Brent Nyitray
Fairlington Blade
Let the mutherfuker burn!
jnc4p
Kevin S. Willis
Michigoose
lmsinca
markinaustin
Arcanaut
novahockey
quarterback
ScottC
yellojktRs and Ds think they have a six month stopgap compromise on spending that they will get to after their recess, during the last six days of the fiscal year. Apparently they are staying within the Budget Control Act guidelines they set when they settled the debt ceiling extension.
Apparently flooding the financial world with money from central banks does not increase lending or stimulate the economy.
Today would have been Milton Friedman’s 100th birthday. My own undergraduate education was influenced greatly by Mr. Friedman. The Economist offers this:
http://www.economist.com/node/21559622
Brent – you were supposed to return yesterday. If you see this, and let us know when you will return, I will try to post a tres faux morning report until then. But expecting the real thing, now I will only post filler!
Filed under: Economy, Federal Reserve |
All Things in Moderation 
The Washington Post did a 100-year birthday article on Friedman with the title
How conservatives misread and misuse Milton Friedman.
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conservatives have long since abandoned the principles of his Chicago School remedies in favor of more stern solutions advocated by Austrian economists Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek. True.
Friedman would surely have supported Bernanke’s first efforts, but would have looked for a way to get more credit availability to small biz early in the game. He was not averse to using Keynesian tools, but he was opposed to massive fiscal stimuli. Example: he was the “daddy” of the negative income tax, now reflected in the earned income credit, as an automatic countercyclical. So I think he would have supported extension of the unemployment bennies.
But these were compromises he was willing to make for various reasons. He staunchly opposed government interventionism as a general pattern. Like the Austrians, he really thought the free market was ideal, but unlike them he recognized the excesses on the one hand, and the potential for government to have a limited positive role, on the other.
He did have a broader conception of the public good than the Austrians – education was one, for him. But while he did not oppose public education, he opposed public monopoly of it. He was the daddy of “voucher”.
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Apparently Romney praised Israel’s health care system and outcomes. It’s frustrating for those of us who realize the desperate need we have here for health care reform to read about this.
Romney’s point about Israel’s success in controlling health care costs is spot on: Its health care system has seen health care costs grow much slower than other industrialized nations.
How it has gotten there, however, may not be to the Republican candidate’s liking: Israel regulates its health care system aggressively, requiring all residents to carry insurance and capping revenue for various parts of the country’s health care system.
Israel created a national health care system in 1995, largely funded through payroll and general tax revenue. The government provides all citizens with health insurance: They get to pick from one of four competing, nonprofit plans. Those insurance plans have to accept all customers—including people with pre-existing conditions—and provide residents with a broad set of government-mandated benefits.
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And here’s just one of the liberal responses to Bill Keller’s op-ed in the NY Times where he blamed the baby boomers for the fiscal cliff.
Any discussion of our deficit/debt “crisis” must start with a few quick points about the history of the “crisis”:
1) January 26, 2000, Clinton to Propose Early Debt Payoff,
“President Clinton said Tuesday that the budget he will send Congress on Feb. 7 will propose paying off the entire $3.6-trillion national debt by 2013–two years earlier than had been expected even a few months ago.”
2) 2001 Alan Greenspan said we needed to pass the Bush tax cuts because we were paying off the debt too quickly.
3) Bush said it was “incredibly positive news” when the budget turned from surplus to deficit because budget deficits meant there would be pressure to cut entitlements. Bush wanted to continue the “strategic deficits” plan to “starve the beast” that was launched in the Reagan years.
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BTW Mark, thanks again for holding down the fort while Brent is away.
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And I don’t know if this is true or not but it’s interesting to contemplate, all things considered.
Economist and investment adviser John Mauldin notes:
I had dinner with Dr. Woody Brock this evening in Rockport. We were discussing this issue and he mentioned that he had done a study based on analysis by an institution that looks at all sorts of “fuzzy” data, like how easy it is to start a business in a country, corporate taxes and business structures, levels of free trade and free markets, and the legal system. It turned out that the trait that was most positively correlated with GDP growth was strength of the rule of law. It is also one of the major factors that Niall Ferguson cites in his book Civilization as a reason for the ascendency of the West in the last 500 years, and a factor that helps explain why China is rising again as it emerges from chaos.
One of the very real problems we face is the growing feeling that the system is rigged against regular people in favor of “the bankers” or the 1%. And if we are honest with ourselves, we have to admit there is reason for that feeling. Things like LIBOR are structured with a very real potential for manipulation. When the facts come out, there is just one more reason not to trust the system. And if there is no trust, there is no system.
