Derek Thompson
Derek Thompson is a staff editor at Atlantic Business, where he writes about economics, business and technology. Derek has also written for BusinessWeek and Slate. You can email him at dthompson@theatlantic.com, or follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/DKThomp.
Recently by Derek Thompson
Feb 9 2010, 4:10PM
The Scariest Employment Graph I've Seen This Year
Feb 9 2010, 1:41PM
How Information is Actually Getting More Expensive
Every year the average American spends $1000 a year on services like cable, Internet and video games. Add another $1000 for cell phone services, writes NYT's Jenna Wortham, and "the average family is spending as much on entertainment over devices as they are on dining out or buying gasoline." Actually, $2000 a year to carry the world in your laptop and your phone could be the low end for real tech junkies.*
Feb 9 2010, 12:25PM
Obama's Bipartisan Dream for Jobs Bill Will Fail
But really, what's the game plan here?
Feb 9 2010, 11:40AM
The Worst Argument About the Dow I've Ever Read
The Wall Street Journal op-ed section has a lot of bad habits, but one of the worst is blaming the White House for every stock market crash. I'm serious. Every. Single. One. And adjusting for typical WSJ nonsense, this is the worst paragraphs I've read in a long time:
Feb 9 2010, 9:45AM
Americans: Still Making No Sense on the Economy?
Feb 8 2010, 4:03PM
Why Did Google Advertise Its Search Engine?
It's worth breaking the question down a bit. Why wouldn't Google want to advertise its main driver of revenue?
Feb 8 2010, 3:26PM
This Is What Our Mandatory Spending Looks Like
This is what it means: the New York Times has created an awesome interactive Flash graph of the president's 2011 budget -- with a button that makes all the mandatory spending disappear so you can see exactly how much Obama's spending freeze is leaving warm.
Feb 8 2010, 1:20PM
Does Information Want to Be Bundled?
Well, most of us actually. If we're unwilling to pay for individual U2 songs or 30 Rock episodes, we're more than willing to pay for the Internet access to download music, and the cable service to watch TV. Perhaps information doesn't want to be free. Perhaps information wants to be bundled.
Feb 8 2010, 11:35AM
It's Obama's Budget ... And Bush's Deficit?
1. If you don't like the prescription drug bill, repeal it.
Feb 8 2010, 10:20AM
What the Super Bowl Ads Say About America
Advertisements are an interesting reflection of culture. To be memorable, you have to shock without offending. That means you have to swim well within the the mainstream but also against the current. Here are the five ad memes I spotted last night:
Feb 8 2010, 9:25AM
Why Polls Make Americans Look Stupid
But I think the article reveals that he's after the wrong culprit for our political and economic malaise. Maybe it's neither the public, nor the pols. Maybe it's the polls.
Feb 5 2010, 2:40PM
How Support for Health Care Spoiled So Badly
Well, it didn't. If you look at the Pollster moving average of health care support and opposition, the story isn't falling approval, but rising dissent.
Feb 5 2010, 12:00PM
What Kind of Tax Relief Would Create the Most Jobs?
Let's compare the pluses and minuses of each plan:
Feb 5 2010, 10:30AM
Debt Ceiling Vote is a Parade of Partisanship
Underscoring how both parties have largely retreated to their respective corners,* the House voted Thursday to raise the government's borrowing authority to $14.3 trillion with no Republican support.I don't like nitpicking newspaper stories for latent bias, but this strikes me as a completely unfair sentence.
Feb 4 2010, 5:45PM
The Mainstream Media Needs Hyperbole to Live
He goes on:The division of readers and viewers into demographically and ideologically discrete micro-audiences makes it easy for interest groups to get scare stories (e.g. "death panels") to the people most likely to be terrified by them. Then pollsters barrage legislators with the views of constituents who, having been barraged by these stories, have little idea what's actually in the bills that outrage them.
It's no exaggeration to say that technology has subverted the original idea of America.
Feb 4 2010, 1:40PM
Bank of America's Fraud Charges are Very Serious
Bank of America agreed to a $150 million settlement with the SEC -- five times the original amount -- the same day New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo slapped the bank with a long-expected lawsuit for concealing crucial information from shareholders. There are three main accusations in the lawsuit. I'll tell you if I think they'll hold up:
1) Before the shareholder vote in December, BofA concealed Merrill's losses from shareholders.
Feb 4 2010, 12:30PM
Obama Should Raise Taxes on the Rich. Here's Why.
Feb 4 2010, 10:40AM
Is Facebook, Not Google, the Real Global Newspaper?
Surely, the answer for most of us is: both. I visit the New York Times' homepage and Google News and blogs, and I also follow the URLs in friends' tweets and email alerts to articles. But I never would have expected that Facebook would actually supplant Google as the premier driver of stories on the Web. It turns out that's exactly what is happening:
Feb 4 2010, 9:35AM
No, More Blogs Would Not Save the New York Times
Five years ago The Times could have bought the best local blogs in New York for a song-- instead, they decided they could do it better in-house, and completely surrendered the 20-40 year old demographic to sites like ours ..."Slavish devotion to originality" is a weird way for a blog to talk about the reporting -- the nourishment -- it needs to survive. Blogs play an important role in journalism by stir frying the news, but it's a derivative role. Good bloggers are like talented collage artists, clipping words and images and assembling them in a way that illuminates something original, for both the author and the audience. But in order to clip, and embellish, and illuminate, and collage, we need ... you know, the news.
But in the paper's slavish devotion to originality and old-fashioned reporting, they've lost their most important civic role, which is being the master curator which tells people in the city what's important each day.
Feb 3 2010, 3:02PM
Obama's Budget Stuck Between a Deficit and a Congress
Feb 3 2010, 11:25AM
Why Democrats Should Pass Health Care Right Away
The poll has generated a pretty vigorous response online.* One way to interpret these results is: It makes no difference, Democrats are hosed. Another way to interpret these poll results is: It makes no difference, Democrats are hosed -- so why not just pass health care reform anyway?
Megan took issue with the latter interpretation:
Feb 3 2010, 10:30AM
What Will Obama's Energy Bill Look Like Without Cap-and-Trade?
That's a fine energy bill. But it's worse than a carbon price.
Feb 2 2010, 4:10PM
White House: Don't Count on Cap-and-Trade
Last year's budget included space for both a health-care reform bill and a cap-and-trade bill. The revenues for cap-and-trade, in fact, paid for a substantial middle-class tax cut. But this year, the budget assumes that health-care reform passes and deletes cap-and-trade -- and the tax cut it would fund in the future -- entirely.
Feb 2 2010, 3:35PM
Who's to Blame for the Music Industry's Free-fall?
This graph tells the story:
Feb 2 2010, 1:20PM
How Obama Should Fight Policy, Politics in the Deficit
Feb 2 2010, 12:10PM
Paul Ryan's Shocking Budget Proposal
There's a bit of a debate about whether Ryan's proposal is so honest it's crazy, or so crazy it's not serious. I think it's extremely serious -- not as a budget proposal, but as a dystopian parable. It's like reading 1984 for the next century, but with graphs.
Feb 2 2010, 11:10AM
Obama is Failing to Defend His Budget
I think he's delivering the wrong message.
Feb 1 2010, 4:30PM
Obama Understands What Deficit Spending Is, Right?
We also continue to lay a new foundation for lasting growth, which is essential as well. Just as it would be a terrible mistake to borrow against our children's future to pay our way today, it would be equally wrong to neglect their future by failing to invest in areas that will determine our economic success in this new century.That sentence doesn't make any sense, does it?
Feb 1 2010, 3:40PM
What Makes a Great Teacher?
Feb 1 2010, 2:20PM
Five Ways Obama's Budget Will Change Education Policy
Feb 1 2010, 12:03PM
Why Obama is Smart to Cut the NASA Moon Plan
President Obama's $3.8 trillion budget for fiscal 2011 doesn't cut very much, but it makes one budget slash that is sure to draw blood from certain constituencies: He's wants to end the NASA moon program and encourage the private sector to pick up the slack.
I know what some critics are going to say about this plan, because they've already said it.
Feb 1 2010, 11:02AM
Why Obama's Job Creation Plan Might Not Work
Feb 1 2010, 10:20AM
Is the 2010 Budget Deficit Really a Record High?
Feb 1 2010, 9:50AM
The Fundamental Problem with a Spending Freeze
--$3.8 trillion overall spending.
--$1.55 trillion deficit in 2010.
--$1.27 trillion deficit in 2011.
I'll be blogging my way through the budget's particulars througout the day, but first I wanted to make a small but important point about a small (but politically important) part of the new budget: The spending freeze on non-security discretionary spending.
Jan 29 2010, 5:25PM
At Today's Republican House Q&A, Obama Was Right
Obama's interaction with Rep. Mike Pence might grab some weekend headlines, but this seemed the most telling exchange to me, with Texas Rep. Jeb Hensarling.
Jan 29 2010, 3:05PM
How Obama's Hiring Tax Credit Could Work -- And Why It Might Not
Jan 29 2010, 12:10PM
Will the iPad Really Revolutionize Textbooks?
Jan 29 2010, 11:24AM
Would Obama Be Better Off Without Bernanke, Geithner?
Jan 29 2010, 10:10AM
GDP Soars 5.7%, But Here's the Chart You Should Look At
The newest NAI report on 2009's fourth quarter is out, and it's not as sanguine as GDP.
Jan 28 2010, 5:20PM
The Worst Sentence in the State of the Union
Families across the country are tightening their belts and making tough decisions. The federal government should do the same.It doesn't make a lot of sense to juxtapose family belt-tightening and federal belt-tightening. It makes even less sense for Obama to suggest that one justifies the other.
Jan 28 2010, 12:40PM
Exporting Our Way to Recovery
So where will the recovery come from? Obama think he knows.
Jan 28 2010, 12:20PM
Why Apple iPad Could Be a Game Changer
Who is supposed to buy the iPad, anyway? What will it offer customers that our smartphones and Kindles can't? And what lucrative opportunities does it offer advertisers and media companies like magazines, newspapers and other websites? To find answers, I spoke with Lincoln Bjorkman, executive vice president and executive creative director of the New York region of Publicis' Digitas, a digital marketing agency. Here is our exchange:
1) The iPad looks awesome, but I doubt I'll buy one. Who will?
Jan 28 2010, 10:20AM
Obama's State of the Union: Strong, But Scattershot
Megan wrote: "Let us not mince words, nor even chop them loosely: most State of the Unions are, well, completely useless." Absolutely right. But in deference to this broad speech, here are five scattershot observations about the State of the Union:
Jan 27 2010, 4:10PM
What Obama Will Say (and Won't Say) in the State of the Union
Here's what I think Obama will say about each of these four topics. Then, to have a little fun, I've amended my pretend-speech-writing to tell you what Obama won't tell America.
Jan 27 2010, 11:59AM
Four Important Statistics About Google, iPhone and Ads
1) Google search accounts for 50 percent of iPhone Web traffic.
Jan 27 2010, 11:40AM
Obama: High-Speed Rail is Fast Track to Jobs
This is in keeping with the White House's articulated jobs strategy. It's not just about jobs now. It's about jobs that last, and jobs that build something that lasts even longer.
Jan 27 2010, 11:06AM
The Lessons of Oregon's Vote to Tax the Rich
Naturally, Washington will be looking for national implications of this vote -- especially since conservative pundits greeted the Massachusetts upset like a deus ex machina. I have two observations.
Jan 27 2010, 9:40AM
NYT's Paywall Could Really Work. Here's Why.
