Grasping Reality on TypePad, by Brad DeLong

The Whole Thing:

• Eight Links for 2007-07-13 http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/links-for-20-11.html: The four most interesting: (1) Too Little, Too Late « Mercury Rising 鳯女: Dr. Richard Carmona joins the growing list of former White House officials who reveal that Bush made them lie for him. 'Damning testimony of Dr Richard Carmona, the surgeon general from 2002 until last year."... (2) Jim Fallows: Living With a Computer: "The process works this way. When I sit down to write a letter or start the first draft of an article, I simply type on the keyboard and the words appear on the screen".... (3) Tam Lin: "Janet has kilted her green kirtle/ A little aboon her knee,/ And she has broded her yellow hair/ A little aboon her bree,/ And she's awa to Carterhaugh/ As fast as she can hie..."

• Health Insurance: Ezra Klein Fights with Delta Dental http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/health-insuranc.html

• Impeach George W. Bush. Impeach Him Now http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/impeach-georg-3.html: Avedon Carol: "The Sideshow July 2007 Archive: The Problem: Sara Taylor actually said, "I took an oath to the president, and I take that oath very seriously." Patrick Leahy questions whether that was what she meant to say. I get the impression that, like the rest of the Bushminidstration, it's what she really meant..." Benjamin Franklin said that the constitutional convention had given us "a republic, if you can keep it." Impeaching George W. Bush right now is part of the process of keeping it...

• Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps? (Yet Another Washington Post Should Have Fired David Ignatius Long Ago Edition) http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/why-oh-why-ca-4.html: Ezra Klein: "Ezra Klein: Return of the ISG: Do these people realize how they sound? Today, David Ignatius singlehandedly creates a safe, centrist ground that he can write all the dirty, hippy Democrats outside of..."

• Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps? (Yet Another David Brooks/New York Times Edition) http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/why-oh-why-ca-3.html: David Brooks "'Before He Cheats' by Carrie Underwood.... This character is obviously a product of the cold-eyed age of divorce and hookups..." It would be impossible to commit such a howler as that last sentence if Brooks had ever heard of Medea or Klytemnestra (who makes Carrie Underwood look like Little Bo Peep) or Sieglinde (who makes Pink look as genteel as Miss Elizabeth Bennett) or Janet of Carterhaugh (who unlike Avril Levigne faces down not just another "loser girlfriend" but the Queen of Air and Darkness herself). None of them are "obviously... product[s] of the cold-eyed age of divorce and hookups." I mean, all I'm asking for is minimal, and I mean minimal, contact--even through the Cliff Notes versions alone would do--with the Western cultural heritage. Is that so much to ask of a New York Times columnist? Apparently.

• James Fallows vs. The Redmond Horror http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/james-fallows-v.html: "This is the second person who has run screaming in terror from Windows Vista. The other one said that Windows Vista had managed to make his modern Viao laptop as slow as the XT he took to college in the mid-1980s..."

• Impeach George W. Bush. Impeach Him Now http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/impeach-georg-2.html: From the ITT List: "Bush Commits Felony by Instructing Miers Not to Honor Subpoena: U.S. Code TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 73 > § 1505..."

• Two Links for 2007-07-12 http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/links-for-20-10.html: Christina Larson: The Green Leap Forward: Environmentalism is China’s fastest-growing citizen movement. Beijing isn’t cracking down on these new activists—it’s empowering them; Nancy Youssef: U.S. troops shot 429 Iraqi civilians at checkpoints last year...

• Felix Salmon Tries to Make Sense of the Mortgage-Backed Market http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/felix-salmon-tr.html: It sounds like he's throwing in the towel: "Market Movers by Felix Salmon: Trying To Make Sense of the Mortgage-Backed Market: All of which leaves me in the "still baffled" camp. I don't understand what's going on in the 07-01 ABX series, I don't know how many fund managers, in reality, are not allowed to hold junk-rated paper, and I still don't have much of a grip on how credit default swaps on mortgage-backed bonds are structured, and what constitutes a credit event under such contracts..."

• Bad News from Bruce Bartlett http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/bad-news-from-b.html: He's quitting the weekly-column business: "This is the last of [my] columns. The world has changed a lot since 1995 and I've decided that there are better ways for me to express myself..."

• Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps? (Yet Another Washington Post Edition) http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/why-oh-why-ca-2.html: Matthew Yglesias watches Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post editorial board play the concern troll.... If Ruth Marcus genuinely wants to promote some kind of education reform initiatives—rather than dreaming up reasons to carp about Democrats -- she should find some state-level politicians who actually make the bulk of the education policy and give them some backup in efforts to buck entrenched interests..."

• Everybody Who Thinks the New York Times Should Fire Sheryl Gay Stolberg Immediately, Please Raise Your Hand... http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/everybody-who-t.html: Sheryl Gay Stolberg takes home--what? $40 an hour?--from the New York Times--for covering the White House. She wants to take--what? two hours?--out her day today, two hours that she could sped reading documents or interviewing sources or writing drafts, to gossip with her friends and watch George W. Bush cut a ribbon.... But she is scared to go: "[W]ith the White House press corps under attack from liberal bloggers as being too cozy with the Bush administration, some reporters say they feel a little bit queasy about attending... [it is] a quandary for journalists uneasy about being seen with [Bush] at a purely ceremonial affair..." It speaks volumes that she is scared to go not because it is a waste of time she could spend doing her job, but because she is scared of liberal webloggers. Why oh why can't we have a better press corps?...

• Dean Baker's Ire Is Aroused... http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/dean-bakers-ire.html: "It's Joseph Kahn of the New York Times, who finds somebody who violates Milton Friedman's first rule.... What is Milton Friedman's first rule? That demand curves and supply curves are never vertical, and never horizontal. Demand curves slope down. Supply curves slope up. Quantities matter for determining what prices are. Prices matter for determining what quantities are...

• Note to Self: The Next Time I Teach Economics 101b... http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/note-to-self-th.html: Ssome model-building:: J. Bradford DeLong (2007), "INCOMPLETE DRAFT: Notes on Antitrust Policy and Optimal Innovation in a Model of Productive Variety" http://delong.typepad.com/pdf/20070709_varieties_antitrust.pdf...

• My Little Golden Book of Neoconservatism http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/my-little-golde.html

• Three Links for 2007-07-11 http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/links-for-200-9.html

• Brad Setser Is Foreign-Exchange Reserve-Obsessed http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/brad-setser-is-.html

• A Historical Document: John Maynard Keynes to Franklin Delano Roosevelt at the End of 1933 http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/a-historical-do.html

• Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps? (Yet Another Washington Post Edition) http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/why-oh-why-ca-1.html: One correspondent asks, apropos of David Broder's "I'm shocked, shocked to discover that Cheney is a wingnut and has been running the White House!" column...

• Impeach George W. Bush. Impeach Him Now! http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/impeach-georg-1.html: "Impeach Richard Cheney and Alfredo Gonzales as well...

• Jim Henley Denounces Goldwaterism-Heinleinism http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/jim-henley-deno.html: "Small government at home and militarism abroad: that trick never works!...

• How True http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/how-true.html: On the internet, nobody knows if you are a dog...

• New York State's Mind-Boggling Economic Irrationality http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/new-york-states.html

• Nine Links for 2007-07-10 http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/links-for-200-8.html: "Scott Eric Kaufman: "Argument? Check. Evidence? Check. Then What, Exactly, Is The Problem?: Indulge me this one meta-point: Always check the sources of your sources, lest you be brought up on charges of conspiring to commit felony misprision.... Dean Baker spots journamalism from the New York Times in Robert Pear's "A Battle Over Expansion of Children’s Insurance".... Marc Andreesen: Hollywood screenwriter trilogy: Three great books on the television and film business as seen through the eyes of writers are: Adventures in the Screen Trade by the great William Goldman, Billion-Dollar Kiss by Jeffrey Stepakoff, Convers.... Matthew Yglesias: Courage: "The soldiers think they can win," reads Bill Kristol's subhead in The Weekly Standard while "some Senators lose their nerve." This conflation of the actual physical courage exhibited by soldiers risking their lives in a war.... Brink Lindsey: The Libertarian Center: In this month’s lead essay Cato vice president for research Brink Lindsey elaborates his argument in The Age of Abundance: How Prosperity Transformed America’s Politics and Culture that the culture wars are over, plus four more.

• James Bennet of the Atlantic Monthly Makes His Play for the Stupidest Man Alive Prize http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/james-bennet-of.html: It is remarkable that the simplest explanation never crosses Bennet's mind: Clinton was simply telling the truth. When Elizabeth Drew asks, "Republicans have criticized you for not doing more while you were president to combat terrorism; why did you not make more of a priority out of getting Osama bin Laden?" she is speaking for the Republican National Committee. Now under such circumstances the truth is discreditable to the reporter who is carrying water for the Republican slime machine. Bill Clinton the governor or the presidential candidate or the president and Hillary Clinton the first lady or the senator or the presidential candidate cannot afford to tell the truth: reporters keep grudges, seek vengeance, and can harm active politicians. But Bill Clinton the ex-president doesn't need to worry 24/7 about keeping the press corps sweet. So he can tell the truth. And does...

• More Thuds and Screams from the Topkapi Palace... http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/more-thuds-and-.html: Michael Isikoff helps White House Counsel Fred Fielding stick the knife into Vice President Richard Cheney: "Through intermediaries, Fred Fielding tells Newsweek that he was opposed to the Libby commutation".... That Bush heard what Fielding said.... But that Bush did not dare to cross Cheney on this...