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lms:
January 26, 2000, Clinton to Propose Early Debt Payoff,
“President Clinton said Tuesday that the budget he will send Congress on Feb. 7 will propose paying off the entire $3.6-trillion national debt by 2013–two years earlier than had been expected even a few months ago.”
Never under any circumstances was this even remotely possible or even desireable economically speaking. It’s like geting a nice bonus check on year and deciding that you can afford to buy a mansion on long island.
Mark
I thnak you as well
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It only made sense to pay down the National Debt to an easily manageable level. For instance, we cannot pay off the Social Security Administration, because all SS can invest in is federal debt.
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I understand that you guys, at least I think I do, but when you think about it now that the debt and deficit have exploded, those tax cuts, underfunded wars, and ignoring the housing bubble really damaged the country and the middle class and lower going forward. Essentially now everything’s on the table, in cuts anyway, well except for defense really, and so I think in hindsight Clinton had the right idea even if it wasn’t feasible or desirable at the time. I sort of resent the fact that the super wealthy are being so stubborn, everything considered. The promise of SS and Medicare is now under attack and will eventually be compromised because of all the “deficits don’t matter”, until they do bs, which is now.
That Keller piece really bothered me I guess.
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I agree with you, LMS, WJC had us going in the right direction on his last budget.
I am off to vote now in the primary for US Senate.
After years of supporting my classmate KBH, I will be voting in the D primary for Sadler, a traditional TX conservative D.
http://www.statesman.com/opinion/sadler-is-democrats-chance-for-an-upset-2420171.html
He has no chance whatsoever against Dewhurst and almost none against Cruz (the Rs in a runoff).
Cruz is a very smart far right pol, who will not play nice in the Senate. There is a likelihood Dewhurst would follow the leadership, certainly never veering to its left.
I don’t think Sadler has raised $100K yet. If you want to be a big time contributor on a long shot campaign, hope Cruz beats Dewhurst, and then send $100 to Sadler. If Sadler wins, your $100 would be like $2500 to a TX R. Get you in the door. Get your letters actually read by someone. Waiting on the election eve would be like anticipating the lottery announcement.
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John, are you really done with the PL?
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lms:
As I have written elsewhere even if the Republicans ARE the worst people in the world, they are in firm control of one half of Congress because of the American voters.
That means they have to be given things in order to get things, yes dancing with the devil if you will.
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yes as long as cao and dawd are there, so yes. LOL
It wasn’t just the stalking, it was the deterioration in the quality of discourse too.
I even told newagent yesterday that I would like to discuss things with him more but all we ever see is sentence fragments.
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This is somewhat relevant to a discussion jnc and I had the other day although he may not believe it still.
I don’t want to pretend that Democrats are saints when it comes to entitlements. Generally speaking, though, there are a lot of Democrats who are open to the idea of a balanced set of Social Security reforms that cut benefits modestly and raise revenues. It’s Republicans who are dead set against this: they want privatization or nothing. And they especially don’t want anything that raises taxes on the rich. But without any hope of compromise, Democrats have little incentive to support unpopular entitlement changes on their own. They did this with Obamacare’s Medicare reforms and got buried in Republican attack ads in 2010.
There’s simply no real equivalency here. Sure, maybe Democrats should be a little more courageous about this stuff. But the real problem is Republicans. They just flatly reject compromise and promise to relentlessly attack Democrats if they do anything on their own. If you really want entitlement reform, it’s not Democrats that should be your target. It’s the GOP.
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Thanks Mark!
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That means they have to be given things in order to get things, yes dancing with the devil if you will.
Yes, but that’s a two way street and I don’t see where compromise is in play with Republicans, except for a hand full, and shrinking number, of moderates.
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Regardding Kevin Drum, here’s the problem. You can’t give the other side what they should want, or what they will want in the future, or what they wanted 10 years ago, or even what would cause immediate world peace.
You have to give them some of what THEY want NOW. Thus Bill Clinton actuallu lowered taxes on the wealthy in his second term because it got him what he wanted.
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I voted for Cruz.
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Because he won’t play nice, right? 🙂
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Well, look at what 70+ years of “playing nice” has gotten us.
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Saved world from Hitler and Tojo, rebuilt former enemies into trading partners, won Cold War, spent tons of resources and lives and money to do all this, kept world out of global depression on several occasions, got tired from doing all the heavy lifting, got arrogant from winning Cold War same time we got tired, stopped playing nice.
