May 2010
2 posts
The New York Times.
I was very late in making The New York Times my primary news source, and for a poor reason- elitism. There are still sections that ooze smug privilege, like the quarterly fashion magazine. The features that illustrated the strains of the recession through depressed private jet markets and frugal Hampton summers were particularly distasteful.
I’m not sure which of the following then...
Fairness
Ezra Klein has an interesting take on Ultimatum Bargaining Games and Wall Street:
During the 1980s and 1990s, economists in a variety of countries conducted a series of experiments that shocked their profession. The experiments were called “ultimatum bargaining games,” and they were very simple: One person was given a pot of money to dole out. The other person got to accept or...
April 2010
9 posts
Quote.
“Sometimes I talk about love, some songs I talk about life, some songs I talk about me being the shit on every level.”
-T.I.
More White People.
A few more photos from the Tea Party protests yesterday.
Big Dogs t-shirts y’all.
It’s not immediately apparent in this photo, but that sign is held up by PVC piping, which is in turn affixed to this gentleman’s back.
Coonskin hat!
White People.
Below are pictures I took of the Tea Party’s rally outside of my office in Freedom Plaza. For a self-styled populist movement, they’re rather wealthy and educated, but OK.
I'd imagine most of The-Dream's conversations are...
“The formula for making a hit record is like making a hit conversation”
- The-Dream
Ta-Nehisi Coates is a pretty good writer.
“This is about a lancing shame, about that gaping wound in the soul that comes when confronted with the appalling deeds of our forebears. Lost Causers worship their ancestors, in the manner of the abandoned child who brags that his dead-beat father is actually an astronaut, away on a mission of cosmic importance.”
- Ta-Nehisi Coates on Southern reverence of the Confederacy.
Two States.
The Fourth Branch provides us with this interested map, which categorizes states according to the return on their taxes from the federal government. The states coded red receive more than a dollar in revenue for every dollar in taxes that is sent to the federal government, while those shaded blue receive less than a dollar. As both The Fourth Branch and Ezra Klein have pointed out, there’s...
Steve Meli on inflation
Steve Meli is one of my favorite people to talk to about economics. We agree on almost nothing, but he’s always really thoughtful and challenging. Below he responds to my previous post on inflation:
“The threat of inflation is very real. Krugman and Summers have it wrong. And Matt Yglesias has it completely backwards. The elite love inflation. It allows them to confiscate the wealth...
March 2010
19 posts
Michael Kinsley's Inflation Nightmare.
The April edition of The Atlantic Monthly features Michael Kinsley’s now widely debated printed panic attack on inflation. A short synopsis: Michael Kinsley knows he shouldn’t be worried about inflation. He knows that economists of all stripes are not particularly worried about inflation. Yet he’s concerned that amidst expansive government spending and growing debt we’ll wake up one today with...
Quote of the Day
Today’s Richard Cohen column is equal parts passion and poignancy:
“Ever since the New Deal, the GOP has been the Party of the Past. It said no to the New Deal. It said no to Social Security. Important leaders — Barry Goldwater, for instance — said no to civil rights, as they now are saying no to gay rights. The party plays the role of the scold, the finger-wagger who...
Roundtable on the Settlements Row
This is reposted here from a post I wrote for Tom Ricks’ blog at Foreign Policy. A previous contribution here. He worked his magic on my dry text, and now it has considerably more swagger and considerably more baseball. Also at Andrew Sullivan.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies hosted a panel on Tuesday moderated by Bob Schieffer and featuring heavy hitters Steve Coll,...
Just Blaze interview. Just Blaze is great. →
Dan Drezner, what?
I’m a little late on this, but Daniel Drezner published a post on his Foreign Policy blog critiquing Paul Krugman’s column/tirade against Chinese currency manipulation. First he takes issue with Krugman’s characterization of the United States’ early-1970s currency problem as one of “foreign undervaluation”:
Whoa there, big fella!! That’s a nice but...
Quote of the Day: Paul Volcker is terrifying.
“I tell you sure as I am sitting here, that if banking institutions are protected by the taxpayer and they are given free rein to speculate, I may not live long enough to see the crisis,” Volcker told Congress last month. “But my soul is going to come back and haunt you.”
- from a great profile of Obama advisor and former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker.
B.O.B. goes over Drake's "Over" →
Moody's
The New York Times is reporting that Moody’s has indicated that major industrialized economies are moving “substantially closer” losing their triple-A credit ratings.
It’s unfair and essentially ad hominem to attack Moodys rather than their claim. Nevertheless, it requires a certain boldness to be one of two major credit ratings agencies that failed to properly grade...
"My Perception is Parallel to Perspective" 3/3
Below is something that I wrote that hopefully fleshes out a little better what I touched on in my first post. This is the third of three parts. You can read the first part here and the second part here.
Ok, so economics isn’t perfect. The failure of most economists to predict the financial crisis drove that home for most of us. Furthermore, this argument presumes that there is a standard...
"My Perception is Parallel to Perspective", 2/3
Below is something that I wrote that hopefully fleshes out a little better what I touched on in my first post. This is the second of three parts. You can read the first part here.
It’s easy to see how popular misconceptions and pseudo-academic theorizing affects policy-making. There’s no question that there’s a looming debt problem in this country. Yet both the exaggeration of that threat and a...
Jim Jones to Teach High School
Rap Radar reveals that former Dipset member Jim Jones is going to teach:
No date has been set, but last night, Jim revealed that for eight weeks he’ll be teaching a music based course at a New York City public high school. Hopefully no students end up on his kufi list.
Well, of all the Diplomats, I’d probably rather have Jim Jones teach my kids than Cam’ or Juelz. They would clown so...
Too Big to Bail...?
Last week I finished Andrew Ross Sorkin’s account of Wall Street/Washington’s panicked scramble to prop up the financial system, Too Big to Fail. It was engrossing, thoroughly researched, and a total page burner. It read like fiction, which of course we wish it was.
Too Big to Fail was the subject of some mild criticism when it came out last year, most of which centered around its...
Quote of the Day
“I wanna change the whole perception of rap. That`s why I come in here looking like this.”
-David Banner
"My Perception is Parallel to Perspective", 1/3
Below is something that I wrote that hopefully fleshes out a little better what I touched on in my first post. I’m going to publish it in three parts.
We are now two-years into the recession, and blame for the inadequate measures taken to shore up the economy has been placed, with some justification, on the shoulders of the Obama Administration. By now we know the stimulus should have...
Metaphors
Greg Mankiw illustrates debt neutrality with this story:
Friend: I am going to take off a few days from work and fly down to Bermuda for a quick vacation.
You: But isn’t that expensive? Won’t that just add to your growing debts?
Friend: Yes, it is expensive. But my plan is deficit-neutral. I have decided to give up that half-caf, extra-shot caramel macchiato I order at...
Inauguration. Late Registration.
A profile of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was published in The New Yorker earlier this week. It was largely complemented in both tone and conclusions by a profile on Geithner in The Atlantic published on the same day. They both portray Geithner as the savior of the financial system who alienated the public along the way. From The New Yorker piece: A few weeks ago, during a blizzard that...