Jan 26 2010, 5:04PM
All in a Day: Spending Freeze Declared. $1.3 Trillion Deficit Announced. Deficit Commission Fails.
The same day Washington grappled with a spending freeze to help fight the deficit -- which the CBO today projected to hit $1.3 trillion -- the Senate voted against the (patently ridiculous) bipartisan deficit commission this morning. The commission wouldn't have worked anyway, but the roll call surprises me: Thirty-six Democrats, and only 16 Republicans voted for the amendment (yes, that's a majority but the special floor rules required a super-majority).
Wait, why only 16 Republicans?
Jan 26 2010, 3:40PM
The Horror of the CBO's 2010 Economic Report
In short, we're trapped.
Jan 26 2010, 11:38AM
The Health Care Bill is Worth Saving
From the beginning, this bill has never been the radical reconstructive surgery that its critics have claimed -- or, perhaps, that it should have been. Our health care system is deeply flawed. The employer subsidy shields health care costs from customers, encouraging us to consume more. The employer-provided care system keeps families from choosing their own coverage, and it forces us to lean on our bosses for health care, even when we want to switch jobs or start own own companies.
Jan 26 2010, 10:30AM
Why Does the Spending Freeze Exempt the Military?
Jan 26 2010, 9:32AM
How Will Obama's Spending Freeze Play in Washington?
Here are five quick questions about the gambit and some answers.
Jan 25 2010, 5:15PM
NYTimes.com Paywall Will Have Some Leaks. Good!
Essentially, it appears that if you come to a Times article via a link, either on the Web or in an email, you will get to read the whole article, and the article won't count against your monthly limit of articles.Leaks? Hardly. For shrewd readers, this is more like building a wall, and then carving out a door that says PUSH HERE.
Jan 25 2010, 4:00PM
Is America Addicted to Information?
Jan 25 2010, 1:10PM
Somebody Else Solve This Deficit Crisis Right Now!
Democratic Rep. Harold Ford has an op-ed in the NYT that calls on Democrats to focus on tax cuts and deficit reduction to grow the economy. The Atlantic Wire samples some liberal commentators who rightly skewer the piece for blithely moving from "More deficit-growing tax cuts!" to "Less deficit-growing!" in four paragraphs, without even pretending to acknowledge the discrepancy. Here are the relevant paragraphs:
Jan 25 2010, 12:13PM
Obama Must Defend Stimulus in State of the Union
Moreover, it turns out that Americans don't like the way Obama focused on job creation. There's a new CNN poll (via Chris Good) finding that 75% of the American people think at least half of the stimulus money was an utter waste. Even though I think this is wrong, I understand where the anger is coming from.
Jan 25 2010, 10:50AM
Is Avatar Really the Biggest Movie of All Time?
The film's worldwide gross is nearing $1.85 billion, which is more than any movie ever released. But adjusted for inflation, Avatar is not the best selling movie of all time. In fact, *going by domestic spending, it's not even close to the top.
Jan 23 2010, 12:33PM
Why Are American Teens Getting So Fat?
This reminds me of a great piece Marc Ambinder wrote last year about what an American obesity policy should do:
Jan 22 2010, 4:10PM
Debt Lies and the Lying Debt Liars Who Tell Them
Jan 22 2010, 1:40PM
Two Myths About Obama's First Year as President
Jan 22 2010, 11:45AM
Coming Soon: Hulu to Charge for '30 Rock'
Jan 22 2010, 10:55AM
Will the Supreme Court Ruling Help Wall St. Fight Obama?
Jan 22 2010, 9:30AM
Why Obama's Bank Plan Will Fail
What's wrong with this idea? A lot, according to my finance compatriot -- heretofore identified as Dr. Gonzo. Below is our Gchat conversation (lightly edited) on the subject.*
Jan 21 2010, 3:17PM
Starbucks Stock Perks Up with Via Sales
Jan 21 2010, 1:05PM
China's GDP Story is America's GDP Story, Too
Retail sales rose 16.9 percent in 2009, as China encourage domestic spending to make up for lost export business during the recession.
But concerns are rising of a growing property bubble in China, fueled by lending which has seen property prices grow 50 percent or more in some cities.
Jan 21 2010, 12:20PM
A Five-Point Plan to Save the New York Times' Web Site
Jan 21 2010, 11:26AM
Did Amazon Open Kindle to Developers Because of Apple?
Jan 21 2010, 10:30AM
11 Ways to Get Americans Back to Work
Jan 20 2010, 4:12PM
Three Reasons a Deficit Commission is Doomed
I've outlined a couple reasons why I think a deficit commission is doomed. But here are three more:
Jan 20 2010, 12:20PM
Will a Jobs Bill Will Be Easier Than Health Care Reform?
Jan 20 2010, 11:40AM
Sen. Judd Gregg Is Not Serious About the Debt
If you want some real talk on the deficit and Washington's harlequin act to fix it, please listen to Daniel Indiviglio. If you want to hear politicians croon utter nonsense about the debt with their fingers crossed behind their backs, please listen to Sen. Judd Gregg.
Jan 20 2010, 11:00AM
In 2011, We'll Pay to Read The New York Times Online
Starting in early 2011, visitors to NYTimes.com will get a certain number of articles free every month before being asked to pay a flat fee for unlimited access. Subscribers to the newspaper's print edition will receive full access to the site.This is the right decision.
Jan 20 2010, 10:30AM
The Next Liberal Cause: Could It Be Education?
Jan 19 2010, 4:00PM
Calorie Counts, Number-Sounds Tweaking Our Appetites
Since calorie counting was mandated in New York City in 2008, nutritionists, libertarians and foodies have watched to see if it changed consumers' appetites and orders. One well-circulated experiment found that the calorie counts had zero impact. Atlantic bloggers Megan McArdle and Corby Kummer debated the implications (Megan's saw her skepticism validated; Corby noted that some companies had changed ingredients under the harsh light of calorie data.)
But this research from NBER, by Bryan Bollinger, Phillip Leslie, and Alan Sorensen, finds that publishing calorie counts can change our incentives after all:
Jan 19 2010, 1:05PM
A Brown Victory Changes Democrats' Economic Agenda
Jan 19 2010, 11:25AM
Who's to Blame for NBC's Late Night Disaster?
Let's start at the beginning. The problem with late night comedy is that it's really neither late night nor comedy.
Jan 19 2010, 10:15AM
New York Times to Charge for Online Content -- Finally
Jan 15 2010, 11:45AM
MichiCaliFlAriVada Foreclosure Crisis Strikes Back
Jan 15 2010, 10:50AM
Could Scott Brown's Victory in Mass. Kill Health Care Reform?
Jan 15 2010, 10:00AM
Study: Nobody Likes "Taxes"
What happens? The second "offset" group not only sprung for the pricier object, but also suggested making the offset mandatory. In Group A, only self-identified Democrats were willing to pay the tax.
What does this mean?
Jan 15 2010, 9:00AM
The Good and Bad of the New Excise Tax Deal
Jan 14 2010, 4:00PM
The Most Amazing Statistic in the World*
Jan 14 2010, 11:30AM
I'm Tired of Populist Rage Against Wall St. CEOs
Jan 14 2010, 10:20AM
Paying to Read News: An Atlantic Gchat Conversation
I was discussing this poll with Atlantic Biz colleague Dan Indiviglio. Rather than write up an officious analysis, I figured it would be easier (and more entertaining!) to simply publish our Gchat conversation, lightly edited. Enjoy.
Jan 13 2010, 4:30PM
The Impact of Google's Threat in China: Day 1
Jan 13 2010, 4:00PM
The Year Entrepreneurship Died
And this is not good news: The number of individuals starting new businesses in the US fell by 24% in 2008 -- that's twice Spain's collapse and four times worse than the UK.
Jan 13 2010, 2:30PM
In Defense of Computers as Procrastination Machines
The Consumer Electronics Show was a veritable parade of thin tablet computers. But are Microsoft and Apple's slate laptops leading a revolution that consumers want, or are they blindly following each other to disaster, like lemmings off a cliff? I know Megan leans toward the lemmings. I've been more optimistic. But now I'm wondering if Farhad Manjoo is right about this:
Jan 13 2010, 12:12PM
Will Passing Health Care Reform Make Obama More Popular?
Jan 13 2010, 11:30AM
Conde's $10,000 Reward for Good Ideas is a Good Idea!
Congratulations, Si Newhouse! Somebody give this guy $10,000!
Jan 13 2010, 10:25AM
Google v. China: The Five Biggest Questions
I had a lot of questions about this story. In the spirit of transparency (seems important for this story) rather than stir fry my own analysis from their thoughts, I'll share my biggest questions about this story, and the answers I've gleaned.
Jan 12 2010, 5:10PM
The Problem with America's New "Small Bank Fetish"
I just wrote a blog post defending a bank tax that could (a) shrink large banks and (b) encourage customers to switch to smaller banks. A very smart acquaintance in finance (who asked that he remain anonymous) took issue with the underlying argument. In our reflexive hatred of Too-Big-To-Fail banks, he said, we've fetishized Too-Small-to-Survive banks. Here is a cleaned-up transcript of our (very interesting!) conversation over Gchat:
Jan 12 2010, 2:57PM
A Good Argument for the Bank Tax
I guess I see the bank tax ideally as something more than the UK's one-off bonus tax, which is designed to fill state coffers in 2010 and disappear forever. If the ideal Bank Tax is something designed to last, something designed to change bankers' incentives, then I guess it doesn't really matter to me that the tax will, in the short term, have the visible effect of helping to pay down our bailout bill.
Jan 12 2010, 12:30PM
White House Gives Up Counting Jobs "Saved or Created"
In January the White House promised to keep a running tally of stimulus jobs. One year later, beset by controversies, mini-scandals and major disappointments, the administration is nixing the cumulative counting in favor of a monthly tally of jobs associated with stimulus projects -- even if the jobs weren't in danger of being "lost" at any point.
This does not look good.
Jan 12 2010, 10:30AM
Blaming Things Not Named Greenspan for the Great Recession
Jan 12 2010, 9:50AM
Facebook Unites Former Gitmo Prisoner and Guard
Brandon Neely, a former Guantanamo Bay prison guard, was new to Facebook and looking up names of old Army acquaintances when he came across the profile of freed Gitmo detainee Shafiq Rasul. Neely sent a message to his former prisoner. Rasul replied and after a few exchanges they reunited in a BBC special that will air tonight.
Just when you start to wonder about Facebook's seedy business strategy, a story like this reminds you of the awesome and unique power of social media sites to help people connect, re-connect and come together in ways that simply have never been possible, ever.
Jan 11 2010, 3:05PM
Bizarre Republican Lies About Obama, Tax Policy
The surpluses of the late '90s were to a significant extent a product of the growth in revenues that came after the capital gains tax was cut. The Democrats' theology--actually economic superstition--prohibits them from renewing the 2003 tax cuts, the looming expiration of which has been a drag on the economy ever since they recaptured Congress.These are two bizarre sentences. The first is merely questionable. The second is a little more pernicious.
Jan 11 2010, 12:30PM
Facebook Does Not Understand the Meaning of Privacy
"In the last 5 or 6 years, blogging has taken off in a huge way and all these different services that have people sharing all this information. People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people. That social norm is just something that's evolved over time.Hold it. The fact that blogging has taken off in the last five or six years is evidence that people like publicly sharing their thoughts about food and politics and Jersey Shore. It does not at all mean that we've gotten comfortable with information we thought was private -- our phone numbers, our drunken photos, our private wall-to-wall chats -- suddenly being upchucked onto the World Wide Web in one messy and meaningless purge of regional networks.