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John, except that if they’re to be believed, and according to the Ryan Budgets, they want the privatization of both medicare and SS. How can we give them that “now” and consider it a compromise? It wouldn’t be, it would be a complete capitulation and what many of us on the left consider the complete undoing of both programs. And they’re using the deficit they helped create to get the job done. So maybe gridlock is preferable and if so then I will vote for Obama again.
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I simply don’t believe that they expect to get that. However I do believe that failure to reward the more centrist Republicans plays into the hands of the extremists
Wasn’t it Drum who wrote in the Happy Hour last night about the futility of Obama trying to pick off the 60th Senator or an R here or there?
Well yes, when that’s all you are trying to do it really is futile.
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mark
Vote for the younger Dem in the primary because there’s nothing this party needs more right now.
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Lms, I agree that the current crop of R’s in leaderships positions are spouting words that seem to coincide with my desired goal of dismantling the so-called safety net. Unfortunately for me, but fortunately for you, they will never do it. We have passed the Rubicon and no politician will ever, ever, vote to deprive the middle class of their goodies. I admired your belief in their integrity, and I wish I shared it.
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scott and brent if you’re out there, what do you think?
“Muni Rates Examined for Signs of Rigging”
http://www.cnbc.com/id/48410471
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Mark, playing nice certainly didn’t accomplish any of those things. Do you think Roosevelt played nice with Congress? Did Truman? It’s ruthless politics that achieved those things (some good, most bad). Playing nice is what set us on a path that has destroyed sustainability, it has perpetuated a welfare state that now encompasses the middle class. Ruthless, cutthroat politics established the welfare state and playing nice has maintained and even broadened it.
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Looney tunes stuff from the Downie column this morning:
“Coalition to release new economic plan today: Something to watch for: A coalition of labor unions and liberal economists is set to release a new report today detailing a liberal vision for how to build the economy of the future. From the executive summary:
To restart economic growth, we recommend major investments in infrastructure. To accelerate growth for the future, we call for a college system that guarantees all qualified students the chance to attend and graduate witha diploma….we call for empowering workers to engage in collective bargaining….We call too for stricter lobbying rules and public financing of our elections to limit the power of special interests and shape a government more responsive to the middle class”
If the middle class isn’t a special interest then how did they get so many tax deductions accumulated in their favor?
Also do you know of anybody who is currenlty being denied a chance to go to college that it is in the purview of the government to correct? I see far more who shouldn’t be in college at all attending, than anyone who should be and is denied.
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deprive the middle class of their goodies
See that’s where we part ways big time. A little retirement cushion in an unforeseen economic calamity and affordable health care don’t really seem like goodies to me, especially if I’ve paid into both of them my entire adult life. I keep trying to supply all of you with real life stories outside of the bubble, so to speak, but they don’t seem to have any affect for the most part.
Do you think you’re immune to financial pressure in your sixties and beyond, or for that matter, to health scenarios that could bankrupt you? If you are then bless you, most of us are not so fortunate, even though we’ve also worked hard our entire lives and maybe even contributed to the welfare of others along the way. A goodie would be if someone left a cupcake at my door every morning.
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I sometimes wonder why no one ever writes about the other effect of Social Security, namely that it acts like a private banking system for the middle and lower classes ( a good thing, not bad). Imagine how much money would be drawn out of our consumer economy if young people had to financially take care of their parents like in “the old days” (when I grew up)
Also, how many relatively poor households benefit from having an additional member drawing on SS or disability?
It’s a great system and far more financially sound for instance than our public pension system.
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Don, keeping the work force productive is also why I don’t want to close the nursing homes. But Medicaid is the true black hole, as it is in no way prepaid by the recipient like SS and Medicare. If we could convert over time to a nursing home insurance model that might be more efficient, but I do not know how to get from here to there.
For persons in their work lives to have to become one-on-one caretakers of demented elderly relatives would be even more counterproductive than Medicaid, I think, but that is the epitome of damnation by faint praise of Medicaid.
Edit – for all of you who were worried about my own fast approaching elderly senility, I have really good nursing home insurance from State Farm.
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Lms, I don’t believe healthcare, or an adequate retirement for that matter, are the responsibilities of others. I have had financial crisis’s in my life and I guarantee I will have others. My parents, due to their own personal failings, have not provided adequately for their own retirement and both my sister and I spend substantial amounts of money supporting them, It didn’t and doesn’t occur to either of us that someone else should be obligated to do so.
As for healthcare bankrupting me, I’m sure that it will happen to me as well. I’m sure of that for two reasons. First, because the current system will collapse at some point and I won’t be able to take advantage of it. Secondly, I value my life and the lives of my immediately family very highly and will gladly give everything in an attempt to prolong it or make it more comfortable. In fact, i’ll promise anybody anything to that end. Isn’t that why we work ultimately, for the ones we love?
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“real life stories outside of the bubble”
my bubble is more like a deflector shield.
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nova:
Rubin wrote a column this morning about what a great trip it’s been for Romney. Now THAT is life inside the bubble (my friend, as Romney would say)
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jnc:
The Union-Leader in the UK is channeling you:
Perhaps the most troubling aspect of this entire controversy is the one NOT being discussed much: How did Romney get himself into this position in the first place? He has been running for office for a long time. His presidential aspirations predate the tax returns in question.
What could he possibly have been thinking when he failed to ensure that everything contained in those documents was above reproach? Or was he simply not thinking at all? Surely he could not have arrogantly believed that he could withstand any storm that developed by bluffing his way through it? If so, it hasn’t worked.
You really should get paid when you’re this good! 🙂
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McWing
I value my life and the lives of my immediately family very highly and will gladly give everything in an attempt to prolong it or make it more comfortable
I’m not doubting your love or commitment to your loved ones. I’m saying that we need to figure out a way to preserve both programs for current and future generations and I certainly don’t agree that privatization will get us there. My parents were the same and my husband and I helped them out quite a bit, my sister is disabled and we’ve been helping her for over 20 years and when my niece became ill and the insurance company cancelled her insurance, we had to come up with $60k for the doctor and hospital here in CA before they would even see her. Unfortunately, it took us (there wasn’t anyone else to help) awhile to come up with that much cash and she died before she could get treatment.
My parents had SS and Medicare and even though they lived frugally, it wasn’t really enough, my sister gets disability and it’s not enough either. Imagine if you will all the people out there who don’t have loving and supportive families struggling to get by on the “goodies” the government gives back to them. They survive but just barely in many cases and most of them were hard working tax payers just like you and I.
The idea that we’ve let the deficit get so large now that these are the people who need to suffer for it in every generation going forward goes against my internalized notion of fairness.
Edit: My parents blew through my Dad’s retirement money in about three years so they weren’t particularly responsible but my Dad went back to school in his sixties and became an enrolled agent and did taxes until about six months before he died. He tried to make up for the frivolous spending from his misspent youth of his late fifties…………..
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Nova
my bubble is more like a deflector shield.
And I for one will never let you forget it. 😉
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OT
I wish you could Fedex tomatoes as all my neighbors are away and I am drowning in them. (signed poster in sad need of Doomsday prepping skills like canning)
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that prepper show is fascinating. they must get their talking points from the same place. because regardless of the situation, they all repeat the line “the grocery stores will be bare in 3 days”
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“And I for one will never let you forget it.”
LMS is the good angel on the side of my shoulder.
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I’ve been canning for over 30 years john, but I can’t grow a decent tomato to save my life. You could make spaghetti sauce or something and freeze it which is easier than canning.
Edit, and I wouldn’t recommend, as a first experience in canning, tomatoes.
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Nova, you have no idea how close I came this year to being an angel…………..lol, at least I hope that’s how I’ll end up. Maybe I’ll just be a ghost and haunt ATiM instead, who knows? In real life though, I’m no angel so you can knock that shit off.
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FYI – Tied up with work today. Posting will be at the end of the day.
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understood. i’ll be sure not to say your name 3 times in front of a mirror.
Edit (from lms) Haaaaahaaaa, a friend of ours actually accused me of being a witch once, of course she was very very inebriated at the time.
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John–
Second what lms said about canning tomatoes–too easy to get botulism with the home-canned stuff!
lms–
I’m no angel so you can knock that shit off
That cracked me up!
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This was at the end of the Morning Plum and I thought it was pretty funny:
Obama had a funny anecdote at fundraiser last night that revealed just how many ads are running this cycle:
Jim Messina, … my campaign manager … was in some event, and this young couple who was there with their adorable four-year-old son, and I guess there was a picture of me somewhere, and so they were very excited. They said, ‘Sammy, who’s that?’ And he said, ‘That’s Barack Obama.’ ‘And what does Barack Obama do?’ And the boy thinks for a second and he says, ‘He approves this message.’
Kids. . .
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Michi, I saw that story and thought it was funny. Kids, you never know what they’re going to say. During the last election every time our grandson, who was two at the time, saw McCain on the television, he’d run over to it and touch his face and say “poo poo head”. We couldn’t get him to stop for anything.
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A No brainer:
Chances of the EPA doing this: approximately 0%
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Thanks for attemepting to save my life all. but I am useless in the kitchen once breakfast is concluded in any case.
