Saw the second Hunger Games movie. A bit confused by the several reviews I read saying it was superior to the first one. The first one, which I liked quite a bit, was better. Second one is fine if you like that sort of thing.
Saturday, December 07, 2013
What is "progressive"?
I keep hearing people with some of the most right-wing economic policies call themselves "progressive" and now we're all wondering what that word means - so, we've been asking on Virtually Speaking.
Friday, December 06, 2013
And He Was Very Well Respected
The National Review was, for many years, a defender of white supremacy. And William F. Buckley was regularly on the teevee.
Violence Is Only A Legitimate Tool Of The Powerful Or Sometimes The Syrian Rebels
In glancing at various Mandela discussions, I'm fascinated by how un-selfaware the country is with respect to our relationship with political violence. Even leaving aside that fact that it's always awesome when we do it, it's "amusing" that Mandela must be either a Gandhi-like pacifist or be an evildoer terrorist. And in the next sentence we'll discuss just how many arms we'll send to various groups involved in various civil wars that we basically don't understand.
If My House Was A Parking Lot
I live in a pretty big house. 2100 sq. ft plus a finished basement and roof deck (and small back porch). If you turned it into a surface parking lot you could maybe fit 5 cars on the lot without an active attendant, although you'd lose the spot out front to a curb cut. I get that people who live in the suburbs don't understand the fundamentals of urban math - that there really isn't room for all the cars - but that people who live here don't either drives me nuts.
Green Shoots
For context, during the Clinton administration average monthly job growth was 237,000. Over the entire 8 years.
Growth
It's not just that unequal income distributions are just, well, you know, bad. And that it's worse that working hard and following the rules doesn't work so well anymore.
But what's getting lost in the ZOMG, inequality! discussion is that supply-side and austerity policy regimes have lowered growth rates--that the result has been idle capital and idle labor sacrificed to the confidence fairies. Every economist is supposed to agree that more growth is better than less. Policies that increase inequality AND lower growth rates should be uniformly rejected by Serious People and politicians alike.
The only thing worse than crappy wages is not being able to get a job at crappy wages, while factories degrade and earthmovers rust.
Thursday, December 05, 2013
Great Men
I'll leave the details to people who know better than I do, but quite obviously Mandela was one of the greatest.
The Inflation of The Grades
I've attended/taught at a variety of institutions, ranging from my state school undergrad to the Ivy League, and to me the problem with elite school grade inflation isn't that lots of students get As. The A students probably mostly deserve them. It's the lower end of the grade distribution that's more problematic. Bad students at my state school got Fs. Bad students at elite institutions just might be reprimanded with a C+. Might.
Defense
When I began my 'crazy' campaign to support an increase in Social Security benefits, one point was to put the "just do nothing" option on firmer ground. I support increasing Social Security benefits significantly on the merits as the 401K experiment has failed, but I also support shifting the discourse enough that the only options aren't "cuts or no cuts." The Social Security cutters are now playing defense, so I consider it to be a win.
Think Of The Young
Chuck Lane thinks increasing Social Security is bad because it's the young, not the old, who are suffering.
Number of proposals for helping the young he claims to be oh so concerned about? Yep. Zero.
Number of proposals for helping the young he claims to be oh so concerned about? Yep. Zero.
Unfettered Abortion
I'm not entirely sure just what it has to do with the War on Christmas (we're winning! keep fighting!) but I'll admit to being a fan.
Morning health care thread
RJ Eskow and Stuart Zechman discussed the question, "What needs to happen in order to make a working health care system - for 99% of us - out of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)?" on Virtually Speaking Sundays.
Wednesday, December 04, 2013
Spend Your Money
There are lots of places that are nice to visit, but which don't necessarily have long term appeal. I generally prefer traveling to places I could imagine spending a few months in, even if I only have a few days. One doesn't always know which is which beforehand, of course. I was in Lisbon a few years ago and would definitely put it high on the list of "great places to hang out in." Also, too, Portugal isn't doing so well economically at the moment so they could probably use your tourist dollars. It's pretty easy/cheap to travel around the country by train, too, so one doesn't have to limit oneself to Lisbon. I hate Frank Bruni, but this was pretty decent.