• Bad News: Clinton and Obama Back China Crackdown http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/bad-news-clinto.html

• China and Economic Growth: Hoisted from the Archives (What I Am Thinking About Right Now Department) http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/china-and-econo.html

• 12 Links for 2007-07-09 http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/links-for-200-7.html: Including: Rising Hegemon: "Things I did not know: Maureen Dowd gets six-figures or more... to ghost write for TigerBeat."... Matthew Yglesias: "Andrew... missed the worst part... the part where Fumento gets upset that... "one of the few good guys in the movie, the head of the FBI team that aids our hero John McCain, looks decidedly Arabic."... Underbelly: Roth, Zweig and the Ostjuden...

• Captain Blythers, First Street, Benicia http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/captain-blyther.html

• John McKinnon Drops the Ball http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/john-mckinnon-d.html

• Marc Andreesen Throws in the Towel on Weblog Comments http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/marc-andreesen-.html: "The failure of the internet to develop effective moderation systems is a great pity. But I don't have the answer..."

• Walter Jon Williams Is a Truly Excellent Writer, but... http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/walter-jon-will.html: "I think Walter Jon Williams is a truly excellent writer. But I'm not famous enough to do him any good. Here he is, blogging from the High Desert of New Mexico, surrounded by his men, his machines, and his mental power..."

• Brainless Business Reporting by Vikas Bajaj and Carole Gould http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/brainless-busin.html: "Eric Umansky is driven into shrillness by the brainless business reporting of Vikas Bajaj and Carole Gould. Don't read the New York Times. Buy the Financial Times instead: it doesn't do things like this..."

• Watching the Employment-to-Population Ratio http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/watching-the-em.html

• Five Links for 2007-07-08 http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/links-for-200-6.html

• Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps/ (Yet Another New Republic/New York Times Edition) http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/why-oh-why-cant.html: "It seems ungrateful--like complaining about the quality of free ice cream--to complain about Sam Tanenhaus writing in the New Republic and raising the ghost of Whittaker Chambers to curse George W. Bush. But still... The stupidity! It burns!..."

• Simon Hoyle on Bear Stearns's CDOs http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/simon-hoyle-on-.html

• Somebody Give Robert Waldmann a Grant to Study Carbon Biosequestration! http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/somebody-give-r.html

• Fourteen Links for 2007-07-07 http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/links-for-200-5.html

• Equality of Opportunity Is a Lie http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/equality-of-opp.html

• We Reality-Based Are Legion http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/we-reality-base.html: There are lots of us reality-based Americans: Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: July 01, 2007 - July 07, 2007 Archives: Poll finds 45% of adults support initiating impeachment proceedings against George W. Bush, 54% support pursuing impeachment of Cheney..."

• Could Rupert Murdoch Really Damage This? http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/could-rupert-mu.html

• How Close Are We to Full Employment? http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/how-close-are-w.html: Maybe we're not very close, says Janet Yellen...

• Advice from Andrew Samwick for Economists Who Want to Advise http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/advice-from-and.html

• Mark Thoma Directs Us to Jacob Hacker on Income Volatility http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/mark-thoma-dire.html

• Twenty-two Links for 2007-07-06 http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/links-for-200-4.html

• Matthew Yglesias: Why Did Scooter Lie? http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/matthew-ygles-1.html: "If there really was no crime... we ought to get some kind of explanation from Libby as to why he lied..."

• Testosterone-Crazed Devil Apes Play the Ultimatum Game! http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/testosterone-cr.html

• Bryan Caplan Has a Vision of the New Jerusalem http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/bryan-caplan-ha.html

• Richard Baldwin Praises the Economists of Italy http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/richard-baldwin.html

• Virginia Postrel Thinks the Aspen Institute Needs More Economists! http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/virginia-postre.html

• The Fault, Dear Brutus, Is Not in the Constitution, But in Ourselves http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/the-fault-dear-.html: The problem is not in the Pardoning Power. The problem is that there are not sixteen Republican senators willing to vote that obstructing justice by misuse of the Pardon Power is a High Crime warranting impeachment and removal from office...

• Why Is the Washington Post Still Printing? http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/why-is-the-wash.html: You would think that they would all have died of embarrassment long before now.... Steve Benen.... "He seems oblivious to the irony. It's attracting attention because of articles like his. If Solomon thinks reflects this poorly on the 'state of American politics', he could... what's the phrase I'm looking for ... write about something else..."

• What Is the China Policy of "Team Bush"? http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/what-is-the-chi.html: Constructive engagement with China is not the policy of "Team Bush" but rather the policy of "Team Paulson" or "Team State Department" or "Team Reality-Based Interest Groups." The China policy of "Team Bush" was and is Cold War followed by Hot War--but fortunately they got distracted by other things...

• Jared Bernstein and I Cannot Credit Greg Mankiw http://www.bradford-delong.com/2007/07/jared-bernstein.html: "I confess that I, too, am incredulous..."