“Some Federal Reserve officials are reviving an idea that rose and fell with Alan Greenspan, the former Fed chairman, as they seek to persuade colleagues to take new action to stimulate growth.
Central bankers generally set policy based on their judgment about the most likely path for the nation’s economy. But Mr. Greenspan argued that the Fed sometimes should do more than its forecast suggested, buttressing the economy against large, potential risks. He described such moves as “taking out insurance.”
http://www.cnbc.com/id/48418555
There are economists in this country today who simply can’t function in any but a bubble atmosphere and lacking one desire to create the same.
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I’m back!! After submitting some 80 pages of briefs last month, I have a little bit of time to exhale. Mark, I don’t know how you do this employment stuff. I’ve been working on a disparate impact case and the case law is often absurd.
On to more exciting news.
Johh- Fortunately I only planted 2 cherry tomato plants and 1 beefeater. We have an obscene amount of cherry tomatoes, but that is not too problematic since you can snack on them, throw them in pasta, salads and they are simply smaller. I think I am going to go the marinera sauce for the larger tomatoes since I also have a ton of basil and some garlic that I also grew. Whatever we don’t eat right away, I’ll freeze.
Back to work. Antoher motion to write.
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and the case law is often absurd
nuanced
Ok, absurd.
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The “Greenspan put” is alive and well.
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Christmas came early for the Obama administration:
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Christmas came early for the Obama administration:
I don’t see it that way. Neither do the Rs. They think it keeps BHO pinned down to the vagaries of the economy b/c he cannot run against the Congress that pushed us over a “cliff”.
For once, the politics of doing this was in the national interest and in the interest of each party’s congressional delegation, responsible statesmen that they are.
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Hi Ash, congrats on the tomatoes, wish I knew what I was doing wrong. The rest of my garden is prolific and I’ve already canned on 6 separate occasions this summer.
Nice to see you btw.
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Thanks lmsinca.
My mother-in-law got nary a tomato from the 2 plants she planted this year. The plants themselves are monsters, but no tomatoes.
NoVa- That 1% accounting for 20% of costs is pretty well known, right? It doesn’t look like they break it down by condition which would allow for more pointed reforms. Is there any way to predict who will move from the lower spending to the upper spending other than just getting older? You can’t prevent people from getting older (well not legally) but you can work on prevention for certain chronic diseases.
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new study: 5% of population accounts for 50% of health care expenditures. drilling down, 1% account for 20% of costs.
http://www.nihcm.org/component/content/article/679
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responsible statesmen that they are
Too funny Mark. I will be glad not to have to read about all the hand wringing this year. Now everyone’s free to campaign, campaign, campaign. There will never be another summer for me though like the summer of 2009’s August recess. Town hall meetings in the extreme.
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Nova, no real surprises in that report I guess. Older people get sick before they die generally. That’s why at 62 I’m paying $890/month for insurance versus someone half my age paying $200 or so. What’s the solution?
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this doesn’t factor in care in institutional settings — skilled nursing. so it’s just community based spending.
and based on a quick read, it’s driven by specific chronic conditions: hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, and some type of arthritis.
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and based on a quick read, it’s driven by specific chronic conditions: hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, and some type of arthritis
Doh…yeah. they ahve a pretty bar graph and everything on that.
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Advanced Directives and DNR’s are helpful as well, especially in the 70’s to 80’s or with people who have chronic and or terminal conditions. Prevention relies on people actually going to see their doctors and follow their suggestions or even orders and I thought the general consensus during and after ACA was that preventive medicine wasn’t that cost effective, not that I believe it.
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The general consensus is that broad, unspecific preventative care is not cost effective. Preventative care can be highly cost effective if it targets the right population for the right conditions. But simply requiring everyone to undergo certain tests is not cost effective. Actually it wastes a huge amount of money due to unnecessary testing and false positives. But we all recalled what happened when someone said that about mammorgrams. It was demagogued to death.
On a totally unrelated note, I thought this article was interesting, more so for the statistical discussion than the ultimate conclusion that someone is buying Romeny twitter followers.
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nova
I am earning the title of Dr. Death today because of my reaction to this article by Brad Plummer:
“Want to cut drug spending? Air pollution rules could help.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/07/31/want-to-cut-drug-spending-air-pollution-rules-could-help/#comments
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jnc:
What do you know, the Ds and Rs can reach a compromise when they decide to. (in other words when both sides get something of what they want)
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Ash, I have five beefsteak plants with about 3 tomatoes each………………which is actually better than I normally get. I can generally grow cherrie tomatoes though, but I’m not that fond of them except for the orange ones we had last year that are still growing. I get enough for a salad every two or three days which is perfect.
