Grasping Reality on TypePad, by Brad DeLong

Must- and Should-Reads:

• Mark Thoma: "The biggest surprise for me, and perhaps it shouldn't have been, is the degree to which politicians are willing to put political interests ahead of helping people in need. Watching the political/policy reaction to the Great Recession was both disappointing and eye opening..."
• Bernie Sanders: 'Our Democracy is Being Owned by a Handful of Billionaires'
• Matt Grossmann and David A. Hopkins: "The Republican Party is primarily the agent of an ideological movement whose supporters prize doctrinal purity, while the Democratic Party is better understood as a coalition of social groups seeking concrete government action. This asymmetry is reinforced by American public opinion, which favors left-of-center positions on most specific policy issues yet simultaneously shares the general conservative preference for smaller and less active government..."
• Fischer Black (1982): The Trouble with Econometric Models
• Joseph Stalin: "I want to tell you from the Russian point of view, what the President and the United States have done to win the war. The most important things in this war are machines.... The United States... is a country of machines. Without the use of those machines... we would lose this war..."
• Must-Read: Ashish Jha: Readmissions Penalty at Year 3: How Are We Doing?
• Must-Read: Financial Times: Cameron Points Migrant Talent Towards the Exit
• Must-Read: Marshall Steinbaum: Would Graduating More From College Reduce Inequality?
• Must-Read: James Kwak: Greg Mankiw Forgot What He Teaches

Over at Equitable Growth--The Equitablog

• Heather Boushey: U.S. scholars need access to public and private big data
• Remind Me, Again: What Is Supposed to Drive Full Recovery?

Plus:

• Things to Read on the Evening of January 31, 2015

And Over Here: