Why to not vote for Coakley

Well, one of the reasons.

Bad Timing by Joe Wilson

Barack Obama continues to lie about Iran. Don't take it from me, read someone with expertise on the Middle East, expertise on nuclear weapons, expertise on the IAEA, and who was right on everything he said about Iraq before the invasion.

Note to Self

Never work at Citigroup. That goes for you, too.

I am Shocked

Can you believe it? Governments are lying to us about a threat, while taking and encouraging actions that increase the threat. Unbelievable.

Yet Again

Not content with merely leaving readers with the mistaken impression that Hoover cut spending, Mr. Krugman now outright lies about it in his Op-Ed from yesterday. Check the real numbers here. This is a key part of his defense of Keynesian economics and the idea that increasing government spending increases prosperity, and it is unequivocally untrue. The man has lost all credibility with me. Can they take back his Nobel?

At it again

Krugman wrote a very good explanation for laymen about his belief that increasing government spending now would be a good idea. I disagree with it, but that's not the point of this post. In the first two paragraphs of the column, Mr. Krugman would have you believe that President Hoover cut government spending, which made the Great Depression worse. He very carefully doesn't say this, but anyone who doesn't know the facts would come away from reading the column thinking that was what happened. Though obviously not on a level with them, this is a lie worthy of the lies the Bush administration told to get us to invade Iraq, where they didn't exactly say lies, but where uninformed listeners/readers would come away thinking falsehoods. For the record, government spending from 1929-1933 (just prior to the Great Depression through FDR's first term) was $3.8bn, $4bn, $4.1bn, $4.3bn, and $5.1bn. Not huge increases, but clear ones, especially in light of the deflationary environment.

Can we Please Bailout on the Bailout?

I was starting to chill on the financial bailout a bit. Partly because it looked like they were improving the plan from frighteningly bad to merely bad, and partly because of just what they were counting on, inertia and laziness. Well, with the changes to the AIG deal that have been made, and the refusal to have transparency in the plan, I am back to being 100% deadset against it. This is straight out corporate welfare, end of regime looting, crony capitalism, banana republic emulating transfers of wealth to the major financial players. I do not trust Hank Paulson or Ben Bernanke; they've used up all the benefit of the doubt that they were entitled to. If you want more in-depth analysis of the economics, Yves Smith has a superb post. More philosophically, go to Waldman. Also, if you have the time (they're both over an hour), Arnold Kling on EconTalk (Talk 1, Talk 2) provides excellent background to the situation; you can benefit from listening to #1, or #2, or both.

I don't know what (if anything) we can do to stop this atrocity from going forward, but please at least take from this that we have to always be extremely skpetical (to the point of being obnoxious) of any expansion of government power.

Flattering Himself

I agree with Krugman that the charts he puts up in this post are interesting and informative. And they do somewhat (but not totally) allay my concerns that inflation is picking up. My guess now is that inflation rises, but not by as much as I previously thought, and comes back down. However, Krugman tells us that he was right all along that deflation should be our concern. I believe I've read all of his columns and posts over the last year, probably even over the last two. He definitely has been an inflation skeptic, but he has never said that deflation should be our concern. Not in public anyway, maybe he made an offhand comment to someone after class or something. If anyone can point out where he has written this, or has audio of it, please point it out and I'll retract this, but until then, Krugman is a lying liar who lies. Also, to be an accurate dick, these charts do not indicate deflation at all, simply less inflation.

Don't say anything

John Cusack interviews Naomi Klein (via Cato-at-Liberty), and I nearly barf. Why does anyone take this woman seriously? Among many other dishonesties/misunderstandings, she actually blames the coup in Chile on Milton Friedman. Really? He was involved in the advising of Pinochet years after the fact, but using that to blame him for Pinochet would be like if Obama becomes President and so we blame him for the Iraq invasion and occupation.

The N Word

No, not that offensive word, the other one. Nationalize. And (I can't believe I'm writing this) I agree with Atrios and Yglesias, et al, but the government should nationalize Fannie and Freddie. Keeping them seemingly private, but socializing the risks, was a recipe for disaster. They should be eventually privatized completely, if not blown up, but for now, take them over.

A lot has happened since I last posted. The Celtics beat the Lakers in the NBA's first 6 game sweep. George Carlin died. There was a ninja scare. And, I came across this, the most awesome 2 voicemails ever. So awesome.

Follow up

I've read some people say that the Fed hasn't bailed out anybody in this deal. Wrong. They have most certainly done so. Not BSC's shareholders, but rather their bondholders. That, and they've gift wrapped BSC's equity for JPM, handing them essentially $10bn. If the Fed was truly a lender of last resort, there wouldn't an issue. Just business. Unless the details change, that's not what's happening here.

Don't try this at home

Or anywhere.

Home State

I've never been so embarrassed to be associated with New Hampshire. Not embarrassed enough to want to be associated with Vermont, but this is bad.