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ash
I have two lilacs that refused to bloom this year. It’s the Republicans fault.
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UBS lost at least 350 million on Facebook in the !PO debacle!
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“markinaustin, on July 31, 2012 at 1:26 pm
Christmas came early for the Obama administration:
I don’t see it that way. Neither do the Rs. They think it keeps BHO pinned down to the vagaries of the economy b/c he cannot run against the Congress that pushed us over a “cliff”.
For once, the politics of doing this was in the national interest and in the interest of each party’s congressional delegation, responsible statesmen that they are.””
I share Banned’s view on this. If the economy stays flat or improves, then there’s a better than even chance that Obama wins reelection, and that was before factoring in the latest Romney world tour into the equation.
Removing this shutdown threat eliminates one more pre-election risk to the economy.
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Jonathan Bernstein thinks his personal view is a proxy for the American body politic as a whole (which explains how bizarre his columns have become)
“If the deal does hold, this will stand as another successful maneuver by John Boehner; he’ll have averted a government shutdown just weeks before the election, one that most observers believe would be a disaster for Mitt Romney and Congressional Republicans.”
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i think targeted prevented medicine is effective and can lower costs. not universal though. there’s no reason to fund a program to screen me for diabetes. the data indicate i’m not at risk — or more accurately — my demographic is not a risk. but an African american or Latino woman? put the resources there.
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Even by his usual standards, this is an asinine post by Krugman:
The admission that “I don’t know what DeMarco’s specific legal mandate is” while still calling for firing him on the basis of his actions in upholding that mandate is pure partisan hackery.
Edit:
Some actual facts:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/31/ed-demarco-principal-reduction_n_1724880.html
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Ash
Preventative care can be highly cost effective if it targets the right population for the right conditions. But simply requiring everyone to undergo certain tests is not cost effective
Ahhh, I see the difference and agree. I also liked the two year mammogram testing for most women. Obviously, if there is a concern or genetic issue more often should be considered. I told my doc I was going with the two years and she didn’t put up a fight. I’ve been enmeshed in the medical complex since February this year and every time I think I’m done with tests they come up with another one. It’s hard to say no as a patient I’m finding, even when you’re convinced you don’t need it.
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Obviously, if there is a concern or genetic issue more often should be considered.
Absolutely. And, depending on what studies show, maybe those women shoudl be having mammograms more often than once a year and start at an earlier age.
I just met with a physician who started his career in Germany and he simply marvels at the sheer amount of testing, most of which he considers unnecessary. I do take such claims with a grain of salt because a physician complaining about unnecessary testing is either in the minority of physicians who don’t order such tests, thus foregoing the profit associated with conducting the test (assuming regs allow him/her to profit), or he/she orders unnecessary tests. If its the later, that means he/she is not particularly ethical and is defrauding insurers.
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jnc:
Did you see yesterday where he called for southern Europe to export their way out of difficulty? I even had trouble convincing Brad Plummer that none of the nations in difficulty actually had an export economy until I showed him the figures.
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Christmas came early for the Obama administration:
They actually put a lump of coal in his stocking. The Executive Branch was already to distribute furlough contingency plans in the event of a showdown which Republicans feared would paint them as bad guys. By taking that fear-mongering tactic off the table, this is one less arrow in Obama’s October Surprise quiver.
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Harry Reid says that he believes Romney has doesn’t beat his wife but can’t confirm it:
“WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has what he says is an informed explanation for why Mitt Romney refuses to release additional tax returns. According a Bain investor, Reid charged, Romney didn’t pay any taxes for 10 years.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Huffington Post from his office on Capitol Hill, Reid saved some of his toughest words for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Romney couldn’t make it through a Senate confirmation process as a mere Cabinet nominee, the majority leader insisted, owing to the opaqueness of his personal finances.
“His poor father must be so embarrassed about his son,” Reid said, in reference to George Romney’s standard-setting decision to turn over 12 years of tax returns when he ran for president in the late 1960s.
Saying he had “no problem with somebody being really, really wealthy,” Reid sat up in his chair a bit before stirring the pot further. A month or so ago, he said, a person who had invested with Bain Capital called his office.
“Harry, he didn’t pay any taxes for 10 years,” Reid recounted the person as saying.
“He didn’t pay taxes for 10 years! Now, do I know that that’s true? Well, I’m not certain,” said Reid. “But obviously he can’t release those tax returns. How would it look?”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/31/harry-reid-romney-taxes_n_1724027.html
He seems finally to have recovered from his Olympic uniform related illness.