Jan 11 2010, 11:50AM
Why Liberals Should Be Honest about the Excise Tax
[The excise tax] will help control future health care costs without -- I repeat without -- directly taxing employees.That is not -- I repeat, is not -- a very good or honest way to defend the excise tax.
Jan 11 2010, 11:03AM
Why is American Food So Cheap?
Food is cheaper here than almost anywhere else. In 2007, only about 6.9 percent of U.S. consumer spending went for food at home; Germans spent more (11.4 percent), as did Italians (14.5 percent) and Mexicans (24.2 percent). On the other hand, low food prices may contribute to Americans' obesity. In 2006, about 34 percent of U.S. adults were judged obese, triple France's rate (10.5 percent) and four times that of Switzerland (7.7 percent)But why is food so cheap in the United States?
Jan 11 2010, 10:30AM
Esquire's Smart Print Strategy
First, the new stuff:
Jan 8 2010, 3:45PM
The Limits of Incentives in Energy Policy
This pivots off an interblog discussion about whether there are lots of firms passing up profits by not adopting "pollution-abatement" policies, like the ones in the graph below.A renter might notice that his windows are leaky and the refrigerator is old and decrepit--and that all this waste is hell on the monthly electric bill--but he's not going to caulk the windows for a place he'll move out of in a few years. And the landlord, meanwhile, isn't paying the energy bill, so why should he buy a new fridge? No one's behaving irrationally here--it's just that the incentives don't align in favor of efficiency. And a price on emissions wouldn't necessarily fix this. That's why, in some cases, there's a rationale for well-designed regulations in addition to a carbon cap.
Jan 8 2010, 1:12PM
Worst Meme Ever: Obama Wants Health Care Reform Because He's "Greedy"
The public in 2009 would have been happy to see a simple bill that mandated insurance companies offer coverage without respect to previous medical conditions. The administration could have had that--and the victory of it--last winter.
Instead, they were greedy for glory.
What does that even mean?
Jan 8 2010, 11:03AM
The Jay Leno Show Failed Faster Than the Stillborn Pilots It Was Supposed to Replace
NBC has screwed its own reputation handily in the past few years. Knight Rider? Lipstick Jungle? My Own Worst Enemy? These were powerfully horrible shows, and perhaps creative teams responsible for one hundred days of Kath & Kim do not deserve a second opportunity on earth.The Jay Leno Show premiered on September 14, 2009. NBC has decided to axe it after four months. Kath & Kim lasted five months. Knight Rider lasted six months. Lipstick Jungle lasted thirteen months. I guess the future of television is: Fail faster.
Jan 8 2010, 10:30AM
Prosperity and Population
Jan 8 2010, 8:55AM
Is Avatar Bad for Your Health?
Jan 7 2010, 6:20PM
The End of the Jay Leno Experiment
NBC is shutting down the primetime Jay Leno Show and moving their leading chin back to his old 11:30PM slot, TMZ reports. In September I said I wanted The Jay Leno Show to fail. Now it has. This is good news, for everybody.
Jan 7 2010, 5:34PM
Good News for the Young and Unemployed
Jan 7 2010, 4:13PM
Bankers Are Kind of Like Athletes. So What?
Jan 7 2010, 2:30PM
Coming Soon: 3-D Television Without the Glasses
Mitsubishi, Samsung, Panasonic, Sony, and JVC will all be showing off 3-D television products at the 2010 Consumer Electronic Show, which starts today. Sony grabbed the early headlines with three new sets that combine a 3D transmitter and special glasses to bring TV into the next dimension.
My interest in 3-D TV hits a speed bump when I hear about the glasses. It's one thing to wear funny-looking specs in a dark theater where nobody can see you. It's another to invite your buddies over for the football game and worry about having enough chips and dip and special goggles. But what if we could have 3-D TV without the glasses?
Jan 7 2010, 12:25PM
What the 2010 Recovery Needs Right Now
Jan 7 2010, 11:30AM
Why Our Deficit Politics are Broken
Jan 7 2010, 10:40AM
Cell Phones are Good for Your Brain
Jan 7 2010, 10:00AM
Did the Recession Kill America's Car Crush for Good?
Fewer cars and more public transportation would be a perfectly fine development -- for commute times, and the environment, and our dependence on foreign energy, and so forth. But I don't know that this doomsday analysis is entirely fair.America's love affair with the automobile could be sputtering to an end. Some 14m cars were taken out of action in 2009, 4m more than rolled off the assembly lines and onto the roads, a report from the Earth Policy Institute said today.
It was the first time more cars were scrapped than sold since the second world war, reducing the size of the US car fleet from an all-time high of 250m to 246m.
Jan 6 2010, 4:19PM
Google Voice: The #1 Tech Game Changer of 2010?
Jan 6 2010, 3:20PM
Today's Worst List: "Best Job in 2010"
Jan 6 2010, 1:30PM
Tonight's Special: The Microsoft Tablet Computer
Jan 6 2010, 12:58PM
Newspaper Stories are Too Long. Let's Fix Them.
Jan 6 2010, 11:33AM
Lessons from Our Cigarette Policy for Obesity
Jan 6 2010, 10:24AM
2010: The Year of the Newspaper Paywall
I'm interested to watch the paywall revolution for two reasons: (1) The future of online journalism has a not-insignificant impact on my rent money; and (2) I would consider this a good business move even if I wasn't in this business.
Jan 5 2010, 5:08PM
Google v. Apple on Your Phone
Jan 5 2010, 2:55PM
Dubai Opens World's Tallest Metaphor for Hubris
In any case, it's very tall. If you had stacked the WTC twin towers on top of each other, they would have reached only 13 feet higher than the Dubai tower.
This graph from the New York Times is pretty stunning:
Jan 5 2010, 12:48PM
Congress Should Telecommute
But would telecommuting be good for our government? Conor Friedersdorf thinks so.
Jan 5 2010, 10:55AM
In Defense of Apple Tablet Mania
So I disagree slightly with Matthew Yglesias' take that the Apple Tablet mania is just a bunch of hype:
Jan 5 2010, 10:15AM
Should Colleges Focus More on Students' Careers?
One of the nice things about college is that you don't have to plug into a pre-med or pre-law streamline if you don't want to. If you want to study novels for four years, or study philosophy, or learn to write in ancient Greek, you can do that and graduate with the same degree as somebody who's laser-beam focused on turning college into a pre-professional career tutorial.
But in these economic times, with money tight and parents looking harder for a return on investment, schools are feeling the pressure to make college relevant for careers. Is that a good thing?
Jan 4 2010, 3:12PM
The Most Important Economic Statistic of the Decade
Jan 4 2010, 1:40PM
The Apple iSlate Won't Save Journalism -- Yet
Jan 4 2010, 12:30PM
Manufacturing Posts a Huge Month, But Why?
Make no mistake: Growing US manufacturing is good for America. But US manufacturing isn't growing because the economy is strong. It's growing because the dollar is weak.But a separate report showed a decline in homebuilding activity in November pushed construction spending beyond a six-year low.
Jan 4 2010, 12:11PM
The Dangers of Economic Optimism
My bold prediction for 2010 is that the consensus of the forecasters surveyed by the Philadelphia Federal Reserve, which projects the economy will grow only 2.4 percent in 2010, is too pessimistic, perhaps by half.The Menu title of Gross' article is: "The dangers of economic pessimism." The basic idea is that we were too optimistic about the economy in the boom times, and now we're being too pessimistic in the bust. But isn't the much graver danger today in economic optimism?
Jan 4 2010, 11:20AM
Is the Private Insurance Industry Doomed?
Jan 4 2010, 10:23AM
Study: It's More Effective to Advertise Online Than On TV
In other words, the advertising hierarchy goes like this: Print >Online>TV. I hope this is true! After all, online advertising pays my rent. But I can't imagine it is.Every £1 spent on print advertisements yields £5 in revenue, compared with £2.15 for television and £3.44 for online advertising, a study of 26 leading UK retailers found.
Dec 31 2009, 12:20PM
Obama's Most Important Decision of the Year
It was ... the stress tests?
Dec 31 2009, 11:57AM
Will Smart Phones Kill Netbooks? (No. They Won't.)
Dec 31 2009, 9:40AM
"The Single Best Tech Idea of 2009"
Dec 30 2009, 4:20PM
Grading Obama's First Year
Dec 30 2009, 3:27PM
Responding to Doubters of the Cadillac Tax
It's certainly true that the price and availability of insurance coverage has a significant effect on medical inflation. If insurers spend less, doctors and hospitals will spend less. But how much less? The prices that doctors and hospitals charge aren't determined only by private insurance. They're also determined by the availability of government money (which will increase substantially under health reform) and by what individuals feel compelled to pay out of their own pockets (which, in the case of serious illness, can be quite a lot). It's therefore easy to imagine the Cadillac tax squeezing patients between ever-lowering benefits and still-rising prices for medical care.I'm not sure I follow.
Dec 30 2009, 1:30PM
Would Reducing the Minimum Wage Spur Employment?
Some would say that high real wages are part of the problem -- that employers would be hiring more if labor were cheaper. If that's right, public policy so far in this recession seems to have gone in exactly the wrong direction by raising the minimum wage and otherwise increasing employment costs.
Dec 30 2009, 11:40AM
The Sting of Employment
Trouble struck paradise this week when a British man who has the "Best Job in the World" as the caretaker of a tropical Australian island was stung by a potentially lethal jellyfish.Ben Southall -- who won a contest to blog for six months about life on Australia's Hamilton Island to promote tourism -- wrote Tuesday that he was lucky to have survived his brush with the extremely venomous Irukandji jellyfish.
Dec 30 2009, 11:15AM
The Death of the Death Tax (Or: How to Die in 2010)
That's pretty much the grisly theme of this WSJ piece on the estate tax, which takes a one-year vacation in 2010 -- thanks, W! (And Congress!) In a macabre act of inter-generational-kindness, a bunch of old people are trying to time their deaths just right to pass along their untaxed estate to their offspring. How ... sweet?
Dec 30 2009, 10:40AM
Giving the Fed More Power Could Make it Weaker
Dec 30 2009, 9:22AM
What Does the Next Decade of Jobs Look Like?
Actually, tomorrow's jobs picture looks a lot like today's.MR. GREGORY: What, what does a jobs picture look like, even when they start returning?
MS. [ANDREA] MITCHELL: The jobs will, first of all, not be the same kind of jobs, and that links to both immigration and to education.
Dec 21 2009, 1:11PM
Avatar, Healthcare Reform and Our Nyah-Nyah Culture
Dec 21 2009, 11:02AM
The Worst Decade for Stocks Ever?
There's no way to spin this as good news.In nearly 200 years of recorded stock-market history, no calendar decade has seen such a dismal performance as the 2000s.
Investors would have been better off investing in pretty much anything else, from bonds to gold or even just stuffing money under a mattress. Since the end of 1999, stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange have lost an average of 0.5% a year thanks to the twin bear markets this decade.
Dec 19 2009, 12:28PM
Democrats Get Their 60 Votes for Health Care. Now What?
Party leaders reached a deal with Sen. Ben Nelson early Saturday morning on abortion restrictions, giving Democrats a filibuster-proof voting block for the health care reform bill. After suffering through a terrible week (what, with liberals screaming about killing the bill), it now appears that we'll have a health care reform bill on the president's desk by Christmas.
