Is Austerity a Mistake?
A new paper from researchers at the University of Massachusetts, Does High Public Debt Consistently Stifle Economic Growth? A Critique of Reinhart and Rogo ff, has set the wonk world ablaze by debunking…
Public Square
Tokenism 101
Last week, whether you parked at the 50 Yard Line or rolled on the Informative Avenue, the GOP’s much-vaunted new Latino outreach efforts did not appear to be going well. Even Senator…
April 14, 2013April 27, 2013
Lifestyles of the Rich and Shady
Video: In this animation, see how investors can create companies and trusts in offshore jurisdictions, where an estimated one-third of the world’s worth resides. The Washington Post, April 6, 2013. Oligarchs, politicians,…
April 7, 2013May 5, 2013
Representative sample
Recall the 2009 hullabaloo about how the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, required “four reams of paper” to print, because its length clocked in at “thousands of pages”? While some of this…
March 24, 2013March 24, 2013
The Divine Comedy: Habemus Papam edition
Italy’s recent elections featured the return of legendarily corrupt, thrice-indicted bunga-bunga enthusiast Silvio Berlusconi in a three-way tie with a comedian and a career politician – only a few days before his…
March 17, 2013March 17, 2013
We’re all being trolled
Much has been made over the past few weeks of two of the younger, more attractive members of the Phelps clan publicly splitting with their mother and grandfather, Fred Phelps, and deciding…
March 2, 2013March 3, 2013
The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things: the Unconscious Roots of Conservative Ideology
The ideal of democracy – a well-informed public engaged in good faith in a passionate, yet reasoned debate – has never truly existed. Still, if one removes the qualifiers from the previous…
February 24, 2013May 5, 2013
“Alright then, I’ll go to hell.”
In honor of the publication in 1885 of “Huckleberry Finn,” let’s talk about how ahead of the curve America’s Favorite Ginger Mark Twain was on practically every serious issue facing the country….
February 18, 2013February 18, 2013
The art of selling out
In an op-ed today in the NYT, Lance Hosey makes the pragmatic case for beauty: “Take color. Last year, German researchers found that just glancing at shades of green can boost creativity…
February 15, 2013February 16, 2013
The ‘Wizard of Blogs’
Nick Denton has written precisely one book, a 1996 exposé of the collapse of Barings Bank called “All That Glitters.” It did not perform particularly well commercially, nor did it receive outstanding…