Because of the subject matter here, I’ll re-emphasize the disclaimer that you can read on my About page: The views expressed in this blog are mine and mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of my current (or past) employer, their employees, partners, clients, and portfolio companies. If you’ve been following either the [...]
Up until now, I haven’t felt like it was important to comment on the situation with the US debt ceiling. My understanding had been that the entire thing was just political theater and that both parties would eventually shut up, realize that they all had too much to lose, that there were too many interests [...]
Political blogger David Frum did a quick wrap-up of “Weinergate”, the latest political “scandal”: Did or did not a New York congressman send a photo of a man’s crotch to a Seattle college student? That’s the question the American political elite has spent the past half-week debating. Silly? Degrading? Check and check. Frum spends most [...]
The Republicans have interpreted the results of the recent US midterm elections as a mandate for their deficit reduction platform. Ignoring the oddness of pursuing a deficit reduction during a recession when US government solvency has not been conclusively established to be in danger (and the oddness, in this blogger’s humble opinion, of believing elections [...]
I’ve known Mike Lee since we were both in high school doing debate. He’s a great guy, and I’ve enjoyed talking to him over the years about comic books, science, religion, and politics. He and I don’t always see eye-to-eye (translation: sometimes I think he’s nuts – come on, Mike, Kyle Rayner as the greatest [...]
One of my favorite RSS feeds is Business Insider’s Chart of the Day. This chart came up a few weeks ago and made me think. It’s quite staggering to imagine that college tuition has outpaced inflation as rapidly as it has (~10x vs. ~4x over 30 years). The graph made me think: Has the value [...]
If you follow this blog at all, you’ll know that healthcare policy is a big interest of mine. Given that this was the focus of President Obama’s most recent address (and that this blog is my personal soapbox) I thought I’d chip in three thoughts to the blogosphere “marketplace of ideas” on the topic. The [...]
The financial system is healthy. You have nothing to worry about — according to Geithner’s written part of the stress test. Hat tip to Greg Mankiw:
A picture is (almost) worth $1.9 trillion. Why so big? I trace it to three things: No politician ever wants to raise taxes. When’s the last time voters wanted to pay more in taxes? This is the most basic pitfall of liberal politics and politicians who have to find ways to defend or structure their [...]
From the Telegraph (HT: Serena): The Chinese government has begun a concerted campaign of economic threats against the United States, hinting that it may liquidate its vast holding of US Treasury bonds if Washington imposes trade sanctions to force a yuan revaluation. Two Chinese officials at leading Communist Party bodies have given interviews in recent [...]