J. Bradford DeLong's Blog, page 2257

DeLong Smackdown Watch: Paul Krugman Outs Me

Sigh. I had carefully, carefully trimmed that quotation. Now Paul Krugman has to go look at the original:

A Quotation Ruined By Context: Via Brad DeLong, I learned of this great line by J.S. Mill:

What was affirmed by Cicero of all things with which philosophy is conversant, may be asserted without scruple of the subject of currency – that there is no opinion so absurd as not to have been maintained by some person of reputation. There even appears to be on this subject a...

Obama's Failure to Make His Federal Reserve Appointments in a Timely Fashion Looks to Have Been His Biggest Blunder

And it was a completely unforced error...

Ryan Avent:

Monetary policy: For a one-handed Fed: PAUL KRUGMAN'S latest column on the inactivity of the Fed in the face of persistent high unemployment touched off another round of hand-wringing over why the Fed is standing pat, particularly since Ben Bernanke is a noted scholar of the Great Depression who has written extensively on the ways monetary authorities can fight recessions. What gives? Some imagine that Mr Bernanke has changed his...

Methinks David Frum Misunderstands Edmund Burke...

David Frum:

Bullet Point Conservatism/a>: Here's more from the young blogger Alex Knepper whom the folks at NewsRealBlog published for months ... but fired as a sex pervert and all-around lying maniac after he offered a post criticizing Ann Coulter. You can see just the kind of dangerous fiend he is too ...

Russell Kirk aptly described ideology as a drug. Meditate on that. Ideology, in the classical conservative worldview, is something that provides a person with a comfortable...

Liveblogging World War II: July 13, 1940

54 Squadron Operational Record Book:

54 Operational Record Book, 13 July 17:14 hours: New Zealand to the fore again! This time in the person of PO Gray. 3 sections were patrolling Manston when seasoned Blue section (Flt Lt Way, PO Gray and Sgt Norwell – all survivors of Dunkirk) were sighted by 2 Me 109s. Better prepared than the earlier and less fortunate Green section of the squadron, the tables were turned on the 109s, chasing them back at sea level almost to the French coast. PO Gray...

Jack Lew to Head OMB...

Good choice, I think...

Government Policy in the Recession. Yet Another Washington Post FAIL

Dwight Michael Frazee was hit hard by the recession. And the Obama administration
boosted aggregate demand to keep the unemployment rate from rising from 10% to the 12-15
extended his unemployment insurance benefits for 99
boosted the level of his unemployment insurance
obtained what looks to be a HAMP modification to his

But the Republicans in Congress have blocked additional action that would have made his life better.

Who does Dwight Michael Frazer...

links for 2010-07-12

Miguel Almunia et al.: The effectiveness of fiscal and monetary stimulus in depressions







Giancarlo Corsetti, SAndre Meier, and Gernot Muller: What determines government spending multipliers?

GC, AM, and GM: "Theory predicts that the effect of fiscal expansion varies... we evaluate the issue empirically.... Fiscal shocks are identified as residuals from an estimated government spending rule. These shocks are then...

Sources of Our Current Deficit

Gregory White and Kemelia Angelova, The Business Insider:

CHART OF THE DAY: Reminder, The Deficit You're Freaking Out About Is Bush's Fault

Hans Frank Liveblogs World War II: July 12, 1940

Hans Frank:

Hans Frank, Governor-General of Occupied Poland: Another very important point is the decision of the Fuehrer, which he made at my request, that there will be no more transports of Jews into the area of the Government-General [of Occupied Poland:]. As a general political observation I would like to state that it is planned to transport the whole pack of Jews from the German Reich, the Government-General and the Protectorate, in the shortest conceivable time after peace has...

links for 2010-07-11

Edward Chancellor: Reflections on the Sovereign Debt Crisis







Edward Chancellor: Euro fetters are an agonising bind







Edward Chancellor: Euro as the New Depression-era Gold Standard

EC: "Several eurozone members, including Italy and Ireland, have seen their production costs rise relative to Germany. Under a floating exchange rate regime, they would simply devalue. Within the eurozone...