Three interesting points I'm finding as I read through the deal:
Dec 18 2009, 1:50PM
David Brooks' 6 Bad Reasons to Oppose Health Care
Dec 18 2009, 10:35AM
Yes Virginia, Santa Claus Does Violate International Trade Rules
Dec 18 2009, 10:00AM
Ben Bernanke, Person/Firefighter of the Year
Dec 17 2009, 1:02PM
Three Ways to Look at Our Deficit Crisis
This week the admittedly progressive Center on Budget and Policy Priorities weighs in to argue that President Obama didn't create our deficit crisis, but rather inherited it from Bush. Truly I think their conclusion is incontrovertible. And yet ... I have my objections.
Dec 17 2009, 11:40AM
What Would a Dumped Dollar Cost the US?
Dec 17 2009, 10:07AM
Ben Bernanke, Simon Johnson and the "Doom Loop"
Simon Johnson, the crowned prince of Wall St. bashing who was recently named the "public intellectual of the year," is especially concerned with the federal government's implicit promise to back the financial system when it crashes. He argues that this leads to a "doom loop" in which banks are encouraged to bet big, especially on sectors like housing that they know are partially backed by the government. Ben Bernanke, writing to Sen. David Vitter (R., La.), addressed the problem this way:
Dec 17 2009, 10:05AM
Breaking: The Senate is Still Broken
Dec 16 2009, 10:32AM
Liberals Against Health Care Reform Are Nuts
But now there's a groundswell of very prominent liberals -- Howard Dean, echoed by liberal group blogs across the country -- saying we should kill the bill. Why? Because it doesn't have a public option (or a Medicare buy-in). But people, this is a reason to be disappointed, not schizo-kamikaze crazy.
Dec 16 2009, 9:26AM
Google Isn't Making You Dumb. It's Making You Blind.
Dec 15 2009, 12:50PM
What's Wrong with Tying a Carbon Tax to Temperature?
Dec 15 2009, 11:16AM
Why is Google Building a Google Phone, Anyway?
Dec 15 2009, 9:59AM
Producer Prices Jump, But Fed Should Keep Interest Rates Low
I'm not even going to hide the answer behind the jump. It's no.
Dec 14 2009, 2:23PM
Tiger Woods and the Economics of Redemption
The Accenture ad I recall seeing in so many airports is a tall photo of Tiger chipping out of the rough with a slogan: "What you did 10% ... What you do next 90%." Now that "What you did" line practically screams implication. Ditto for Accenture's branded "Go Ahead, Be a Tiger" campaign. So it's no surprise that Accenture is now the most prominent company to drop Woods as a sponsor, and for good reason. Accenture's ads didn't feature Tiger Woods. They were Tiger Woods. And now they're all artifacts of innuendo.A recent issue of Forbes features a full-page ad for the consulting firm Accenture with Tiger Woods striding through tall grass. The tagline reads, "The road to high performance isn't always paved." To which the obvious rejoinder these days is "Sometimes it runs straight into a fire hydrant."
Dec 14 2009, 12:07PM
How to Reverse America's Cooling to Global Warming
The first theory is obviously correct. The second is a bit misleading, and the third strikes me as a bit of a red herring.
Dec 14 2009, 10:50AM
Why the Google Phone is Really About Google Ads
Dec 13 2009, 5:12PM
Our Interview with Paul Samuelson (1915 - 2009)
Dec 11 2009, 3:33PM
The Medicare Buy-In as a Sneaky Back-Door Route To...
What do the health care prophets see? They foretell...
Dec 11 2009, 12:11PM
In Partial Defense of the White House's Schizophrenia
Egregiously moderate economist Brad DeLong is filled with bewilderment:
Dec 11 2009, 9:19AM
Why Avatar Will Be a Huge Hit
Dec 10 2009, 4:33PM
Are You Reading This on Your Phone?
Dec 10 2009, 1:40PM
How the Media Technology World is Like High School
Online, the media world looks just the same. Online magazines with extremely unhip business models all want to be just like the ad-supported TV portal Hulu. But Chad Matlin explains that even the hip Hulu wants to be more than an ad-supported site. It wants to swipe style tips from Netflix or iTunes, where users actually pay for content rather than sit through ads. But guess what? iTunes isn't comfortable in its own skin, anyway. Turns out it wants to take a page from the rebel teen of the music industry Grooveshark and let users save and stream their music online. Everybody is envious. Nobody is happy. Heavens, I miss John Hughes.
Dec 10 2009, 11:14AM
Hey Rich Folks, Fix This Debt With Taxes!
Two- thirds of Americans favor taxing the rich to reduce the deficit [Ed: Including about 50 percent of self-described Republicans. Huh!]Well, the House Republican Whip Eric Cantor promises to cover his ears and scream loudly at the very mention of a tax increase until unemployment is under 5 percent (which means, what, six years at least?). Any other ideas, America?
Dec 10 2009, 10:33AM
How a Newly Independent Aol Plans to Win
Dec 9 2009, 4:55PM
House Subcommitee OKs College Football Playoff Bill
Seriously, this happened.
Dec 9 2009, 4:16PM
And This is Why Congress is Broken
In other words this commission is already trying to walk a tight-rope between sky-scrapers in a hurricane. So you thought Gregg and Conrad would try to find a way to make this easier, didn't you? You were wrong. Instead, we get this:
Dec 9 2009, 1:23PM
Why Do Rich, Fat Men Get All the Girls? It's Science.
Wait. Are you telling me that a 20-pound weight gain could be "compensated" by a 1 percent raise?An additional unit of husband's (wife's) BMI can be compensated by a 0.3%-increase (0.15%-increase) in husband's (wife's) average (predicted) wage. Interestingly, these findings suggest that female physical attractiveness plays a larger role in men's assessment of a woman than male physical attractiveness does for women.
Dec 9 2009, 12:08PM
In Praise of Google's "Living Pages" for Newspapers
It's a cool idea that merges Google's ability to index news with the gravitas you get from major papers like the Post and Times. You can go find a page here, or stick around, check out the screen shot below and we can talk about whether this can work:
Dec 9 2009, 10:55AM
Why Hulu is the Future of Everything
The site just launched, and some pages seem a little thin in content, but I think the idea is right on. In fact, I may or may not be streaming "Bad Romance" on the site while writing this right now. (Don't judge me.)
Dec 8 2009, 3:42PM
The Firing Crisis is Over. The Hiring Crisis is Not.
Dec 8 2009, 2:50PM
Two Problems with a Digital Storefront for Mags
It's official: Conde Nast, Hearst, News Corp, Time Inc and Meredith publishing have joined hands and taken a leap of faith into the terra incognita of ... what exactly? Sounds like the nation's largest magazine publishers are starting something like an iTunes or Hulu for magazines -- a "digital storefront" where readers can find elegant e-zine renditions of their favorite names download them onto any portable device.
I'm all for innovation and experimentation in the media sphere. Search
engine deals? Why not. Pay walls? Let's have 'em. Sponsors and events?
Oh sure. So why am I still confused with this idea? Maybe because it sounds just like ... The Internet.
Dec 8 2009, 1:24PM
Are America's Fattest States Also the Most Jobless?
Dec 8 2009, 12:31PM
Is Obama's Job Creation Strategy Any Good?
Dec 8 2009, 11:17AM
Jobs Stimulus to Lean on Infrastructure and Clean Energy
Dec 8 2009, 10:40AM
On Obama's Mind -- and Ours -- It's Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
So what's surprising about this new CNN poll is that it finds 84 percent of the country still considers our economy in a recession -- and many of them think it's getting worse.
Dec 7 2009, 6:48PM
Breaking: Obama To Use $200 Billion from TARP for Jobs
Dec 7 2009, 5:55PM
Liberals Against Liberals on Climate Change
OK so nothing to see here right? The progressive opinion world's raison d'etre is to carp and make hay to pull public policy to the left. So why are Ezra Klein, Matt Yglesias and Paul Krugman all jumping down this guy's throat like he just published a paper concluding that universal health care would melt Greenland?
Dec 7 2009, 3:23PM
Americans Don't Understand the Public Option! (This is News?)
Well, not really. This is one of those revelations that is newsworthy without being very new. Polling on the public option has long revealed that Americans loved the idea of a government-run insurance program -- until they hear any possible counter-argument. That's because polls aren't good barometers of popular support. They're good evidence that Americans feel perfectly comfortable taking hard stands on ideas they don't totally get.
Dec 7 2009, 2:18PM
Is "Going Green" the Enemy of Climate Change Reform?
That's the take from this really interesting piece by Mike Tidwell in Sunday's Washington Post. He argues that we should drop our eco-fad -- the green peacock on NBC, Vanity Fair's green issue, those toothless "5 Easy Ways to Green Your Office" posters and so on-- and focus on directly appealing to our lawmakers by calling, mailing and Tweeting at them to pass something even stronger than the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill. Hmmm.
Dec 7 2009, 10:36AM
The Awful Politics of the War Tax
But there's a reasonable concern with Obey's specific proposal.
Dec 7 2009, 10:10AM
Case of the Mondays? That's a Good Thing!
But you know. It's the Germans, right? (Doesn't the government pay for shorter work hours, or something?) Actually, it's us too. Americans love our Mondays.
Dec 4 2009, 10:30AM
What the Recession Does to US Environmentalism
Dec 3 2009, 4:23PM
The Breathtaking Narrow-Mindedness of Eric Cantor
Dec 3 2009, 2:15PM
What a Jobs Creation Bill Could Look Like
Dec 3 2009, 1:27PM
Hey Obama, Here are 9 Big Ideas to Beat Unemployment
Beyond the numbers, the jobs crisis is multidimensional. Most importantly, those millions of Americans represent devastated families, broken investments and uprooted dreams for their children. But they also represent devastated consumer demand for products and services, which discourages employers from investing and hiring, feeding a vicious cycle. Politically, high unemployment mocks the White House's hundreds of billions of stimulus dollars and leaves incumbents vulnerable in 2010.
Unemployment in America deserves the White House's attention, which is why I'm cautiously optimistic about today's "jobs summit" where the administration will field advice from economists and public policy experts about how to slay this beast. To that end, I offer this menu of job stimulus ideas for White House fiscal policy with an eye out for pros and cons.
Dec 3 2009, 10:34AM
More Jobs vs. More Debt is No Contest
The Washington Post's Robert Samuelson has some bizarre analysis for the Obama administration on the day of its long-awaited job summit.
This is a weird non sequitur.In the short run, [economist Mark] Zandi doesn't worry about the effects on the federal budget deficit, because borrowing by consumers and companies is so weak. But the perception that the administration will tolerate, despite rhetoric to the contrary, permanently large deficits could ultimately rattle investors and lead to large, self-defeating increases in interest rates.
Dec 2 2009, 3:26PM
The White House Job Creation Strategy Aims Long
Dec 2 2009, 12:08PM
The Stimulus, the War and the War Tax
As a firm believer that we should talk about money when we talk about war, I suppose I should answer that question for myself as well.
Dec 2 2009, 10:36AM
As Murdoch Fusses, Google Vows to Limit Free News
So in ongoing efforts to find alternative sources of revenue, the WSJ's owner, News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch, recently threatened to block of the Journal's stories from Google and enter a unique contract with Microsoft that would give Bing exclusive rights to comb WSJ's content in exchange for an undisclosed payment. Now Google is reacting to the possibly-real, possibly-overblown threat by announcing that it will allow publishers of paid content "to limit the number of free articles accessed through its Internet search engine."
Dec 1 2009, 4:34PM
Hey Obama, Let's Build a Bridge ... To More Jobs
Paul Krugman smells the whiffs of a double dip recession....
