J. Bradford DeLong's Blog, page 2253

Paul Krugman Roasts the Village

PK:

The Pundit Delusion: The latest hot political topic is the “Obama paradox.”... The administration has had multiple big victories in Congress, most notably on health reform, yet President Obama’s approval rating is weak. What follows is speculation about what’s holding his numbers down.... But the only real puzzle here is the persistence of the pundit delusion, the belief that the stuff of daily political reporting — who won the news cycle, who had the snappiest comeback — actually...

Are America's Fiscal Policies Sensible? Yes, But They Are Not Strong Enough

Larry Summers:

Summers: America’s sensible stance on recovery: Economic commentators are mired in an unhelpful dialectic between “jobs” and “deficits” that has obscured rather than clarified the policy choices.... Critics have complained that the continued commitment by the administration of President Barack Obama to support recovery in the short term and also to reduce deficits in the medium and long term constitutes a “mixed message”. In fact, it is the only sensible course in an...

How About Suspending All Social Security Taxes for the Next Sixteen Months?

And then make it up by reimposing FICA uncapped on December 1, 2011...

Roughly deficit-neutral over the next ten years. Helps the Social Security and the long-term fiscal gap balance in the long run. And pushes some more money out into the private sector economy now.

What is the downside?

I Do Wish They Were Calling It "The Great Stimulus Debate"

The FT writes:

The great austerity debate: Over the next week some of the world’s leading policymakers and economists will be addressing in the FT the all-consuming contemporary economic debate: austerity versus stimulus. The writers, including Larry Summers, Jean-Claude Trichet and the FT’s Martin Wolf will argue whether cutting now risks suffocating the fragile recovery of the global economy. This page allows you to see the highlights from each contribution and join the discussion in...

Eleanor Roosevelt Liveblogs World War II: July 18, 1940

Eleanor Roosevelt:

Address to the 1940 Democratic Convention: Delegates to the convention, visitors, friends: It is a great pleasure for me to be here and to have an opportunity to say a word to you.

First of all, I think I want to say a word to our National Chairman, James A. Farley. For many years I have worked under Jim Farley and with Jim Farley, and I think nobody could appreciate more what he has done for the party, what he has given in work and loyalty. And I want to...

links for 2010-07-17

Dennis G: The Grifter and the Coward…

DG: "As some may have heard there is an interesting primary shaping up in Arizona. Long-time Senator John McCain is being challenged by J.D. Hayworth, a disgraced former Congressman who lost his seat in 2006 in no small part because of his involvement with Jack Abramoff and that major corruption scandal named after him. Hayworth is the Grifter and McCain is the Coward in this race."

Francisco Franco Liveblogs World War II: July 17, 1940

Francisco Franco:

The government of Spain has informed the government of the United Kingdom that it confidently expects to recover administrative control of Gibraltar in the near future.

links for 2010-07-16

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure Quotes







David Obey: I Leave More Discontented Than I Started







Christopher Neely: Fed's large-scale quantitative easing in 2008-09 reduced long-term American bond yields....reduced long-term foreign bond yields and the spot value of the dollar.







FelixSalmon: The value of a strong brand, Apple edition

FS: "Steve...

Adolf Hitler Liveblogs World War II: July 16, 1940

Adolf Hitler:

As England, despite her hopeless situation, still shows no sign of willingness to come to terms, I have decided to prepare and if necessary to carry out a landing operation against her. The aim of this operation id to eliminate the English motherland as a base from which war against Germany can be continued, and, if this should become unavoidable, to occupy it to the full extent.

FOR THIS PURPOSE I ORDER THE FOLLOWING:

(1) The landing must take the form of a...

What Went Wrong: David Obey's Take

Paul Krugman:

What Went Wrong: The Rahm Factor: A fascinating and depressing interview with David Obey:

The problem for Obama, he wasn’t as lucky as Roosevelt, because when Obama took over we were still in the middle of a free fall. So his Treasury people came in and his other economic people came in and said “Hey, we need a package of $1.4 trillion.” We started sending suggestions down to OMB waiting for a call back. After two and a half weeks, we started getting feedback. We...