It would be a pity to let go without comment Obama’s recent speech in Prague. For those of you who didn’t follow it (the North Korean missile launch an hour before somewhat overshadowed it), it was surprisingly consequential. A decent number of commentators dismissed it, echoing Slate’s Anne Applebaum in critiquing Obama’s “odd obsession with … Read more
Yesterday Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times that banking needs to be made “boring.” Like most of Krugman’s material on the financial crisis it’s worth a read; it explains how it’s a bad sign that banking is an exciting industry drawing many of the most gifted young minds of America, more than a … Read more
So I happened to notice the Debbie Downer note of Elise’s last post, and I wanted to focus specifically on the question of whether “it jibes with even his progressive values to stand for one set of rights at home and another one abroad.” That’s actually not a helpful way to phrase the question, for … Read more
Today was a good day. The Democrat-dominated House of our wonderful northern neighbor Vermont overrode GOP Governor Jim Douglas’s veto on a law to legalize same-sex marriage (picking up three votes from moderates that had opposed the legislation the first time). The liberal grassroots – text message, Facebook, Twitter, email lists, you name it – … Read more
It’s rather hard to comment in detail on Secretary Gates’s new plan for the military, for the reason that the plan in and of itself is rather lacking in detail. Things like actual budget numbers for individual programs, or a top-line net change. Which, given Obama’s budget, is almost certain to still be positive. But … Read more
Tonight the University of North Carolina will square off against Michigan State in the men’s NCAA Division I basketball championship. This game is the culmination of, in my opinion, the most exciting couple of weeks in all of sports – 64 games, lots of upsets, and of course your by now tattered bracket. Is it … Read more
So the latest incarnation of the bank rescue plan is as follows: Banks have crap. Changes in accounting rules allow banks to paint crap gold. Bank buys “gold” from other banks at prices that allow it to declare itself healthy by selling off its own “gold”. This is a viable business model because the “gold” … Read more
Reading today’s New York Times editorial on the Lincoln-Kyl proposal to cut estate taxes to the tune of $250 billion, I wondered about what kind of reward these politicians hope to get for their sponsorship of such a plan. According to CNN, Arizona (from which Sen. Kyl hails) had more foreclosures in the first two … Read more
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the interesting, vexing, and somewhat hilarious case of Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission. The question before the Court is whether the low-budget hit-piece “Hillary: The Movie” is subject to the financing restrictions of McCain-Feingold, which regulates so-called “electioneering communications.” In other words, is a 90-minute … Read more
In last summer’s issue, I predicted that the seemingly momentous gun-control case of D.C. v. Heller might turn out to be not such a big deal. I was mainly referring to the politics of the decision; it seemed likely to me that Heller would take gun-control off the table, so to speak, and lessen the … Read more