Grasping Reality on TypePad, by Brad DeLong

DB: "If I went back in time and informed the Obama administration's economics people that the stimulus they were planning to enacted resulted in the May 2010 unemployment rate being 9.7%, they would freak out and realize that more needed to be done. Now that we're here, there's not a lot of freaking. And I'm not surprised that economists will continue to come up with increasingly clever explanations as to why this is the new normal, as they always do. The Great Recession will just been seen as the Great Shirk, with all those lucky duckies on extended periods of funemployment. Yes I'm repeating myself. But, hell, maybe eventually someone will listen and it's more important than Sarah Palin's latest tweet."

MK: "Why, I’m so old that I remember when market-simulating pollution-control regulations – polluter charges or cap-and-trade – were the official conservative alternative to command-and-control regulation. I was sympathetic to that critique, and frustrated about the environmental movement’s unwillingness to see reason. But now that the enviros have embraced a GHG tax or its cap-and-trade equivalent as the way to deal with global warming, conservative support is nowhere in sight. They’re all too afraid of Grover Norquist. Remember this the next time a conservative explains how we ought to voucherize public education. The minute that happens, the conservatives will come back and decide that we need to means-test the vouchers. That done, they’ll attack the remaining program as “welfare.” This is not a group of people it’s possible to do business with."

BS: "A stunning front-page article in Saturday's Washington Post moves the paper firmly into conservatives' dream universe on deficit policy. "Stimulus plans run up against deficit fears" by Lori Montgomery serves up this whopper: 'If Congress doesn't provide additional stimulus spending, economists inside and outside the administration warn that the nation risks a prolonged period of high unemployment or, more frightening, a descent back into recession. But a competing threat -- the exploding federal budget deficit -- seems to be resonating more powerfully in Congress and among voters.' There you have it: the budget deficit is an issue that's resonating more with voters than the issues of high unemployment or the possibility of further economic downturn generally. It's a trendy right-wing meme of the last few months, but here it is in the news pages of the Washington Post. But is this notion supported by what the polling actually says? No. Not even close."

Brookings should have cleaned house as far as its national security staff is concerned long ago. Just saying. Michael O'Hanlon: "At this moment, as we enter into perhaps the most crucial six months of the entire war, I hope and pray that President Obama will decide we cannot afford to be without the leadership of such an amazing American." Duncan Black: "Eight and a half years later we're starting 'the most crucial six months'? Make it stop."