Punching The Innocent
One of my early pre-blogging but internet related bit of political activism was emailing a school principal and informing her just why her front office's phone was ringing off the hook with calls from deranged people. The Freepers had seized upon something that was happening in her school. I forget what it was exactly, though I remember it had some sort of racial component. It was one of those things which was harmless even if true but it wasn't really even true. It was my good deed of the day. She called and thanked me for letting her know, because she genuinely had no idea just where the 360 degree hate field had come from. I was reminded of that by this.
Misty Water Colored
Remembered this for some reason, which made me think back to the dark ages of blogging when the internet wasn't as nearly as smart as it is now. It's hard to remember the specifics as the internet gets a bit smarter every day, but it just wasn't the case back in 2003 that you could fire up the internet and basically get the answer to any question you had. Google maps and Google news search didn't even exist.
Though the flip side is once things are on the internet long enough the companies that run them become increasingly dedicated to making them shitty. I'm looking at you google.
Though the flip side is once things are on the internet long enough the companies that run them become increasingly dedicated to making them shitty. I'm looking at you google.
Just Don't Step In It
No one thinks Allyson Schwartz is some kind of major progressive champion, but if she wants to win the primary she'd better at least avoid things which make that crystal clear.
Keep The Government Out Of My Medicare
One way to battle this stuff is to, you know, announce your plan to increase Social Security benefits. That Democrats fail to set themselves up (even dishonestly) as the champions of the things they're supposed to be champions of is a mystery.
The Immortals
Some people have had lives of total privilege without worry or tragedy, but most haven't. I remain mystified by those people who are unable to understand that some people experience this thing we call "bad luck" on occasion even as they themselves have had a spell or two of it. Every victory my own triumph, every failure somebody else's fault I suppose.
Bravery
The problem with gun nuts with vigilante fantasies is that they think that shooting an unarmed man is the pinnacle of bravery, when in fact they're just extreme cowards.
Apostasy
Updated (Thanks to commenters M Krebs UVP estiv and JR)
Dissenting voices are no longer welcome at the Minnesota Fed:
It used to be that the first objective of any macro policy was increasing economic growth. Austerity was supposed to move the country onto a longer term growth path, at the expense, sadly, of the bottom two quintiles. Instead, contractionary policies have proven to be contractionary.
Time to shoot some messengers.
Dissenting voices are no longer welcome at the Minnesota Fed:
There are subtle policy differences between Kocherlakota and the economists who are leaving. Kocherlakota has been at the center of a debate over the effectiveness of the Fed’s low-interest-rate policy. He has pushed for nearly two years for the Fed to hold down rates until unemployment drops to 5.5 percent.
He argues, in general, that what are known as “New Keynesian” economic models are helpful. This school of thought has helped create an unprecedented intervention in the financial markets by the country’s central bank — the $85 billion a month bond-buying program known as quantitative easing.
But Kehoe and McGrattan published a paper in 2008 arguing that monetary policy can do little to affect the unemployment rate, and Fed policymakers should instead focus primarily on controlling inflation.
“New Keynesian models are not yet useful for policy analysis,” they wrote.
Tuesday, December 03, 2013
The Golden Age Of Television
Obviously most TV sucks, as do most movies, but for whatever reason movies have long been respected as art while TV has long been rejected a lesser medium.
I like TV more than movies, especially now that we have nice HD wide screen teevees, because I'm not a big fan of short stories. Movies are basically short stories. (Any novel has to be cut to shreds to be turned into a film). They have a beginning, a middle, and end, and it all has to play out over about 2 hoursish. TV has the capability of showing longer stories, of genuinely being long form literature. Not that it is usually great art, of course, but it actually has the greater promise of being so.