Dec 1 2009, 3:05PM
CBO: Stimulus is Working Almost Exactly as Expected
Dec 1 2009, 10:30AM
Will We Pay for the Escalation in Afghanistan?
Nov 30 2009, 4:35PM
Christmas Comes Early for the Amazon Kindle
Nov 30 2009, 1:37PM
All I Want for Christmas is a Decent Almanac of Tax Reform Ideas
But Howard Gleckman reminds me that, even though I'm always game for fresh ideas about reforming the tax system, this report -- like a new universal remote for your home entertainment center -- is going to disappoint a lot of people, no matter what.
Nov 30 2009, 12:40PM
How to Think About America's Deficit
It's not that voters oppose government spending per se, or that they're especially exercised about the deficit itself. What they're really worried about is the economy and unemployment. But because they perceive the government's response to have been ineffective (emphasis on the word "perceive"--I actually think it's been much more effective than [NYT columnist Ross] Douthat does), they see it as worse than no response at all. Some believe the government's response has actually hurt the economy--a reasonable (if completely inaccurate) conclusion if you know very little about economics, given how unprecedented 10.2 percent unemployment is.
Nov 30 2009, 12:30PM
What Does the Senate Bill Do to Healthcare Premiums?
Nov 30 2009, 11:39AM
In Praise of the Jobs Summit (and a Deficit Summit)
This Thursday Obama will host a "Jobs Summit" to brainstorm ideas for job creation. I hope the whole buffet is on the table -- from payroll tax cuts to tax credits for companies who hire to job sharing to direct public works spending.
Nov 30 2009, 10:30AM
A News Corp-Microsoft Bing Partnership Could Work
Here are two stories about a possible Murdoch-Mircosoft deal:
Editor and Publisher: "Microsoft Corp. wants to undercut Google so badly in Internet search that it might pay newspapers to withhold their content from Google."Microsoft is desperate! So desperate that it's willing to cut a deal with publishers that is .. um, actually a very good idea.
NYT: "To earn new revenue from sources other than advertising, online publishers will need the help of gatekeepers like Google and Microsoft."
Nov 26 2009, 10:31AM
Why Are Selective Colleges Getting So Selective?
students used to attend a local college regardless of their abilities and its characteristics. Now, their choices are driven far less by distance and far more by a college's resources and student body. It is the consequent re-sorting of students among colleges that has, at once, caused selectivity to rise in a small number of colleges while simultaneously causing it to fall in other colleges.
Nov 25 2009, 12:54PM
Google, Michelle Obama, Racism and What the Internet is For
All in all, I don't object to what Google did if they're telling the truth. But something about the story makes me feel a little queasy."Sometimes Google search results from the Internet can include disturbing content, even from innocuous queries. We assure you that the views expressed by such sites are not in any way endorsed by Google."
Nov 25 2009, 11:25AM
Taxing Americans For A War In Afghanistan
Well, it would be very expensive, almost impossible to "measure" and widely lambasted by every Republican and most Democrats. But other than that!
Nov 24 2009, 3:35PM
Sixty-Five Percent of Nevada Homeowners Underwater
Nov 24 2009, 12:25PM
Do We Agree that the Stimulus is Working?
The NYT interviewed some economists about the stimulus and found a tentative consensus that the stimulus is helping the economy. Let's look at some graphs:
Nov 24 2009, 11:50AM
Time, Conde, Hearst to Create an "iTunes for Magazines"
But if these publishers want to make money, they can't sell a product (online news) that's already free. Does that mean we're about to see a deluge of paywalls across magazine websites?
Nov 24 2009, 9:56AM
This Map is Bad News for Cap and Trade
HAVE a look at the picture below, put together by Jean-Marie Grether and Nicole Mathys. What we're looking at here are points representing the world's "pollution centre of gravity" (yellow) and it's "economic centre of gravity" (pink). The aim is to demonstrate that economic development in Asia is relatively dirty.
Nov 24 2009, 9:23AM
Revised! Third Quarter GDP Grew at 2.8 %, Not 3.5%
There are two small lessons here.
Nov 23 2009, 4:04PM
Obama to Save Science Education (Good Luck with That!)
Nov 23 2009, 3:13PM
When Do We Get Serious About the Debt?
Evan Bayh wants to get Idea #2 rolling, so he's floated the idea of a Budget Commission: a binding, bipartisan resolution that would (in his words) "force members of Congress to take -- or reject -- a single gulp of politically difficult medicine to treat the fiscal problems that are ailing our country." Matt Yglesias isn't impressed.
Nov 23 2009, 1:09PM
In Health Care, Even Common-Sense Reforms are Hard
[M]aybe the country isn't all that divided -- most of us would welcome common-sense improvements in health-care delivery and insurance -- but the system feeds on and exacerbates our differences.Stop right there. Would most Americans "welcome" common-sense improvements in health-care delivery and insurance? No way.
Nov 23 2009, 11:50AM
Is Murdoch's Bid to Join Bing and Ditch Google Doomed?
Nov 23 2009, 10:30AM
Barnes & Noble Nook is Sold Out Already? Hmmm.
I suppose that's unarguable -- it is a little embarrassing to sell out the Monday of Thanksgiving week -- but this story presents two silver linings for B&N.
Nov 20 2009, 3:19PM
How Inaccurate GDP Figures Can Lead to Inflation
Nov 20 2009, 12:59PM
Are Fat People Good for America?
So there's this Wall Street Journal column about how we should be nicer to obese people because Winston Churchill was pretty fat, and he did a good job during World War II, and where would we be without Alexandre Dumas' chubby little fingers and Catherine the Great's heft, and so on. It took me a while to see that the piece was written by Joe Queenan, a satirist, and was not meant (I think?) to be a terribly weighty contribution to the obesity-in-America discussion. But I think it inadvertently raises an important point. Those historical fatties were mostly really rich.
Nov 20 2009, 10:40AM
Obama Flubbed His 1st Stimulus. Can He Pass a 2nd?
Nov 19 2009, 4:59PM
Can We Kill Unemployment With 1000 Paper Cuts?
Nov 19 2009, 4:20PM
House v. Senate: Who Should We Tax for Health Care?
Nov 19 2009, 1:20PM
November's Unemployment Rate in 2010 (...and 2012)
Nov 19 2009, 12:43PM
Geithner, Republican Congressman Clash Over Bailout
Treasury Sec. Tim Geithner, speaking at a Joint Economic Hearing, got into a quite the tizzy with Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX). On one level, it's just two guys yelling at each other. On another level, it's a glimpse at why an idea as basic as "We should reform our profligate banking system" can break down when you run it through the political sausage factory.
Nov 19 2009, 12:17PM
Sometimes, the Majority of Americans Are Really Stupid
51 percent believe canceling the rest of the stimulus money would create more jobs.That is insane.
Nov 19 2009, 11:11AM
The Apple Tablet: Not Dead Yet!
So screams PCWorld about the machine that some suckers (OK, me included) predicted could transform the market for netbooks, e-readers and all-in-one devices in one fell swoop. Less hysterically, BusinessWeek points out that the device is merely delayed until the second half of 2010. Rumor is the delay is all about cutting costs for the screen technology, which was slated to add $500 to the final cost, while Apple wants the product to sell for as close to $1000 as possible.
Nov 19 2009, 10:57AM
AOL To Lay Off a Third of Employees. Then What?
Nov 19 2009, 10:20AM
Will Obama's "Jobs Created" Debacle Hurt the Next Job Stimulus?
But what is the WSJ getting at exactly? Just because the first round of stimulus hasn't been an efficient job creator doesn't mean we don't need another round of job-creating stimulus.
Nov 18 2009, 4:30PM
Would Cap and Trade Persuade China To Reform?
According to Edward L. Glaesar, a Harvard economics professor, that's precisely why passing a climate change bill is so essential. It's not about the policy. It's about sending a message.
Nov 18 2009, 12:15PM
Can You Sue Me If I Lie on Twitter?
Nov 18 2009, 11:14AM
Economists Gang Up on House Health Care Bill, Praise BaucusCare
Here are the economists' four recommendations, unedited.
Nov 18 2009, 10:28AM
$98 Billion: Embarrassing Wasteful Spending for White House
How did this happen?
Nov 17 2009, 4:33PM
Merrill Lynch, Vindicated?
Nov 17 2009, 3:53PM
Don't Blame Goldman Sachs. Don't Blame Us. Blame the Meltdown.
Nov 17 2009, 3:00PM
Immigration: Good for Productivity, Good for Wages
Nov 17 2009, 12:00PM
Time to "Unfriend" Oxford's Word of the Year?
Nov 17 2009, 10:46AM
Producer Prices and Industrial Production Disappoint Analysts
Nov 17 2009, 10:15AM
Is Google the Next AT&T?
Nov 16 2009, 3:38PM
Ben Bernanke's Double Talk on the Dollar
Nov 16 2009, 2:34PM
Should We Try to Make More Public or Private Sector Jobs?
Nov 16 2009, 12:00PM
Don't Blame Obama for Climate Change Failures
Nov 16 2009, 11:24AM
Obama's Agenda, Held Hostage By Jobs
I think this is right, but I'd add that it's also hard to imagine any legislation that the GOP won't attack as "job-killing" unless it's a bill explicitly designed to create jobs, in which case the GOP will attack as "budget-killing." It's a crowded hostage room.It's hard to imagine any legislation that might be attacked as "job killing" -- like the Employee Free Choice Act, immigration reform or even cap-and-trade -- finding traction in Congress next year. This means that the broader Democratic agenda is essentially a hostage to the unemployment numbers.
Nov 16 2009, 10:50AM
Retail Sales Up, But Where Are the Consumers?
But how about that good news!
Nov 13 2009, 4:16PM
Rock Music, Oil Production and Causation Fallacies
Nov 13 2009, 2:38PM
Why are Consumers Down if Production is Up?
Nov 13 2009, 12:59PM
Maybe Unemployment Doesn't Matter for Democrats, After All
Nov 13 2009, 11:22AM
Could Job Sharing Help Fight Unemployment?
Nov 13 2009, 10:22AM
Y2K's Lessons for Health Care, Climate Change
Nov 12 2009, 5:50PM
Australia's Wine Industry in Crisis. Seriously.
Nov 12 2009, 2:42PM
Two-Year Itch: Unemployment Benefits Hit 99 Weeks
This statistic is tragic, and it has short and long term implications for our economic policy and our national identity.
Nov 12 2009, 1:06PM
America's Fundamental Problem, in a Sentence
The country faces a fundamental disconnect between the services the people expect the government to provide, particularly in the form of benefits for older Americans, and the tax revenues that people are willing to send to the government to finance those services.
Nov 12 2009, 10:02AM
White House to Use TARP to Fight the Debt
Nov 11 2009, 4:14PM
10 States Hurtling Toward California-Level Disaster
Nine more states are "barreling toward an economic disaster" according to a new Pew poll that sees deep service cuts and temporary tax hikes to avoid fiscal calamity. Some of these states will be familiar to Atlantic Business readers. I've been leading the funeral cry for the united states of MichiCaliFlAriVada (that's Michigan, California, Florida, Arizona and Nevada), and all five states are on Pew's list. Rounding out the ten are Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin. Here's the graph from the Pew Center on the States:
Nov 11 2009, 3:30PM
Jeffrey Sachs on Obama's "Inadequacy"
Nov 11 2009, 12:50PM
No Unemployment Recovery Until 2013
Nov 11 2009, 11:30AM
Could You Balance the Federal Budget?
