Subscribe:
RSS feed
March 19, 2013, 8:25 am 1 Comment Cogan, Taylor, and the Confidence Fairy Ugh. And I say that advisedly. John Cogan and John Taylor have a piece in the WSJ (where else) arguing that the latest Ryan budget would actually be expansionary, because confidence! It’s as if all the experience of recent years, in which […]
March 19, 2013
March 19, 2013, 8:07 am Comment The Dunning-Kruger-Madoff Effect Via Mark Thoma, Hale Stewart is bemused by John Hinderaker of PowerLine. As Stewart notes, Hinderaker begins by asserting that everyone knows that an economic crisis is coming — which apparently means everyone he talks to — then rolls out just about every one of the […]
January 15, 2013
ass clown /as kloun/ n: an abject failure who is simultaneously arrogant, condescending and obnoxious. Synonym: douchebag January 19, 2013 is the first Gun Appreciation Day, per its organizer – Larry Ward. Mr. Ward has promoted the day, which falls on the same weekend as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s holiday observance, because he […]
January 10, 2013
In an effort to preempt Vice President Biden’s suggestions to curb gun violence, the Wyoming legislature has sponsored a bill that makes it a felony to enforce any future federal law that enacts gun safety measures… Clearly, this group of GOP representatives are not attorneys or else they would know that the legal theory of […]
January 10, 2013
Here is a good piece by Jonathan Chait from New York Magazine on how to combat the hostage taking the Republicans in Congress seek over the debt ceiling silliness. Raising the debt ceiling should be a non-issue as it was in virtually every one of the 106 times it has been raised since 1940, including […]
January 4, 2013
A few interesting things I want to highlight (including a social security observation): 155k new jobs vs. 150k consensus November’s unemployment rate was revised up to 7.8%, which is the same as December’s rate – 7.8% 58.6% of population is employed and labor participation rate is 63.6%. These numbers are relatively low, and I would […]
December 23, 2012
This is a good primer on current gun rights courtesy of Scary Lawyer Guy blog. I will be putting together a more nuanced analysis of Justice Scalia’s opinion and Justice Stevens’ dissent in Heller, as well as an analysis of Justice Breyer’s dissent in McDonald in the coming weeks. My initial analysis indicates that Justice […]
December 23, 2012
For the gun-rights ass clown’s argument – why aren’t we talking about eliminating cars? They kill as many people each year as guns. From Nicholas Kristof of NY Times… we can look for inspiration at our own history on auto safety. As with guns, some auto deaths are caused by people who break laws or […]
December 22, 2012
Gun control legislation must begin with a ban of semi-automatic assault rifles and high-capacity clips, like the Bushmaster AR-15 and the 30 round magazines used kill 20 six- and seven-year olds, and six administrators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., last week. However, the legislation must go far beyond that. Here is a […]
December 20, 2012
This is a great NY Times op ed by Nicholas Kristof that debunks gun enthusiasts claims against gun control. Some of the more interesting points are: Every two months we lose more Americans to gun violence than we did in 9/11 attacks Every year we lose 2,800 children and teenagers to guns Every year more […]
December 19, 2012
John Lott has been on a media binge since the Newtown massacre espousing his views that mass shootings occur in gun-free zones and therefore we should expand gun ownership. Lott isn’t stupid (Ph.D from UCLA), but his research methodology is highly flawed and has reached conclusions unsupported by the data. His misguided views are not […]
December 18, 2012
ass clown /as kloun/ n: an abject failure who is simultaneously arrogant, condescending and obnoxious. Synonym: douchebag This very special edition of the Weekly Ass Clown highlights some of the RWNJ gun-rights activists that said absolutely idiotic things in the wake of the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre. These Ass Clowns should be forever banned […]
December 17, 2012
In the aftermath of the most recent mass shooting, this one located at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut and one that killed 20 six and seven year-olds, and six adults (teachers and administrators), the nation is confronted with a problem that the Founding Fathers did not contemplate, and one that imperils every […]
December 9, 2012
ass clown /as kloun/ n: an abject failure who is simultaneously arrogant, condescending and obnoxious. Synonym: douchebag Earlier this week, the Convention of Rights of Persons with Disabilities, a UN treaty that would ban discrimination against people with disabilities and was modeled after the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act that George H.W. Bush signed into […]
December 8, 2012
Paul Krugman has a great post today about the effect wealth has and will have on the manufacturing sector, and more broadly, society. This article raises some fascinating questions about the persistence of a college premium, inheriting wealth and wealth inequality. Catherine Ramp-ell and Nick Wingfield write about the growing evidence for “reshoring” of manufacturing […]
December 7, 2012
Overall, a relatively good jobs report despite the drag on the economy that Sandy provided. The improving trend continues giving the President additional leverage in the fiscal slope discussion… (courtesy of Calculated Risk) There were positives and negatives in the November employment report, and I’d like to start with two clear positives. First, seasonal retail […]
March 19, 2013
0