republicans were allowed to substitute tax cuts, which most reputable economists deem least effective for stimulating the economy in the name of bipartisanship. Imagine if, one year ago, Congress had passed a stimulus bill that really worked. Let’s say this bill had started [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Feb 13th, 2010
People still use pay phones? Who knew? The NY Times did story where they followed the activity of a phone booth in Queens for a week. I found this little vignette touching: Mr. Patir, 59, pulled a quarter from a pocket. He happened to be walking by the phone booth when he decided to call [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Feb 1st, 2010
My personal favorite Nobel Prize winning economist has a take on why Canada came out of the recent banking disaster relatively unscathed, while the US economy and financial institutions took a major beat down. It all comes back to the regulatory environment. The US decided, or rather the captains of industry in banking and a [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Jan 22nd, 2010
Krugman puts a stake in the ground on HCR: Op-Ed Columnist – Do the Right Thing – NYTimes.com. A message to House Democrats: This is your moment of truth. You can do the right thing and pass the Senate health care bill. Or you can look for an easy way out, make excuses and fail [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Jan 22nd, 2010
Republican Opposition to Obama Plan for Deficit Panel – NYTimes.com. Well of course they oppose a panel for deficit reduction, they created it. It came from unfunded tax cuts and benefit increases (think Medicare Part D), coupled with two unfunded foreign wars. They see Democrats retreating on HCR and are pressing their advantage. Democrats still [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Jan 11th, 2010
Op-Ed Columnist – Learning From Europe – NYTimes.com. Krugman tries to talk sense to reflexive Euro-bashers. Adopting a more humane attitude by taking steps to ensure everyone in the richest nation on earth has access to health care isn’t going to turn us into some kind of socialist dystopian nightmare. And the idea that Europe [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Dec 21st, 2009
After a long day of acid, partisan debate, Senate Democrats held ranks early Monday in a dead-of-night procedural vote that proved they had locked in the decisive margin needed to pass a far-reaching overhaul of the nation’s health care system. via Health Bill Passes Key Test in the Senate With 60 Votes – NYTimes.com. Something [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Dec 14th, 2009
Digital Domain – AT&T Takes the Fall for the iPhone’s Glitches – NYTimes.com. The issue seems to be with the iphone’s radios, not with the AT&T network. Don’t get me wrong I love my iphone as an internet device and music player, even for some portable gaming action. Not so much as a phone. We’re [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Nov 3rd, 2009
Krugman is right more often than his colleagues in economics. There’s a reason he’s a Nobel prize winner in economics. The good news is that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a k a the Obama stimulus plan, is working just about the way textbook macroeconomics said it would. But that’s also the bad news [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Oct 27th, 2009
From my perspective this is just stating the obvious, but in Washington politics always trumps economic common sense. …Washington is mired in a warped political debate. Congressional Republicans say continued economic weakness is proof that February’s stimulus package failed. Lawmakers in both parties fret that large budget deficits preclude more stimulus, lest the burden of [...]
Date: 01/01/2000