The Budget Challenge game at FederalBudgetChallenge.org puts next year's budget in your hands and tallies the budget implications of your chosen policies. More helpfully, the folks at FBC include a sidebar that explains some of the consequences of each measure. Obviously the game isn't an all-inclusive menu of spending and tax options -- and balancing the federal deficit during the rump of a recession is a long-term project rather than a check-off list for a single fiscal year -- but it's an interesting game, nonetheless.
Nov 11 2009, 10:48AM
Should We Listen to Murdoch's Google Threat?
That's my take, too. Here's one small reason why.
Nov 10 2009, 4:56PM
Scary Charts! What Do They Mean?
Nov 10 2009, 3:45PM
Health Reform "Heavy on Health and Light on Reform"
I like Rahm Emanuel's line a lot:
Nov 10 2009, 1:02PM
The University with the Best Media Buzz Is ... (Not Harvard)
Let's take a look at these rankings and decide whether they mean anything.
Nov 10 2009, 11:56AM
Is the Jay Leno Experiment Imploding?
-- NBC has lost 1.8 million viewers in the with the Jay Leno experiment (down 45%)
-- CBS has lost 162,000
-- ABC has gained 245,000
Worse, NBC's 10PM advertising rates are down as much as 70 percent:
Nov 10 2009, 10:39AM
How to Get Free WiFi in Airports on the Holidays
But wait! Some key cities -- including Chicago, New York and Washington, DC -- aren't on the list. Is there another way to finagle free Internet from the terminal?
Nov 9 2009, 4:35PM
Should We Tax Soda and Fruit Juice?
Nov 9 2009, 2:53PM
The Bad Politics of Health Care Reform
Nov 9 2009, 1:14PM
Why Google's AdMob Buy is Smart
Nov 9 2009, 11:52AM
Why is America So Bad at Job Stimulus?
Nov 9 2009, 10:45AM
Are Wages Rising?
Nov 6 2009, 3:17PM
Hey Obama, We Need a Job Stimulus, Now!
"When the economy's not strong there's a lot of interest in controlling spending," Nelson said.
Oh hi, Republican Rep. Paul Ryan. What's it like inhabiting the body of Sen. Nelson?
Nov 6 2009, 12:30PM
The Meaning of 10.2% Unemployment
Nov 6 2009, 12:15PM
You Get a Tax Credit! You Get a Tax Credit!
TaxVox, a Tax Policy Center blog, sighs that this extended tax credit, which follows on the heels of Cash for Clunkers, a credit for car swaps, presages a future in which tax credits are handed out like cars on a special episode of Oprah.
Nov 6 2009, 11:41AM
Leave the Deficit Hawks Alone! (Some of Them, Anyway)
Slate's biz man Daniel Gross delivers an ornithological smackdown to Washington's flock of deficit hawks. It is very amusing! It is also, like the morning bird who starts chirping outside my bedroom window around 6AM every morning, prematurely and cloyingly cheery. Chirp away, Mr. Gross...
Nov 5 2009, 3:31PM
Who's the Boss on Health Care? (You Are, Boss!)
Nov 5 2009, 11:53AM
Three Reasons to Support a Soda Tax
Nov 5 2009, 10:40AM
Why Verizon's Droid Falls Short
If we don't yet have a true iPhone Killer, at least we have a serious iPhone competitor in the new Motorola Droid. NYT's David Pogue gushes:
Nov 4 2009, 4:47PM
The Recovery Will Be Worse Than You Think
Nov 4 2009, 2:57PM
The Good and Bad of Tax Credits for Clunkers, Homes, Etc
Nov 3 2009, 1:30PM
Sick? Work at Home. Your Colleagues Will Thank You!
Nov 3 2009, 12:22PM
Would You Pay $199 for a Twitter-Only Device?
But I hope we can at least agree on this: A new $200 mobile device designed exclusively for Twitter and nothing more is a hilariously bizarre idea.
Nov 3 2009, 10:40AM
Is US Manufacturing Growing?
Oct 29 2009, 3:59PM
Why 3.5% GDP Growth Is Not Sustainable
Oct 29 2009, 2:55PM
Should Health Care Tax Rich Income or Rich Plans?
Oct 29 2009, 10:59AM
California Gets Closer to Passing Marijuana Law
Dude, that is some seriously good stuff. But seriously, legalizing pot is a good idea for California.Legislation to make California the first state to legalize marijuana for recreational use lit up a Capitol committee hearing Wednesday with three hours of lively but mellow debate.
No joint consensus was reached.
Oct 29 2009, 9:48AM
GDP Up 3.5%, But Don't Be Too Optimistic
Oct 28 2009, 5:03PM
Obama's Pander to Seniors Is the Wrong Stimulus
The buying power of Social Security checks could increase with next year's deflation even without the extra $250. Moreover, to stimulate the consumer economy, you want to put money in the hands of the people most likely to spend their next marginal dollar, and unemployed people are most desperate for cash. Using that $14 billion on extending unemployed benefits (something Congress is debating) would almost certainly be best idea for stimulating the consumer economy as it emerges from the slog.
Oct 28 2009, 3:10PM
The 20-Year Decline of Newspapers, in a Graph
Oct 28 2009, 2:35PM
The Best Health Care Reform is Impossible
I also believe the administration has done a poor job of addressing what I think is the biggest problem with the American health case system: It costs too much for what we get. We spend in total twice as much of our gross domestic product on health as most other major countries without getting much in return for the extra spending.Hey, that reminds me of something!
Oct 28 2009, 12:30PM
The Excise Tax Wants to Make You Rich!
Oct 28 2009, 10:44AM
Can France Save Newspapers by Giving Them Away?
Oct 27 2009, 5:10PM
What We Need to Know About the Crash
1) What did the banks' corporate boards know, when did they know it, and what did they divulge to their shareholders?
Oct 27 2009, 3:07PM
SuperFreakonomics Author: "Your Job is to Attack Us."
Stephen Dubner, co-author of Freakonomics and the new SuperFreakonomics, was prodding the Monday night audience at the Washington Post Conference Center in Washington, DC. A forest of hands sprung from the seats. "Maybe I should rephrase," said co-author Steven Levitt, an economist. "How many people don't wash their hands." Two young men raised their arms in mock pride. Audience members alternatively chuckled and grimaced, but Levitt turned the joke on them.
"We know that a whole bunch of you are lying," he said. Studies show as little as 9 percent of men really, truly wash their hands. The audience laughed again, this time with a hint of discomfort (nine percent?). And in a moment, we had a microcosm of the night's three lessons: People lie. Conventional wisdom is asking for it. We should all laugh more about economics.
Oct 27 2009, 12:20PM
SuperFreakonomics Authors Take Heat on Global Warming
The night's only question on climate change came from a young man at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a non-profit that wrote this long blog critique of SuperFreakonomics. He acknowledged the two sides' differences and asked the authors to help clear the air and work toward a common understanding of climate change. Dubner took the response, which crescendoed from a sound discussion of carbon dioxide basics to surprisingly defensive repudiation of the question.
Oct 27 2009, 11:20AM
Extend Jobless Benefits Now!
Oct 27 2009, 10:35AM
Health Care, Cost Control and Sneakiness
Single-payer national health insurance may be the best outcome, but we should get there after an honest debate, not through the back door. (my emphasis)I didn't like that sentence for two reasons. (1) The country has spent the last six months debating health care reform in town halls, Congress halls, cable shows, morning shows, blogospheres, and dining rooms. I just don't know what "honest debate" Hiatt holds his breath for; (2) What's wrong with a little sneaky public policy?
Oct 26 2009, 5:30PM
Fred Hiatt Should Read the Health Care Bills
First he criticizes the Democrats for not trying to tax employer-provided insurance plans, but he doesn't mention the phrase excise tax. That is weird, because the excise tax in the Senate Finance bill is a tax on employer-provided insurance plans. Hiatt is permitted to think the tax is too small, or unlikely to survive a vote, or likely cause popular backlash. But he's not permitted to write as though it doesn't exist.
Oct 26 2009, 3:50PM
The Curious Case of Bruce Bartlett
Bruce Bartlett said that. The guy who spearheaded Ronald Reagan's tax cuts. The guy who wrote a book called The Supply-Side Solution in the 1980s. He said that, and what's more, he's been saying it for three years since he predicted the Republicans would walk the country toward economic ruin in the 2006 book Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy. What is he saying now?
Oct 26 2009, 1:10PM
The Swiss Army Knife Theory of Technology
I called this the Swiss Army Knife Theory of personal technology. I wrote:
Oct 26 2009, 12:00PM
How Big Banks Keep Their Biggest Customers
Oct 26 2009, 10:57AM
What Happens to Health Care (and Obama) after Reform?
If the Massachusetts experience is any guide, health care reform will have broad public support once it's in place and the scare stories are proved false. The new health care system will be criticized; people will demand changes and improvements; but only a small minority will want reform reversed.I think it's more complicated than that.
Oct 23 2009, 3:15PM
Taking the Long View of the Stimulus
Oct 23 2009, 11:45AM
Where is the E-Reader Revolution Leading Us?
Amazon.com is putting out a free application that lets people read Kindle electronic books on their Windows personal computers. Microsoft demonstrated the new Kindle for PC app at the Windows 7 launch in New York City. It's the latest move by Amazon to extend its vast store of electronic books, magazines and newspapers to other devices beyond its Kindle readers.The company is expected to expand Kindle book access to Macs and BlackBerrys in the next few months. Now I've followed the smoldering e-reader revolution for a while now, but something is only now coming into focus.
Oct 23 2009, 10:42AM
What Comes After Health Care?
Oct 22 2009, 5:10PM
White House Bad News: Stimulus Effect Will Stall in '10
Oct 22 2009, 1:06PM
Why is Google Afraid of Bing?
Oct 22 2009, 11:45AM
This is What the Recovery Looks Like
The picture is coming into focus. The recovery will look less like a double-dip "W." The leading indicators are too good. It will look more like a limp "L" -- like watching a JV kid throw a bounce-pass with a really deflated basketball.
Oct 22 2009, 11:15AM
Evidence that the Jobless Recovery is Here
How many bad records are being set in this recession?
Oct 22 2009, 10:05AM
For 1st Time, NYT Makes More from Readers than Ads
Oct 21 2009, 4:13PM
Which Magazines Won in the Mag-Apocalypse?
Who won the year?
Oct 21 2009, 1:50PM
How to Create Jobs: Tax Credit v. Payroll Tax Holiday
Oct 21 2009, 11:47AM
Is Google Building an iTunes-Killing Music System?
Oct 21 2009, 10:05AM
One More Time: Health Care = Wages
Oct 21 2009, 10:00AM
Why Democrats are Smart to Call Public Option "Medicare"
But look! Commenter "mgoodfel" wrote under my article: "You could call it Medicare." Ding! What do we have for the winner?
Oct 20 2009, 5:04PM
Barnes & Noble Nook Looks Like a Kindle-Killer
Oct 20 2009, 2:59PM
Texas Leads the US in Thrice-Married Adults
Our Richard Florida has the stats here and Catherine Rampell has a nice summary at Economix, but I wanted to pull up what I thought were the three most interesting factoids from this survey.
Oct 20 2009, 1:10PM
Is Global Warming Bad for American Business?
Oct 20 2009, 12:41PM
Is Foursquare the Future of Friendship, or Just Dumb?
Is this a dumb idea or a really good way to check if your friends happen to be a few blocks away? I wasn't sure myself, so I debated the issue with Government Executive's Madeleine Kennedy, who alerted me to the article. Here's a transcript of our conversation:
Oct 20 2009, 9:59AM
WaPo: The Public Still Loves the Public Option
Oct 20 2009, 9:15AM
Why Do Girls Fall Behind Boys in Math?