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I’m all for mortgage cramdowns and debt write offs, but there’s no easy substitute for actually changing the law to effect that. You can’t characterize these write offs as saving the taxpayers money as they are the ones who bailed out Fannie & Freddie. It’s about dividing and recognizing losses, not a free lunch.
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yello:
“The Executive Branch was already to distribute furlough contingency plans in the event of a showdown which Republicans feared would paint them as bad guys.”
You don’t think economic deterioration weighs against the administration?
Stop reading JB he is having a bad effect on a good intellect.
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“yellojkt, on July 31, 2012 at 2:26 pm said: Edit Comment
Christmas came early for the Obama administration:
They actually put a lump of coal in his stocking. The Executive Branch was already to distribute furlough contingency plans in the event of a showdown which Republicans feared would paint them as bad guys. By taking that fear-mongering tactic off the table, this is one less arrow in Obama’s October Surprise quiver.”
I believe that dysfunction with the current government plays against all the current incumbents. John Boehner and Eric Cantor aren’t running against Obama, and Harry Reid isn’t running against Romney.
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jnc
I used your Goolsbee quote without attribution to you in Wonkbook this morning. I’m a thief!
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It should actually be credited to Ryan Lizza, if it’s this quote:
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yes it’s ideas like that which I believe are the reason that he’s longer in the administration.
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“bannedagain5446, on July 31, 2012 at 2:22 pm said:
jnc:
Did you see yesterday where he called for southern Europe to export their way out of difficulty? I even had trouble convincing Brad Plummer that none of the nations in difficulty actually had an export economy until I showed him the figures.”
Calling for more inflation with the Euro is a perfectly reasonable prescription to the debt problems in southern Europe, at the expense of Germany and other Northern European countries, but I don’t see it happening. Greece departing the Eurozone, followed by currency devaluation and defaults is still my best guess. Among other things, once Greece leaves it helps with the “moral hazard” arguments vis-a-vis Spain and other remaining countries with debt/banking problems.
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“Day Two of India’s Blackout Hits Half the Population”
India says goodbye to the modern world. Arrival times on the return trip are currently unknown.
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I believe that dysfunction with the current government plays against all the current incumbents.
That was the unspoke corollary of my comment. The favor they were doing Obama was self-serving as well. Nobody wins in a shut-down.
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American voters are not known for their ability to afix blame in an nuanced way.
This is a winning hand for Obama.
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Stop reading JB he is having a bad effect on a good intellect.
Haven’t been on PL since this morning. Did he say something about this issue or is that just a general warning?
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see my post above somewhere
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My bad. I missed it. I attach a few shakers of salt to any of those sort of winner/loser analyses, particularly from heavily partisan sources. For example, the optics (or audio if you prefer) on the “You didn’t build this.” line are just awful no matter how much liberals try to explain it away. Nobody does the sentence diagramming necessary to limn the intended meaning. Plus it gives raw meat to the anti-Obama base who are more than willing to run with it. A rare Obama unforced error.
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yello:
My comment from last night on that subejct, which lead to a rather fiery finish
“Sam Stein on yet another Romney-supporting business owner who Did Build It — and kept on building it with the help of taxpayer dollars. Anyone else notice a pattern here?”
Yes in an effort to defend the President from a stupid misleading ad, his defenders have made the situation worse by playing right into GOP hands. Bloggers and columnists now go out of their way to argue that businesses ONLY succeed because of the government ( a point Obama never made) and by implying that hard work has NOTHING to do with getting ahead, only government largesse in some way does.”
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“yellojkt, on July 31, 2012 at 2:59 pm said:
I believe that dysfunction with the current government plays against all the current incumbents.
That was the unspoke corollary of my comment. The favor they were doing Obama was self-serving as well. Nobody wins in a shut-down.”
That serves to undermine the “obstruction for the sake of defeating President Obama” meme.
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Banned, both you and QB are correct on this subject. David Frum and Andrew Sullivan both had decent posts on it:
See also:
http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/07/obamas-biggest-blunder-yet.html
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That serves to undermine the “obstruction for the sake of defeating President Obama” meme
Self-preservation is a stronger instinct than vindictiveness. Someone did the calculus on the cost-benefit ratio before signing off on the deal.
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Every business that succeeds in American AND every business that fails have at least one thing in common. They all exist beside roads and bridges built by the government.
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jnc
I think there’s a whole lot of extrapolating going on in that post.
Obama’s second idea is that success is to a great extent random, a matter of luck. You think you succeeded because you were smart or hard-working? Listen—a lot of smart and hard-working people don’t succeed.”
