Friday

Bruce Bartlett on the national debt. James Galbraith in defense of deficits. Galbraith is wrong about why Wall Street hates deficits and his attempt at explaining why they do is pretty pathetic. He also hand waves away the problems that come from massive deficit spending, but he also makes some very valid points about deficits. In particular, the difference between government spending and household spending. "It may seem like homely wisdom, especially, to say that "just like the family, the government can't live beyond its means." But it's not. In these matters the public and private sectors differ on a very basic point. Your family needs income in order to pay its debts. Your government does not."

Greg Mankiw succinctly explains why claims of "deficit neutrality" on the health reform bill miss the point. I'd also add that the deficit reduction the health reform bill purports to achieve assumes that CBO assumptions are correct. If this were purely a case of CBO measuring expenditures versus revenue I'd give it more weight, but CBO is also engaged in trying to predict behavior of individuals if the bill passes and they have ZERO expertise in this.

Really bad cars. Notice anything?

About damn time.

Awesome video of street fighter laying the smack down on a gang of guys.

Arne Duncan is a really smart guy, but this is probably the dumbest sentence I've read this week: "The cost of college should never discourage anyone from going after a valuable degree."

Tribune Company CEO bans certain words from being used. Stupid? Probably, but read the list. He may doing a public service. How did "game changer" not make the list?

Megan McCardle on "green jobs". "But green jobs have become the ginseng of progressive politics: a sort of broad-spectrum snake oil that cures whatever happens to ail you. They are the antidote to economic malaise, an underskilled labor force, the inherent unwillingness of the public to suffer any significant economic and personal dislocation in order to save the environment. They enhance nationalistic vigor. (If we don't act now, the Chinese will steal all of our green jobs!) They stave off aging of stale political platforms. And I'm pretty sure they're good for bunions, too." It's like favoring "multi-lateralism" in foreign policy.