Cat Lady - May 14, 2010 | 6:50 pm · Link

Another lie circumnavigates the blogosphere before the truth can get its boots on, and so another hacktastick glibertarian’s work is done. Heckuva job McMegan.

jl - May 14, 2010 | 6:55 pm · Link

Well, since Cole has already apologized for the post, I guess I can get away with going off topic and not get chewed out too bad. Two good articles on Greek crisis:

Governments up the stakes in their fight with markets
By Martin Wolf, Financial Times
Published: May 11 2010
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ebb8.....ab49a.html

Can the Euro be Saved?
Joseph E. Stiglitz
May 5, 2010
http://www.project-syndicate.o.....25/English

chrome agnomen - May 14, 2010 | 7:04 pm · Link

must not click on link

DOH!

jl - May 14, 2010 | 7:04 pm · Link

I forgot to pont out an important point in Wolfe’s article on the Greek crisis:

“...we need to go back to the beginning of the project for a currency union. It rested on three central assumptions:

first, treaty-defined limits would constrain fiscal deficits of members;

second, to the extent that this failed, the “no bail-out” clause would constrain them;

and,

third, member economies would converge over time.

Alas, none of this has proved to be true.”

[I reformatted the passage for bring out the three assumptions].

I think that even though Europe is reputed to be a s o s h u l i s t commie f a s h u s t hellhole, there are striking similarities between the first and second assumptions and GOP proposals to prevent further financial panics and public debt crises. The first is some paper fiction legal BS putting a limit on debt. The second is a ringing BS promise to gosh dang dingity dangit he man swear to never bail out again.

We see how well those worked for the Euro currency union.

But I guess a GOPer and teabagger would scream that my argument does not recognize American Exceptionalism.

eastriver - May 14, 2010 | 7:10 pm · Link

Tired? Eat some bird seed.

jacy - May 14, 2010 | 7:12 pm · Link

I suggest anyone who reads McMegan be fitted with shock collars that zap them every time she writes something a) factually wrong, b) stunningly vapid, c) infuriatingly facile.

That’d learn ‘em real quick. Hell, they might not make it through a paragraph.

MikeJ - May 14, 2010 | 7:13 pm · Link

@Tattoosydney: PETA’s gonna be all over your ass. What do you have against monkeys?

John Cole - May 14, 2010 | 7:20 pm · Link

@Mumphrey: I won’t say too much about Sestak because if I do our true progressive masters will start in with the “ex-Republican” shit, but every time Sestak opens his mouth I see and hear the same kind of phony bullshit that set me off about John Edwards. He doesn’t believe a word of what is coming out of his mouth. It’s just transparently obvious he is full of shit.

Bill E Pilgrim - May 14, 2010 | 7:32 pm · Link

At her site they’re now dancing on the heads of pins with comments from her about how it’s interesting, you know, to think about the true nature of what’s in a bill and what isn’t, and so on. All by way of avoiding just admitting having been so miserably mistaken.

If I had to sum up the thread I’d call it “collectively technical, but true nonsense.”

Tazistan Jen - May 14, 2010 | 7:33 pm · Link

@Mumphrey: I am kind of rooting for Specter too. We want to encourage moderate Republicans to come on over, right?

Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle - May 14, 2010 | 7:53 pm · Link

@Tazistan Jen: When was Specter ever a moderate Republican? Or did you miss all his lies and going back on his word.

El Cid - May 14, 2010 | 7:59 pm · Link

Yeah but if we don’t stop all the spendin’ they’s gonna be massive, massive inflation.

...[V]arious measures of core inflation — like the Dallas Fed trimmed-mean deflator, the Cleveland Fed median CPI, and indexes excluding food and energy have all fallen from 2.5-3 percent inflation at the start of the crisis to around 1 or lower. If the trend continues — which it will unless the recovery is stronger than I fear — deflation is in our future, maybe next year.

So if you don’t believe that inflation is coming, well, you just need to listen to more right wing radio.

Mike in NC - May 14, 2010 | 8:16 pm · Link

Megan McCardle is wrong again.

I’ve yet to cancel my subscription to the print version of The Atlantic, so there are several back issues with fatuous articles by that narcissist sitting on the coffee table. I’ll do the laundry instead.

Triassic Sands - May 14, 2010 | 8:25 pm · Link

@soonergrunt:

One could put 1monkey in a room with 1 laptop and Megan McArdle in a room with a laptop and … the monkey will create something more interesting and accurate than McArdle will.