And a lot of people putting words in the President’s mouth. I’m not much of a fan but I think an inartful way of saying something turned into some sort of condemnation of success which doesn’t exist. Of course some people are luckier than others but that doesn’t mean it’s only luck and not hard work that builds success. I can’t imagine anyone believing that, much less someone as successful as the President of the United States. Do you think he believes he was just lucky? I doubt that. And it is true that some or maybe even a lot of smart and hard-working people don’t succeed in the terms as they’re defined by financial gain only. Maybe they’ve succeeded in other ways though.
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lms:
I think the story may have been that in the absence of broader more forthcoming thoughts on the matter, pundits on both sides are filling in the blanks.
I think that Obama plays his cards extremely close to the vest as you would expect from anybody with such a terrible family dynamic. Probably only Michelle knows what he really thinks, not that I am implying he’s seceret communist or anything. You know me better.
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not that I am implying he’s seceret communist
So, just what kind of a commie is he?
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The last one!
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A real Marxist’s take on the financial crisis:
“RSA Animate – Crises of Capitalism”
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banned
You know me better
Yes, I’m not accusing you or jnc of anything at all. I just though Frum’s characterization was way off. You can’t say, I don’t think, on the one hand that, “this argument is not developed by the president” and then in the next say, “hear in those few stray sentences of the president a more radical critique of their core belief”. It’s not the first time that I’ve heard David Frum take liberties with scant evidence so my criticism is of him. I didn’t even bother to read Sullivan’s take.
Haaaahaaaa, if Obama’s a commie, what would that make me?
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I do think the passage highlighted by Frum has nothing to do with the schools and roads argument for taxation that results in a pretty minimalist approach to government. It’s telling that neither President Obama or Elizabeth Warren have attempted to offer a defense of entitlement spending levels in those terms.
As I have noted before, you can easily fund the discretionary part of the Federal budget at current taxation levels. As an argument for raising marginal tax rates, roads and schools is a distraction.
Also, I believe that your response was directed to Banned’s post.
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“Haaaahaaaa, if Obama’s a commie, what would that make me?”
The next to the last one?
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I believe that your response was directed to Banned’s post
Fixed. I understand your point re entitlements but that wasn’t where the brouhaha in the media or the campaigns has been played. It’s a discussion worth having at the national level but everyone’s too chicken to defend entitlements. I try to do it here on occasion as you may have noticed.
As I said, I just didn’t think much of Frum’s piece.
I have a piece here many of you won’t like, Tomasky’s Newsweek cover story, “The Wimp Factor”.
Compounding matters, when pressed to the slightest degree about his inconsistencies, he can get nasty and whiny. No one talks anymore about his encounter with Bret Baier of Fox News last December, but it was a Moment. When Baier had the nerve to challenge him on his health-care and immigration views, Romney complained—told Baier his questions were “uncalled for!” Of course it was Fox, which is supposed to be his on-air public-relations firm, so Romney was shocked. But even so, you don’t say it. A politician complaining about a journalist just doing his job is … weenie-ish.
In a similar vein, it was breathtaking, and a meaningful window into his thinking, that he thought denouncing “Obamacare” to the NAACP constituted courage. That was the opposite of courage—an easy shot aimed at people who aren’t voting for him anyway. Going to the Southern Baptist Convention and telling them they’re all wet about Mormonism? Now that would be courage. Can anyone picture Romney doing that in a million years? The Mormon God will come down from Kolob before that happens.
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I’ll defend the concept of entitlements. I think the safety blanket works and has worked and provides and has provided a stop-loss and a countercyclical that is one of the major reasons we have not had another Great Depression. But I won’t defend the stripping of the trust fund that threatens SS and Medicare. It needed to be fixed ten years ago. It may become unfixable if the bastards we call Congress continue to dither. And Medicaid is another story, entirely. Unsustainable. Yet, it would cost us more if all the nursing homes closed and millions of workers and small biz people became caretakers. Bad problem. Further, like Milton Friedman, I think education is a public good. We’ve had that discussion before. Like Friedman, I don’t think education is or should be a public monopoly.
Just so we all are reminded where we stand…
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A real Marxist’s take on the financial crisis:
That video left me singing The Internationale.
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Maybe Dewhurst’s strong area’s haven’t come in yet, but Cruz is leading by,… 9 points.
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Not a surprise [Cruz].
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I have a busy day ahead so I’ll see y’all later. I thought yesterday was a good day here, so thanks for the debate and information everyone.
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“yellojkt, on July 31, 2012 at 8:04 pm said:
A real Marxist’s take on the financial crisis:
That video left me singing The Internationale.”
When I first saw it when it came out in 2010, my first thought was “We are really fucked if the Marxists have started making sense”.
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