Archive for October, 2006
Congressional Numbers Update
With a week to go, the House is a sure thing for the Democrats, but the Senate is harder to call. Polls released in the last few days have given Democrats a boost, but it still doesn’t look like Missouri plus Tennessee plus Virginia equals 2 Democratic Senators. At the moment, it actually looks like [...]
A Penny For the Guy
Happy Halloween, everyone. Over here, the holiday isn’t widely celebrated; instead everyone gears up for Guy Fawkes by buying lots of firecrackers and setting them off all through the night, despite the fact that the November 5th is still nearly a week away. Interestingly, the fireworks here don’t seem to be the sparkly American kind [...]
Bones
A long, long time ago, for a short while, I had HBO. It was then that I caught a few episodes of the first season of The Wire, and it was then that I thought, hey, this is a pretty fantastic show. People ought to be checking it out. I just wanted to note, now [...]
What Good Policy Looks Like, Or Please God Can We Elect a Smart Democrat for President in 2008
To go along with the piece on growth and inequality that I discussed yesterday, TNR publishes an interview that author Jonathan Chait conducts with Robert Rubin and Peter Orszag, two very wonderful economic policy guys. In the discussion, they basically walk a perfect policy line, of the sort that makes you want to do damn [...]
Growth Recriminations
Not long after my short stint in the PhD program began, I was talking to a few other students about our proposed dissertation topics. When I mentioned that mine involved economic geography, another student smiled and noted the faddishness of the theory, how it was the latest, hip notion for explaining the vast differences between [...]
Octember
Please, people. Send us no more Halloween photos. While it’s undeniable that I am the worst Hween party guest ever, having last successfully donned a costume in my early teens, when I went as Sherlock Holmes (interesting fact: dying my hair black renders me completely unrecognizable to everyone, including people who have known and loved [...]
Reflections
English Friend 1: So, are you taking any trips before you go back? R: Well, we’ve been taking a lot of day trips from London, and we’ll probably try to squeeze in a few more. We’re going to Bath this weekend. L: And we might go to Dover. EF 2: What’s there to do in [...]
Minimum Wagers
Ok, I want to get in on this. Ezra’s right that it’s good to reevaluate these things every once in a while. First, two quick quibbles. One, the wage-employment connection may be an article of faith on the right, but it also has a lot of currency with moderate and liberal economists. Two, there may be [...]
Tickle Me Scorcese
Really, is the profanity the worst part about this toy?
Triangle Wants to Ride the Rails
So says this piece in today’s News and Observer, which reports on a survey showing that 80 percent of Triangle residents want improved mass transit in the region and a majority say they would use rail to commute. But here come the blinkered pols: State Rep. Paul B. Stam of Apex said he doubted commuter [...]