Oct 19 2009, 6:43PM
Apple's Record Quarter Silences the Doubters (...Me)
In the last few months, I've found a few reasons to rag on Apple. Its computers are too expensive for consumers who only need netbooks. The iPhone risks being overtaken by a suite of free products that allow cheap calling and streaming music. So much for all that. I'd say the moral here is: Don't bet against a company whose products you own and love. For FTC purposes, I'll stop right there.
Oct 19 2009, 4:45PM
Wanted: Real Ways to Fight Unemployment
Oct 19 2009, 12:01PM
Tax Goldman Sachs!
Krugman's frustrated and so am I. We spent hundreds of billions of dollars to save the banks in order to save the economy. But one year later, as Goldman gets ready to pay its largest bonuses ever, it seems we've succeeded mostly in saving the banks who are best at making profits while the economy continues to sputter and our deficit continues to re-write its own Guinness Record. Can we fix this by just, well, taxing Goldman Sachs a lot?
Oct 19 2009, 11:15AM
What the Associated Press Got Wrong
The last line of that AP piece about the stimulus and education jobs is:
Critics blame much of the deficit on anti-crisis measures, including the stimulus package.
That's a pretty rotten sentence. It's technically true -- yes, some critics are blaming the deficit on the stimulus -- but it's substantively false. It doesn't make sense to blame the deficit on the stimulus, as this NYT article explained in a very easy to read graph:
Oct 19 2009, 10:45AM
250,000 Education Jobs: Good News for White House
Last week the White House reacted to another report that the stimulus saved or created 30,000 jobs in the private infrastructure sector. Even if that number seems a little low, it makes sense that the stimulus is creating/saving far more jobs in education that the private sector.
Oct 16 2009, 3:31PM
Why Did Bank of America Post a Billion-Dollar Drop?
A week after JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs announced their stupendous third quarter results, Bank of America, tail between its legs, announced this morning that it lost more than a billion dollars due to lingering weaknesses in the consumer credit market. The downside of being the nation's largest consumer bank, as BofA is, is that your profits are somewhat tethered to the health of the general economy, which, even emerging from a recession, is still in critical condition. I think these paragraphs by Noam Scheiber make an excellent point:
Oct 16 2009, 2:40PM
How Can We Improve Our Math Scores?
Oct 16 2009, 11:43AM
Florida's Fearsome Foreclosure Funk
Oct 16 2009, 10:15AM
Writedowns, Blocked Pay Make Rough Day for BofA's Ken Lewis
Oct 15 2009, 3:40PM
"Saw": Most Successful Movie Franchise of All Time?
Oct 15 2009, 2:45PM
Is the Public Option Staging a Comeback?
Oct 15 2009, 12:10PM
Stimulus Saved 30,000 Jobs. Is That Terribly Low?
Oct 15 2009, 11:10AM
What's Up with The Daily Beast's Advertising?
How about some advertising?
Oct 15 2009, 10:32AM
Climate Change Reform Will Be Tougher than Health Care
Oct 14 2009, 5:59PM
At 10,000 the Dow is Soaring, But the Economy is Slogging
Oct 14 2009, 4:30PM
The Stimulus Has Barely Started. Is That Good?
On that issue, Atlantic Biz colleague Megan McArdle goes head to head one of my favorite business writers, Daniel Gross of Slate. Megan's point strikes me as a good one:
Oct 14 2009, 3:30PM
Why Can't Tech Writers Write About Facebook?
Today an MSNBC article about poking run under the sub-headline "Plenty of Facebookers would like to see this obsolete function outlawed." As you might expect, the article quotes exactly zero poke haters. How is it so hard to find a source that you've promised in the dek? Instead we get this hilarious paragraph:
Oct 14 2009, 2:10PM
Cash for Clunkers Hurts, Doesn't Kill September Retail
Oct 14 2009, 11:25AM
What Will Bloomberg Do with BusinessWeek?
Oct 14 2009, 10:30AM
Google Wave Live Typing is a Fatal Flaw
Oct 14 2009, 9:50AM
Is VAT Something You Might Be Interested In?
To answer that question, the Atlantic's Clive Crook tracks down this Washington Post column by Henry Aaron and Isabel Sawhill called Bend the Revenue Curve. Crook is right: This is a really great column:
Oct 13 2009, 4:00PM
NYT Metro Cancels All Print Subscriptions. Let's See What Karma Has to Say About That
Oct 13 2009, 3:35PM
If "The Public Option" Stinks, Can We Do Better?
Oct 13 2009, 1:25PM
In White House v. Fox News War, Who Wins?
In the White House vs. Fox News war, I consider two scenarios likely. In the first scenario, both sides win: the White House gets a popularity spike among independents and Fox News solidifies its right-wing audience. In the second, more likely scenario, the White House looks petty and pathetic taking on Glenn Beck, and Fox News comes out on top. The other two quadrants of the game theory box -- (1) Fox News loses, White House wins; and (2) mutually assured destruction -- seem less likely.
In short, Fox News has nothing to lose here.
Oct 13 2009, 11:28AM
Can E-ZPass Save Your Baby's Life?
At least that's the conclusion of this study that found
reducing congestion and emissions through the E-ZPass system, premature births dropped 10.8% and instances of low birth weight declined 11.8% for mothers within two kilometers of the toll plaza.Seems a little dramatic, no?
Oct 13 2009, 10:44AM
What Will We Learn From BofA's Legal Documents?
Oct 13 2009, 10:13AM
In Tennis for Rivals Geithner, Summers, It's Love-Love
"Larry was an outstanding debater, and an outstanding debater is someone who thinks of a question from both sides." He added, "Larry does sometimes interact with people in a debating format, and expects them to reciprocate and to be able to engage in an intellectual tennis match."Actually, The New Republic's Noam Scheiber writes, he likes engaging in literal tennis, too.
Oct 9 2009, 4:30PM
City Incomes Are Catching Up to the 'Burbs. Why?
Oct 9 2009, 2:55PM
It's Official: Hummer's Going to China
Oct 9 2009, 1:50PM
Bloomberg To Fire the Entire BusinessWeek Staff?
Bloomberg LP remains the front-runner [to buy BusinessWeek], although the company is expected to only take on the BusinessWeek name and Web site, and none of its staff or bureaus.What?! Bloomberg is going to fire everybody?
Oct 9 2009, 12:42PM
What the Next Stimulus Could Look Like
Oct 9 2009, 11:30AM
It's Not Just the Mancession. It's the She-Covery.
Oct 9 2009, 10:40AM
Growing Mustaches to Grow the Economy. It Works!
Oct 9 2009, 9:57AM
The Public Plan Lives! Until the States Kill It
I think I like this idea.Senate Democrats have begun discussions on a compromise approach to health care reform that would establish a robust, national public option for insurance coverage but give individual states the right to opt out of the program. ...
Oct 8 2009, 4:40PM
Senate Plans to Extend Jobless Benefits in Every State
Oct 8 2009, 12:08PM
A College that Pays You Not to Attend
Student matriculation in 2008 was extremely low, so Ithaca lowered its standards and sent out more acceptances this spring. But a higher percentage of kids accepted a place, and now the school's stuck with 300 more kids than it wanted without having room for all the extra bodies. It's like a desperate wannabe mom taking a fertility drug and having four times the children she expected. So you see, Ithaca is kind of like the Octomom of the American colleges.
Oct 8 2009, 11:09AM
Good Economic News in Jobless Claims, Inventories, Retail
Oct 8 2009, 11:07AM
Building a Republican Bill Clinton, Cont.
My initial take was that this zero-promises/zero-fun platform would be about as popular as selling broccoli to a Kindergarten class, and I came up with two more suggestions. Then US News blogger Matthew Bandyk found my list and thought of four more. Crowd-sourcing is fun!
Oct 8 2009, 10:20AM
CBO Report Reveals an Un-Radical Health Care Bill
Oct 7 2009, 4:47PM
CBO: The Baucus Bill Bends the Cost Curve Down
All told, the proposal would reduce the federal deficit by $12 billion in 2019, CBO and JCT estimate. After that, the added revenues and cost savings are projected to grow more rapidly than the cost of the coverage expansion. Consequently, CBO expects that the proposal, if enacted, would reduce federal budget deficits over the ensuing decade relative to those projected under current law--with a total effect during that decade that is in a broad range between one-quarter percent and one-half percent of GDP.
Oct 7 2009, 4:45PM
Washington, DC, Leads Nation in Being Green, Hating Hitler
Oct 7 2009, 4:06PM
Pelosi Open to a Value-Added Tax
Here's the Pelosi exchange on the Charlie Rose show:
Oct 7 2009, 3:02PM
Would a Payroll Tax Holiday Create Jobs?
Oct 7 2009, 1:17PM
With Sales Chief Out, Does GM Know Where It's Driving?
Oct 7 2009, 11:50AM
The Secret Plan to Build a Republican Bill Clinton
But some Republicans thinking long-term about 2012 are seeing flashes of 1992, when a smooth triangulating moderate Democrat named William reinvented his party as the country emerged from a recession. What would it take to build a RepubliClinton?
Oct 7 2009, 10:05AM
AT&T Allows Internet-Calling on iPhones (Finally!)
But today AT&T announced it will finally allow users to download Skype and other programs that offer cheap, internet-based calling on its 3G network. This announcement comes about 24 hours after Verizon announced a significant partnership with Google to develop smartphones with Google Voice and internet-calling. Competition! Capitalism! It's all happening.
Oct 7 2009, 9:20AM
How Can Obama Bring Down Unemployment?
Max Fisher at the invaluable Atlantic Wire harvests some ideas from around the web: More money for the states; more public works projects; more stimulus; more small business loans; a payroll tax holiday for everybody(!). Some of those sound politically unfeasible (there will be no second stimulus) or insufficient (small business loans and public work projects) or a little too left-fieldish (payroll tax holiday). But I like the idea of relying on the states.
Oct 6 2009, 3:30PM
Health Care Reform Is All About the Deficit
Oct 6 2009, 2:33PM
Why the Verizon-Android Deal is Big for Google
Oct 6 2009, 12:32PM
Bobby Jindal's Terribly Bizarre (But Not Terrible) Healthcare Op-Ed
Oct 6 2009, 11:30AM
Should We Teach Kids How to Google?
But I wasn't expecting him to touch on education. And what he said made a lot of sense.
Oct 6 2009, 10:45AM
Facebook Wants to Know How Happy We Are. Gross.
Oct 6 2009, 9:45AM
The Case Against the Case Against Sin Taxes
For me, both were phases, but during my libertarian days, one of my favorite writers about science and public policy was William Saletan at Slate. Now I've been quietly supporting the inclusion of sin taxes in our health care bill to help extend subsidies to poorer Americans and patch up our deficit, or (if the tax collects little because it proves discouraging) keeps our mouths away from corn syrup and lard. But Saletan seems to disagree. He writes
Oct 5 2009, 3:54PM
BofA, Merrill Lynch Merger in Danger of ... Working?
But wait a tick. Now it seems that Merrill is hauling in up to 30 percent of BofA's profits. Is this thing going to work, after all?
Video
Oct 5 2009, 2:59PM
Eric Schmidt on the Future of the Internet
Video
Oct 5 2009, 2:47PM
Megan McArdle on Health Care, Debt and Obama
Video
Oct 5 2009, 2:22PM
Larry Summers on the Global Economy
Oct 5 2009, 1:38PM
Scenes From MichiCaliFlAriVada
Oct 5 2009, 1:10PM
Service Sector is Growing, But for How Long?