I like TV more than movies, especially now that we have nice HD wide screen teevees, because I'm not a big fan of short stories. Movies are basically short stories. (Any novel has to be cut to shreds to be turned into a film). They have a beginning, a middle, and end, and it all has to play out over about 2 hoursish. TV has the capability of showing longer stories, of genuinely being long form literature. Not that it is usually great art, of course, but it actually has the greater promise of being so.
Tuesday Crass Commercialism
Dyson vacuum cleaners are expensive, but they are good (cannot comment on any specific current model).
The Trouble With Means Testing
We don't talk enough about how the working poor can face incredibly high effective marginal tax rates due to the fact that various credits and benefits are taken away if you manage to earn more money. We know that raising the tax rate on million-earners by one percentage point will cause them to go Galt and never create another jaayyyyaab again, but it's the working poor who really face high marginal rates.
They Got Nothing
As Operation Steal The Pensions (and everything else) progresses, a reminder that a lot of these workers (saw one figure of 30% but I'm not sure exactly who that applies to) don't even have Social Security.
Impeach!
That there has not been a serious impeachment movement shows just how far the Right is off their game relative to the good old days. Mike Allen and Ron Fournier would be so on board with that shit.
So Silly
Not very serious at all.
WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration was serious enough about manufacturing a high-value platinum coin to avert a congressional fight over the debt ceiling that it had its top lawyers draw up a memo laying out the legal case for such a move, The Huffington Post learned last week.
Silly Jay
Populist= things that are popular with voters.
Popular= things that are popular with billionaires and in DC.
Popular= things that are popular with billionaires and in DC.
Love And Heartbreak Throughout The Centuries
This is how it worked until those millenial losers started showing up on my lawn.
Slate. Find it yourselves.
Slate. Find it yourselves.
Monday, December 02, 2013
Reporters Drive, Too
Yes it is a huge problem that elites - including elected officials - don't take public transit. I understand it somewhat for people who have a town car and driver available 24/7, but quite often in NYC the subway is a superior way to get around relative even to taxis. And who the hell wants to drive themselves?
Not everywhere is going to be Manhattan specifically or NYC generally, but NYC can't be NYC without its transit system. Even Philadelphia couldn't be Philadelphia without its (much more meager, but relatively comprehensive) transit system. There's just no room for all of the parking unless you knock down everything.
It isn't just about providing transportation for non-rich people, it's about understanding that above a certain density of employment and population, you need good transit. Without it you can't have a "nice" urban neighborhood.
This is amplified because reporters don't use transit, either (understandable given their jobs). So many articles about mass transit are written as if it's some weird Yurpean invention that no American has ever previously come into contact with. Even New York's major dailies don't exactly privilege the views and needs of pedestrians and straphangers in their coverage of these issues.
Not everywhere is going to be Manhattan specifically or NYC generally, but NYC can't be NYC without its transit system. Even Philadelphia couldn't be Philadelphia without its (much more meager, but relatively comprehensive) transit system. There's just no room for all of the parking unless you knock down everything.
It isn't just about providing transportation for non-rich people, it's about understanding that above a certain density of employment and population, you need good transit. Without it you can't have a "nice" urban neighborhood.
This is amplified because reporters don't use transit, either (understandable given their jobs). So many articles about mass transit are written as if it's some weird Yurpean invention that no American has ever previously come into contact with. Even New York's major dailies don't exactly privilege the views and needs of pedestrians and straphangers in their coverage of these issues.
Evening Thread
Have a picture of a giant tortoise because there are too many damn cats on the internet.
What's The Point, Fred?
There's a bad situation in Syria. We could bomb the hell out of them for freedom, or we could spend that money taking in the refugees you're pretending to care about.
A Better Deal
It's possible that the full employment fairy might show up one day, unemployment will be down, wages will rise, and the promise of the past 35 years will finally materialize and that rising tide will lift all boats.
But those who have been holding their breaths for the past 35 years waiting for it to happen probably aren't still around because, you know, we gotta breathe. We've moved closer to the breaking point before, with the internet and housing bubbles temporarily granting reprieves. Not sure where the reprieve is going to come from now absent politicians actually starting to reverse the direction of government redistribution. Time for the rich to repay their loan.
