Archive for Potpourri

Potpourri

* This Salon article on the apparent impotence of tax-rate cuts got me mad until the very end, when the author (Jared Bernstein) acknowledged all the possible confounding variables. In any event, it’s interesting how strong a case he can make that low marginal rates don’t lead to growth. (I co-authored a survey article for [...]

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Potpourri

* Casey Mulligan and I apparently are alone on this issue of New Keynesians (I’m a cricket in the comments)… * I think this was the first Megan McArdle post (on the neat creation of a fake MLK quote) that didn’t annoy me for some reason. * Speaking of pacifism, here’s Tyler Cowen criticizing Bryan [...]

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Potpourri

Well it’s time to post my various links, because my Firefox browser tabs are now bigger than the Fed’s balance sheet. (Ba-DUMP. Thanks folks, I’ll be here all week. Remember to tip your waitress.) * For a while now I’ve conjectured that “the big one” could happen when a Chinese finance minister says something at [...]

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Potpourri

* Of course political pundits contradict themselves all the time, but Newt Gingrich’s positions on Libya are impressive. (HT2 Gene Callahan) * “Analysts surprised” by the latest inflation numbers… The producer price index (PPI) for finished goods, up 5.8% over the last 12 months; for intermediate goods, 8.9%; and for crude goods, 16.4%. But don’t [...]

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Potpourri

Once again my Firefox browser is beginning to look like a ruler, so it’s time to clean house by blogging some of the many things I’ve noted over the past week or two… * Lew Rockwell proves that he’s not always doom-and-gloom, by giving an optimistic interpretation to the events in Egypt. * Jeff Tucker [...]

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Potpourri

* You know how it wasn’t the Fed that caused the housing bubble, but those Chinese savers? Well Paul Krugman tells us it’s the same story with rising food prices–not the Fed’s fault, but those Chinese eaters. * Lew Rockwell has a really nice historical and psychological analysis of right-wing warhawks. (I.e. he offers plausible [...]

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Potpourri

* Lew Rockwell’s podcast with Naomi Wolf. It’s almost cute how she has finally admitted to herself that Obama is going along with all this stuff, but her explanation is that he has no power to stop it. I suppose this is analogous to my feelings for Ronald Reagan. I loved his speeches so much, [...]

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Potpourri

* Citigroup comes up with a new catchphrase to justify its continuing reliance on bailouts. * Gerald O’Driscoll gets pretty feisty, for the Wall Street Journal. (HT2 the photosynthetic von Pepe.) * Check out Andrew Jackson’s explanation for why he killed the 2nd Bank of the United States. BTW mark your calendars, the Night of [...]

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