Fixed.

Mark S. - May 14, 2010 | 8:31 pm · Link

@JG:

The way he treats his staff, though, is concerning even though I largely support his politics.

Who, Sestek? I thought Specter was legendary for being a dick to his staff.

mr. whipple - May 14, 2010 | 8:42 pm · Link

I won’t say too much about Sestak because if I do our true progressive masters will start in with the “ex-Republican” shit, but every time Sestak opens his mouth I see and hear the same kind of phony bullshit that set me off about John Edwards. He doesn’t believe a word of what is coming out of his mouth

I don’t follow Sestak, but take you at your word.

Is there anything more unbelieveable, tho, then Specter changing parties just so he can stay in the Senate? I’m mean, I like his vote(now), but what a totally unprincipled shithead.

Corner Stone - May 14, 2010 | 8:48 pm · Link

@Tazistan Jen:

We want to encourage moderate Republicans to come on over, right?

What the hell are you talking about?

Mnemosyne - May 14, 2010 | 8:51 pm · Link

As long as we’re OT, it’s gonna be pretty hard for Gizmodo to claim they didn’t know the iPhone they had was stolen property since Steve Jobs called them before they published to tell them so.

Sorry, but freedom of the press ends when your story depends on you paying money for stolen property.

Brandon - May 14, 2010 | 8:55 pm · Link

@El Cid: To be fair, Krugman has been either talking about or predicting coming deflation is the U.S. pretty consistently for a decade.

I don’t know what that means and I am not ready to go back and read all of his arguments and compare them to government/fed actions to determine whether deflation was headed off or not due to government policy decisions.

One thing I do know though, and that is the bizarre and frightening prospect/signs of reinflation/premature stabilization in housing, which is probably a result of Obama’s team trying to orchestrate a soft landing in the housing market by backing Fannie and Freddie to go out and buy up every mortgage on the market.

By many estimates, housing prices are still 20% above the historical average trend. They have a long way to fall baby. All hail our deflationary overlords!

eemom - May 14, 2010 | 9:02 pm · Link

Specter reportedly lost track of what party he’s in yesterday when he addressed a group of Democrats as “good Pennsylvania Republicans.”

Dunno, I don’t live in PA but it seems to me that it would be rather daunting to vote for a guy who, after 30+ years of voting “aye” for every vile thing the Republicans came up with, turned Democrat at age 108 for the sole, screamingly obvious purpose of saving his own ass.

Also, what advantage does he offer over Sestak?

Sentient Puddle - May 14, 2010 | 9:12 pm · Link

Pleh. Whether a politician is pro-choice or pro-life is a red herring. As long as Roe v. Wade is on the books, congress can’t do shit about abortion. You people should use a different yardstick for measuring up candidates.

mr. whipple - May 14, 2010 | 9:18 pm · Link

f the man wins the primary and the general, expect him to revert to form i.e. voting against Obama’s budget and stimulus package, which is precisely what he did before switching parties.

I’m almost sure that Specter voted for the Stim, which was then used against him by his GOP primary challenger.

jl - May 14, 2010 | 9:29 pm · Link

@Brandon:

In fairness to Krugman, half of the entries in your search concern deflation in Japan, and most of the others concern deflation in the 2001 recession, which worried other Keynesian macroeconomists, for example, DeLong who should have quite a record on his blog.

Krugman is not another Roubini, who earned the title Dr. Doom for regular predictions of doom long before the 08 financial panic.

I don’t defend all of Krugman’s macroeconomic analysis. For one thing, at least in his column and blog, he pays little attention to the problem of structural adjustment needed for a reasonable recovery from the Great Recession, other than to ask once in awhile what will replace residential construction as the engine of the next expansion. I agree with Stiglitz and Galbraith that there is a need for significant structural adjustment in the economy due to misallocation of capital over the housing boom, and this issue needs to be addressed directly for an adequate recovery.

In this way, Krugman is liable to the easy, and mistaken, criticism that he is a ‘hydraulic Keynesian’ who believes that deficit spending solves everything.

I think whether we need to worry about deflation, or stagflation, or another round of asset bubble inflation depends on whether aggregate demand recovers fast and soon enough during the recovery to catch up with what appears to be significant excess capacity, and excess supply of residential and commercial construction.