But those who have been holding their breaths for the past 35 years waiting for it to happen probably aren't still around because, you know, we gotta breathe. We've moved closer to the breaking point before, with the internet and housing bubbles temporarily granting reprieves. Not sure where the reprieve is going to come from now absent politicians actually starting to reverse the direction of government redistribution. Time for the rich to repay their loan.
Better Cut The Pay Of Active Duty Military Personnel
So we can afford to make more millionaires.
They may see the nation’s capital as “the epicenter of everything,” as one of Dabbiere’s colleagues put it, but they’re not necessarily interested in politics. Rather, they’re creating and selling companies in fields such as biotech, cybersecurity, cloud computing and data mining. If they sell to the federal government, they’re more likely to see Uncle Sam as another client, rather than as a platform to change the world.
In recent years, the Washington area has seen a dramatic rise in “1-percenters,” households that make about $400,000 or more. Their ranks have jumped 65 percent in the past decade, from 32,000 people to 53,000. That growth has spawned a plethora of high-end retail establishments, restaurants that serve $22 cocktails and $110-a-night pet spas with doggie lap pools.
Soaking The Tourists
Car rental taxes are supposed to soak visitors (to the implicit benefit of locals), not soak locals. Car share (maybe under, say, 4 hours at time?) rentals shouldn't soak locals who are generally doing a wonderful thing by not taking up all the free parking that is at the center of most neighborhood politics.
So, yes, carve out some sort exception for car sharing. These kinds of taxes are put into place specifically to charge out of towners some extra money (for better or for worse).
So, yes, carve out some sort exception for car sharing. These kinds of taxes are put into place specifically to charge out of towners some extra money (for better or for worse).
Sunday, December 01, 2013
Droney
CBS's 60 minutes, the PR arm of right wing cranks and Amazon.com, has told us that Bezos claims that in 5 years they will be using aerial drones to delivery packages.
I'm always a bit of a technology skeptic, but here are a few reasons this won't happen:
1) the droney knockout game
2) whirling blades through residential neighborhoods
3) FedEx will have them beat with their 'hot dog cannon' system of package delivery.
4) the droney knockout game
5) the droney knockout game
I'm always a bit of a technology skeptic, but here are a few reasons this won't happen:
1) the droney knockout game
2) whirling blades through residential neighborhoods
3) FedEx will have them beat with their 'hot dog cannon' system of package delivery.
4) the droney knockout game
5) the droney knockout game
Sunday Crass Commercialism
Saw some requests for kitchen-related items. Here's a Le Creuset French Oven.
Thanks to all who click on the links before buying stuff from amazon. Anything you buy after clicking on a link gives a bit of a commission to me. You don't actually have to buy the specific item. And it just transfers from money from Bezos to me, so it costs you nothing.
Thanks to all who click on the links before buying stuff from amazon. Anything you buy after clicking on a link gives a bit of a commission to me. You don't actually have to buy the specific item. And it just transfers from money from Bezos to me, so it costs you nothing.
Where All The Waste Is
Sure defense contractors are robbing us all blind, but we really need to cut the salary of the grunts.
Yes they get food and housing benefits, but the salary of sergeant with 4 years expience is....$30,359. About equal to one of Tom Friedman's Asia trip expense reports I'd imagine.
The point of cutting the pay of military personnel is to ensure there's more money for the contractors, and more money for the post-military salaries of the generals.
Big-ticket weapons like aircraft carriers and the F-35 fighter jet have to be part of any conversation about cutting Pentagon spending to satisfy the mandatory budget reductions known as the sequester. But compensation for military personnel has to be on the table, too — even though no other defense issue is more politically volatile or emotionally fraught.
Yes they get food and housing benefits, but the salary of sergeant with 4 years expience is....$30,359. About equal to one of Tom Friedman's Asia trip expense reports I'd imagine.
The point of cutting the pay of military personnel is to ensure there's more money for the contractors, and more money for the post-military salaries of the generals.
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