J. Bradford DeLong's Blog, page 2210

Obama Economic Policy: Yet Another "Obama Bunts" Edition

With a multiplier of 2, $50 billion in the first year is 0.3% on the unemployment rate--and it's not clear if we can ramp up an extra $50 billion of infrastructure spending in the first year.

Don't get me wrong: boosting federal infrastructure spending is almost certainly a very good idea. Tax cuts for "small business" much less so--unlikely to reduce wedges between social and private returns on a micro level, and likely to have a low bang-for-buck on the macro level.

But the thing that...

links for 2010-09-05

Literary Review - Jonathan Mirsky on 'Mao's Great Famine' by fFrank Dikotter

Jonathan Mirsky: Mao's Great Famine, by Frank Dikötter: http://tinyurl.com/2b7mfm7 #worthreading





Yikes: The Galaxy Tab is Going to be Expensive







Prairie Weather: Something wrong with Bernanke







Abstract: Use of Scientific Certainty Argumentation Methods in Climate Debates...

The Genocidal Song of Glenn Harlan Reynolds

Courtsesy of TBogg:

Glenn Harlan Reynolds 11/04/2006:

On the other hand, it’s also true that if democracy can’t work in Iraq, then we should probably adopt a “more rubble, less trouble” approach to other countries in the region that threaten us. If a comparatively wealthy and secular Arab country can’t make it as a democratic republic, then what hope is there for places that are less wealthy, or less secular?

Stupidest Man Alive

Department of "Huh?!": Obama Election Season Edition

Outsourced to Jackie Calmes, who wonders whether the Democratic establishment is insane:

On Economy, Democrats Face a Lack of Unity: Mr. Obama spoke Thursday with the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, to coordinate on proposals.... Among the ideas favored within the administration are tax incentives for clean energy jobs and credits for employers who increase their work forces. The president and his team have ruled out a broad-based payroll tax...

I Do Think Mark Schmitt Is a Very Smart Person

So it is interesting how far he could have been wrong:

Mark Schmitt, November 17, 2010:

The Audacity of Patience: The massive resistance Republicans posed to Clinton in 1993 is impossible to imagine today. The Republican coalition is utterly shattered, and the angry white Palin wing of the party, for all its visibility, is a minority even within a minority. What's in it for a moderate Republican senator like Richard Lugar of Indiana (who tacitly endorsed Obama), Arlen Specter of...

Ruling from the Technocratic Bipartisan Center and Waiting for the Press to Notice and Say: "Hey! Those Republicans Are Crazy! You Should Not Vote for Them!" Is Not Good Politics and Does Not Lead to Good Policy...

Jay Ackroyd:

The Table:

Public works projects are off the table.
Social Security benefit cuts are on the table.
These are both obviously bad policy positions.
These are both obviously bad political positions.

Many of us have asked why Obama and the Democratic leadership are so deeply committed to these obviously bad policies, even to the point of risking the House majority, not to mention increasing rather than reducing American human misery.

Eventually...

links for 2010-09-04

How billionaires bagged the tea party - The Globe and Mail

Jeet Heer: How Billionaires Bagged the Tea Party: http://tinyurl.com/24h77zv #worthreading





A Question I Can Answer: Why Is the Speed Limit on Deflation so Low? - Grasping Reality with Both Hands

@delong posits a basin that converges to "Japan": http://bit.ly/cmfXgB"

– felix salmon (felixsalmon...

Alan Viard Is Better than This...

Ed Andrews watches the train wreck:

Again with the Small Business Myth: Kevin Hasset and Alan Viard took another run at arguing that small business will be crippled if the Bush tax cuts expire for individuals earning above $200,000 and families with incomes above $250,000. I've looked into this before, as have others, and the argument is thin...

You Would Think That Somebody So Opposed to Latin Immigration as Michelle Bachmann Would Not Use Latin on Their Website...

Help Defend Michele Bachmann! | BachmannForCongress.com:

Liveblogging World War II: September 4, 1940

The British Chiefs of Staff:

The severe effects of another winter of blockade on the internal economy and morale of Germany and her conquered territories, the cumulative effect of [our:] air attacks, and possibly disastrous failure of attacks on this country, may take a heavy toll of the German will to continue the struggle. Nevertheless, we cannot rely on an internal breakdown from these causes in 1941, though we should do all we can to hasten it by intensifying such offensive and...