I think right now, signs are that aggregate demand will not catch up, and that prospect grows more likely if the PIIGS and Euro crisis cannot be resolved quickly. Deflation is already occuring in Spain, and that may be what has rattled financial markets recently, in addition to the turmoil in Greece.

But you also have a good point, should aggregate demand increase quickly enough, as it did in post WWII recessions before 1990.

My opinion is that things are so messed up, we will have to keep watch for one or the other developing over the next few years, as data comes in. For immediate future, I think that it should now be clear that the financial crisis of 08 and 09 is not really past, and the possible damage to the real economy from more financial turmoil makes deflation the greater worry, right now, if not several years from now.

Right now, the problem with housing prices not falling enough is likely to remain a relative price problem (which is a big problem on its own), not a signal of excess aggregate demand.

Just the top of my head opinion.

IndyLib - May 14, 2010 | 9:46 pm · Link

@JG:
Sestak is a retired Navy Rear Admiral. I have a sneaking suspicion that what could considered assholish behavior to his Congressional staff would have been acceptable and expected behavior toward his Navy staff. Admirals are not known for being warm and fuzzy bosses and some retired military guys have a hard time letting go of the mindset when they retire.

@Jim:
Sestak might not be a “liberal” (whatever that means these days), but he has a 100% rating from NARAL, an F from the NRA, a 100% rating from the League of Conservation Voters, and was an original co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act. I’d love to see more Dem Senators with those liberal credentials.

valdivia - May 14, 2010 | 9:50 pm · Link

The geeks are going to save us (or is it the nerds?)

Anyway, very cool and the right thing to do.

Anya - May 14, 2010 | 10:25 pm · Link

@John Cole: I actually remember Sestak during the primary as a reasonable Hillary supporter. He was respectful and articulated why he supported her without being a dick about it. He was always respectful towards Obama. His voting is reliable so based on that I think he would be a better Dem Senator than Specter.

Ruckus - May 14, 2010 | 10:35 pm · Link

@soonergrunt:
I can’t be the only one who did get it.

cleek - May 14, 2010 | 10:40 pm · Link

Ezra’s taking some heat in comments on that second one. i kinda wish i knew WTF any of the controversy was about.

but i don’t.

and really, i don’t care to.

fuck punditry.

5K in the AM. gotta get some sleep.

fuck fatigue.

Martian Buddy - May 14, 2010 | 10:45 pm · Link

@mr. whipple: Yeah, he was one of three GOP senators who voted for it (the other two being Snowe and Collins.)

jl - May 14, 2010 | 11:04 pm · Link

Another perspective on the McArdle/Klein flap is that this money is peanuts. Reading the report referenced in the CBO directors blog linked to by Klein,

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/114.....ionary.pdf

this is 115 billion over 2010 to 2019, or about 11.5 billion a year. US GDP in 2008 was 14.2 trillion. In other words, this is about 0.08 percent of the US GDP each year.

To put in perspective, look at projected spending with and without healthcare reform, and the cost of the health care reform bill compared to other things such as the Bush tax cuts and the Iraq war in the econbrowser link. We are facing an increase of about 0.5 percent of GDP per year in health care expenditure unless costs are brought under control.

PPACA and “What If?” Scenarios
Menzie Chinn, Econbrowser
March 31, 2010

http://www.econbrowser.com/arc.....ank_o.html

jl - May 14, 2010 | 11:16 pm · Link

@Yutsano: thanks for that perspective. I guess that means it is time for me to out and drink! A lot!

Sentient Puddle - May 14, 2010 | 11:20 pm · Link

@cleek: Here’s the controversy, courtesy of one of the comments:

Ezra Klein is still a child.

They’re embarrassed that someone so young can totally pwn their shit.

(But f’real, it’s just a bunch of morons who don’t know how accounting works)

frankdawg - May 14, 2010 | 11:28 pm · Link

@Wilson Heath:
I think they are trying hard to get rid of that awful nickname as N ice P olite R epublicans by dropping the NP parts. They have a couple of Saturday programs that would not be out of place on FAUX Nudes.

I know zero about Sestak but I know enough about that worthless POS he is running against. Sphincter often talked nice in the last 17 years but when it came time to vote he always voted wrong. I’d tend to vote against him simply because I believe it is always easier to get rid of a newer Senator than a long-term one. But there are so many shitty Dems right now that they only look good when compared to their Republican alternatives.

