Brad DeLong's WebsiteA Semi-Daily Journal That Is Fair, Balanced, and a Proud Member of the Reality-Based CommunityBlasts From the Past!--The 1950s, to Be Exact- December 22, 2005 National Review has web archives! http:store.nationalreview.comarchives You, too, can now learn what ex-Trot James Burnham has to teach us about the true nature of anti-McCarthyism: The McCarthy issue was used by the American Communists as their channel back into the stream of Popular Frontism. The Communists, in fact, invented the term "McCarthyism," and devised most of the ideology that went with it.... The liberals, on a roaring civil rights jag... lowered their guard and the Communists.http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2005-3_archives/001812.html Impeach Treasury Secretary John Snow- December 22, 2005 Yes. I know that blatant mendacious stupidity is not an impeachable offense. But in this case I'm willing to make an exception. Kevin Drum writes: The Washington Monthly : BLACK IS WHITE, UP IS DOWN....Via the Carpetbagger, Treasury Secretary John Snow explains why a president who has vastly increased the federal deficit is more fiscally responsible than a president who vastly reduced it: Sipping a latte at a Starbucks coffee shop with reporters in Washington two days ago, he said that...http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2005-3_archives/001811.html A Platonic Dialogue on Journalistic Fairness, the Internet, Judy Miller Sourcing Ethics, Cross-Potomac White-Collar Outsourcing, and Other Topics- December 22, 2005 Capitalisticus: So what's this about Michael Froomkin's younger brother Dan Academicus: You won't believe me. Capitalisticus: I won't believe you Academicus: Nope. Capitalisticus: Try me. Academicus: Well, you're aware that he writes this column--a combination of the Defense Early Bird and the White House Watch that Ryan Lizza currently does for the New Republic--called White House Briefing for the Washington Post's website Anyway, the Washington Post Ombudsman took a strafing run at Dan's.http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2005-3_archives/001810.html Impeach George W. Bush. Impeach Richard Cheney. Do It Now- December 22, 2005 Peter Baker and Charles Babbington of the Washington Post bury their lead in paragraphs 13 through 17: Deputy Director of Intelligence Michael Hayden says that the Bush administration broke the law because it would have been "inefficient" to follow it: following the law "'involves marshaling arguments' and 'looping paperwork around'." Attorney General Alberto Gonzales says that the Bush administration did not dare ask Congress to authorize the program, yet claims to believe that Congress...http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2005-3_archives/001809.html Bulletins from the Shopping Front...- December 22, 2005 I'm clearly not fit for this world. The elevator from the parking garage up to the main floor of Barnes and Noble has broken down under the weight of Christmas shoppers. I walked past Wolf Camera three times without noticing its existence. (Of course, the fact that the only sign saying "Wolf Camera" was not visible from the footpath provides some sort of excuse.) "What are all these people doing here" "They're Christians. They're buying Christmas presents." "If they are Christians,...http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2005-3_archives/001808.html Dan Gross Is Unhappy with Ed Prescott- December 22, 2005 Dan Gross is offended by Edward Prescott on the op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal. So am I. Prescott is capable of much better work than this regurgitation of misleading Bushie talking points. Dan Gross writes: Daniel Gross: December 18, 2005 - December 24, 2005 Archives: There's good stuff but there's also a fair amount of junk in there.... In the last couple of years, a huge differential has opened in the taxation between short-term gains and long-term capital gains. If investors..http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2005-3_archives/001807.html Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps (Yet Another National Review Edition)- December 22, 2005 At National Review, he writes: Larry Kudlow on Federal Reserve on NRO Financial : I still can't forgive the Federal Reserve for decimating and deflating the bullish stock market economy five years ago, a move that temporarily ended the great productivity surge of the Internet revolution. Productivity growth in the American economy, nonfarm business sector: 1996 2.7% 1997 1.6% 1998 2.7% 1999 2.8% 2000 2.8% 2001 2.5% 2002 4.4% 2003 4.4% 2004 4.2% I can't stand.http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2005-3_archives/001806.html Musings on Assessing "Irrational Exuberance"- December 22, 2005 Back in 1996 Yale economist Robert Shiller wrote: Price Earnings Ratios as Forecasters of Returns: The theory that the stock market is approximately a random walk does not look right at all: Figure 1... shows... the ratio of the real Standard and Poor Index ten years later to the real index today (on the y axis) versus... the ratio of the real Standard and Poor Composite Index for the first year of the ten year interval, divided by a lagged thirty year moving average of real earnings.... If.http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2005-3_archives/001805.html Condi Rice Complains to Customer Service!- December 22, 2005 Not even Fafblog can deal with the Bush administration at the appropriate level. However, it is trying. Here Fafnir interviews Condi Rice: RICE: First of all, we don't send prisoners off to be tortured, Fafnir. We just transport prisoners to countries where torture happens to be legal and where they happen to end up getting tortured. FB: Well that explains everything then! It's all just a wacky misunderstanding, like that episode a Three's Company where Jack sends Janet off to...http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2005-3_archives/001804.html The New York Times Will Not Comment on the Meeting- December 20, 2005 Kudos to Jonathan Alter--and to whoever leaked him this story: Bush's Snoopgate: WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY By Jonathan Alter WPNI Updated: 6:17 p.m. ET Dec. 19, 2005: Bush came out swinging on Snoopgate—-he made it seem as if those who didn’t agree with him wanted to leave us vulnerable to Al Qaeda-—but it will not work. We’re seeing clearly now that Bush thought 911 gave him license to act like a dictator.... No wonder Bush was so desperate that The New York Times...http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2005-3_archives/001803.html |