Triassic Sands - May 14, 2010 | 11:37 pm · Link

@Anya:

...so based on that I think he would be a better Dem Senator than Specter.

I think you’re right, except I wouldn’t really classify Specter as a Dem, but rather as an Opp (as in Opportunist), and they are never reliable.

frankdawg - May 14, 2010 | 11:41 pm · Link

@Yutsano:

As a boomer myself there are some things that I think are important to keep in mind about us as a group:

We were vocally, emphatically against war – as long as we were subject to the draft but completely OK with the Reagan and Bush invasions.

We were for civil rights and government assistance to the poor & disenfranchised but elected St. Ronnie the government gutter and now make up the backbone of the teabaggers.

We thought we invented ‘free love’ and pot abut now support repressive sexuality and pot laws.

AS a group we are self-centered, arrogant, demanding, greedy bastards. I can only imagine we will get worse once we start collecting the Social Security. Good luck kids!

soonergrunt - May 14, 2010 | 11:53 pm · Link

@Ruckus: It would seem that you are. Shame really. I thought it was at least worth a chuckle.

Yutsano - May 14, 2010 | 11:56 pm · Link

@Sentient Puddle: There will always be those that insist upon an authoritarian hierarchy to life. That has been true since we first evolved on this planet (there I said it, suck it your creationist hoors!) and will be true until we go extinct, either by our own devices or by the natural courses of Gaia. They have been told that by their better and they will listen to that and not question it because daddy always takes care of them. Even if it flies in the face of the evidence right in front of their noses.

@frankdawg: You just made the best argument for death panels I’ve ever heard. Thanks!

MikeJ - May 15, 2010 | 12:10 am · Link

@Jeff Fecke: Exactly. All congress has to do is pass some dumb ass prohibition on abortion and then let it go to the right wing supreme court.

soonergrunt - May 15, 2010 | 2:07 am · Link

@MikeJ: And Congress will NEVER do that. They had ample opportunity during the Bush Administration/Conservative Supreme Court/Wingnut Majorities in Both Houses era, and yet abortion is still the law of the land, even if the procedure isn’t easy to get.

As long as there’s money to be be raised from the hicks and rubes, the legal right to abortion isn’t going anywhere.

Anne Laurie - May 15, 2010 | 3:59 am · Link

@soonergrunt:

As long as there’s money to be be raised from the hicks and rubes, the legal right to abortion isn’t going anywhere.

Yeah, and that means Jenna Bush, or even Bristol Palin, will be able to erase the evidence of their unfortunate encounters with very little inconvenience and at reasonable expense. But every craven Congresscritter or crusading state legislator who puts up every-sperm-is-sacred roadblocks in their own baliwicks makes it that little bit harder for the women at the bottom 75% of the economic pyramid. Stupid niggling bullshit like ‘waiting periods’ and ‘mandatory ultrasounds’ punish the young, poor and vulnerable for the political advantage of the old, rich and privileged.

(Which of course you already know, but it needs to be said.)

El Cid - May 15, 2010 | 8:21 am · Link

@jl: This shouldn’t be about whether or not Krugman is a perfect source.

The point of my snark was to emphasize that a bunch of loonies are poisoning our national economic ‘debate’ by claiming we’re currently facing massive inflation—and they’re not talking asset bubble inflation or a still-over-inflated housing value bubble, but the actual macroeconomic meaning of ‘inflation’ in which you measure price moves in core products—and there is no evidence whatsoever that there is or will likely be ‘regular’ inflation.

And whether or not deflation seems actually likely to occur, it’s currently more in line with available evidence than inflation.

Yet talk to most any of your co-workers, or tune into right wing radio, and all you hear over and over is (a) we got to stop the high taxes (though taxes are lower) and (b) we got to stop inflation (though there has been no inflation and currently there is no sign of inflation around the corner).

If people don’t like Krugman, find another significant economist who thinks that the core inflation rate has gone up recently, or looks to do so soon.

Derek - May 15, 2010 | 2:44 pm · Link

@MikeJ:

Holy shit, that is a piece of salmon alright. I wanna dip my balls in (on) it!

Burried in links « Shadow-IRL - May 26, 2010 | 12:08 pm · Link

[...] me to another post about how terrible this person of ire is. Which in turn, led me to that persons source for the entirety of their current topic. THAT page sent me to two articles written by a member of [...]