Oct 5 2009, 12:30PM
Why Did Conde Nast Close Gourmet?
Oct 5 2009, 11:50AM
Even Alan Greenspan Wants a Tax Increase
Oct 5 2009, 11:08AM
Did the Government's White Lies Endanger the Bailout?
Oct 5 2009, 10:30AM
Are Time Inc, Conde Nast Building a Hulu for Magazines?
But today the Financial Times reports that Time Inc and Conde Nast are in talks to build something like an Apple iTunes (or is it a Hulu?) for journalism. How will this work?
Sep 30 2009, 5:54PM
Breaking: Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis to Step Down
Also I hope this had nothing to do with the company being sued for 1,784 billion trillion dollars. Seriously, that happened.
Sep 30 2009, 1:58PM
Is it Immoral to Donate to Harvard?
No less than The Ethicist of the New York Times says: Absolutely not. Why not?
Sep 30 2009, 12:20PM
If Not the Public Option, Then What?
Sep 30 2009, 11:50AM
Google Wave Moves Closer to "Reinventing" Email
Sep 29 2009, 4:30PM
The Public Option is Not Dead Yet
Sep 29 2009, 2:10PM
Is Starbucks Instant Coffee a Good Idea?
Sep 29 2009, 11:52AM
Why Some CEOs Deserve Their Big Salaries
Sep 29 2009, 10:18AM
Is Today the Public Option's Last Chance?
Sep 28 2009, 4:33PM
HuffPo Writer: The Huffington Post is Killing Journalism
That would be a wonderfully cogent point if her column weren't staring directly into the headline "Who Has the Best Chest in Hollywood?" Unfortunately for Ms. Snow, her column is staring directly into the headline "Who Has the Best Chest in Hollywood?" With busty photos and a poll!
So I've got a question for Snow: Is the Huffington Post trying to kill journalism, too?
Sep 28 2009, 2:37PM
Are You Morally Required to Click Online Ads?
So readers, thank you for coming and reading and all, but if you really want to do us a favor, click that Hewlett Packard advertisement on the right. Yeah, go ahead. Click it. Click it right now!
Sep 28 2009, 12:22PM
The Wrong Way to Criticize Healthcare Reform
Sep 28 2009, 10:46AM
Would the 2016 Olympics Be Good for Chicago?
Sep 25 2009, 5:07PM
Man Sues Bank of America for 1,784 Billion Trillion Dollars
Why? Oh, who even cares. Details after the jump. Have a good weekend.
Sep 25 2009, 2:08PM
The Public Loves the Public Option
Sep 25 2009, 11:50AM
Could More Stress Tests Save Our Banks?
Hey look at that, smart people are asking the same thing!
Sep 25 2009, 11:08AM
Conde Nast Might Kill Some Magazines After All
As Megan reported yesterday, now that the doctor has examined the patient, fingers have been crossed for the severity of the diagnosis. The grapevine gossip is 25 percent cuts through the company. Yesterday's update: Hooray, no magazine closings! Today's update: Yeah, about yesterday's update...
Sep 24 2009, 2:55PM
Atlantic Story Leads to $1 Million Check for Homeless Couple
Last week she wrote about a husband and wife living in a tent city for the homeless in Sacramento. Today she reports that a Texas senator saw the piece and contacted the Veterans Affairs Committee, which has agreed to give the husband a check for almost one million dollars to cover back pay for his last 18 years in retirement.
Here is the heart of the story:
Sep 24 2009, 2:30PM
Why Did Google Mail Fail Again This Morning?
Sep 24 2009, 1:36PM
What Will Health Reform Do to Medicare Advantage?
But is it true? Will health care reform cut into Medicare Advantage?
Sep 24 2009, 11:37AM
Why Does Congress Hate Nebraska's Unemployed People?
Good Tweet!Why is an unemployed person in California more worthy of help than an unemployed person in Nebraska?
Sep 24 2009, 10:25AM
Vegetarianism and Climate Change Politics
That bit of revelation is from Heart of Dryness: How the Last Bushmen Can Help Us Endure the Coming Age of Permanent Drought, by James G. Workman.
Sep 23 2009, 5:02PM
Bernie Madoff's a Crook, But He Didn't Lose $50 Billion
Sep 23 2009, 3:27PM
Did Cash for Clunkers Fail?
But was it the perfect stimulus for our economy?
Sep 23 2009, 12:14PM
How Does Geithner Want to Fix Fannie and Freddie?
We cannot permit weak regulation of government-sponsored enterprises like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that accumulate trillions of dollars of exposure that is implicitly backed by the taxpayer.To be sure, cryptic maxims are de rigueur in sweeping policy speeches. But what is Geithner actually saying? Is the thing "we cannot permit" (1) the weak regulation of the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), or is it (2) their very existence?
Sep 23 2009, 11:15AM
Why JPMorgan's New Overdraft Rules Are a Big Deal
Sep 23 2009, 10:26AM
Microsoft Courier Tablet Looks Like a Game Changer
Microsoft has unveiled its own tablet-type computer, except it's not exactly a single-faced tablet. It's an electronic booklet with two screens, a stylus and an instruction video that makes the product look something like wizardry. Trust me, you'll want this.
Sep 23 2009, 9:45AM
How Health Care Projections Can Go Wrong
Fiscally, [health care reform] is about keeping health care inflation from running away with an ever-increasing percent of government spending.A couple commenters took me to task. How could I say that health care reform would curb health care inflation when most of the current plans' are projected to add to our long-term debt?
Sep 22 2009, 4:24PM
Is Health Care Weakening Obama Abroad?
Sep 22 2009, 1:25PM
How to Get Re-Tweeted in Three Easy Steps
Sep 22 2009, 12:07PM
Bing Gains on Google, But Still Way Behind
Sep 22 2009, 11:40AM
In Defense of the Soda Tax
Sep 22 2009, 10:30AM
America's Lost Decade, Cont.
If you prefer your bad news in picture form, then try this.
Sep 22 2009, 9:24AM
How We Will Pay for Health Care Reform
But how will health care reform pass? It's all about the Benjamins.
Sep 21 2009, 2:50PM
A Grand Unified Theory of the Financial Crash
But the more time we waste trying to figure out who did us wrong, the less quickly we will arrive at an actual solution.I, too, would consider it a waste if we knew exactly what happened in 2008, and all that was left was to divvy up blame between the bankers, regulators, government and public. And I thought I had heard every grand unified theory imaginable of the Crash of 2008. But this column by National Journal's Jonathan Rauch makes me think again ... again!
Sep 21 2009, 12:05PM
Should Obama Bail Out the Newspapers?
The Atlantic's newest member Michael Kinsley responded:
Sep 21 2009, 10:15AM
Would You Watch TV in 3D?
Television makers certainly hope so. Experts expect 3-D television to hit the market in 2010, and companies like Sony and Panasonic are already just months away from rolling out their own 3-D boob tubes.
Sep 18 2009, 4:24PM
What Does the Journalism Job Market Look Like?
Sep 18 2009, 11:45AM
Americans with North Korea's Life Expectancy
The average life span for African-Americans in Louisiana today (72.2 years) is shorter than that of Colombians, Vietnamese and Venezuelans. The average life span of an African-American in New Orleans is 69.3 years, nearly as low as life expectancy in North Korea.From the American Human Development Project's "Portrait of Louisiana."
Sep 18 2009, 11:30AM
The Miserable Unemployment of MichiCaliFlAriVada
Sep 18 2009, 10:39AM
In Defense of the Baucus Health Care Bill
But now, as predictable as the undertow after the wave, it's the backlash to the backlash. Out: The Baucus bill stunk. In: The Baucus bill is actually pretty good!
Sep 17 2009, 3:43PM
Why Student Loan Reform is Essential
Sep 17 2009, 3:00PM
Wages Are Rising! (Or Are They?)
Not so fast, says Dean Baker. Leonhardt's being tricked by nominal wages as opposed to real wages. In fact "for 2009, real wages have unambiguously been falling and are likely to continue to fall as modest increases in commodity prices are not offset by nominal wage growth."
Sep 17 2009, 2:16PM
The Most Clever Part of Baucus' Healthcare Plan
Sep 17 2009, 11:40AM
What is the Health Insurance Exchange?
Sep 17 2009, 11:10AM
Kindle Beats Paper in Online Sales of Top Book
Sep 17 2009, 10:30AM
Facebook Turns a Profit, Users Hits 300 Million
Oh, this seems the be the key: Users have tripled to 300 million in the last year. That's a lot of moms.
Sep 17 2009, 9:45AM
The Recession is Over. So Why is Lending Down?
How is that possible?
Sep 16 2009, 2:50PM
Does Anybody Actually Like the Baucus Health Care Bill?
Sep 16 2009, 12:23PM
Lies, Damned Lies and Bank of America
Sep 16 2009, 11:30AM
Do You Live in America's Most Frugal City?
But which cities spend the least amount on everything? Drumroll please: The winner of the 2009 Frugal Fannie Award is:
Sep 16 2009, 10:03AM
Kaiser Report Forecasts Pain in Employer-Provided Care
Sep 16 2009, 9:05AM
How Warren Buffett's Cellphone Killed Lehman Brothers
Sep 15 2009, 12:43PM
Is Glenn Beck's Ad Revenue Imploding?
Sep 15 2009, 11:20AM
I Want "The Jay Leno Show" to Fail
Sep 14 2009, 3:57PM
The Public Doesn't Understand the Public Plan
Sep 14 2009, 1:23PM
Jennifer Aniston Theory of Obamaism, Part III
Let me explain!
Sep 14 2009, 12:25PM
Four Questions About Obama's Financial Reform Speech
Sep 14 2009, 11:02AM
Did the Lehman Collapse Save the Financial System?
Sep 11 2009, 4:40PM
The Case for Healthcare for Illegal Immigrants
Sep 11 2009, 2:11PM
The Myth of an Independent Blogosphere
Sep 11 2009, 11:44AM
Why are Southern Middle-Aged People So Sad?
Sep 11 2009, 10:58AM
How Joe Wilson, Sarah Palin Killed the Healthcare Debate
And by offering themselves up as jokes, they (and we) do the same to our health care discussion. Just as Sarah Palin's death-panel blathering obscures what should be a substantive debate over how to cut Medicare costs without harming services, Joe Wilson's locker-room shout-out caricatures the real controversy about health care for illegal immigrants.
Sep 10 2009, 3:03PM
The Income Drop and America's Lost Decade
Sep 10 2009, 12:56PM
What Obama's Speech Did Right and Wrong
Anyway, the most effective parts of the speech, I think, were the parts that dealt with fairness.
Sep 10 2009, 11:00AM
Will Rhapsody for the iPhone Kill iTunes?
Sep 9 2009, 3:47PM
What Will the Next Economic Crisis Look Like?
Barry Ritholtz' The Big Picture is a wonderful blog. But given the name and my preference for visual learning, I've always thought it could use more, well, big pictures. So I was quite pleased to head over there today and find just that: A big fat picture of 14 of the biggest market bubbles of the last few centuries. Check it out:
Sep 9 2009, 2:52PM
Can Obama Revive the Dead Public Option?
Sep 9 2009, 12:55PM
When Economics and Democracy Don't Mix
The United States won't stand for a Japanese-style Lost Decade, James K. Galbraith, economist and historian, tells McClatchy Papers in a recent interview. You hear that, Nouriel Roubini? We won't stand for it!
Alright then, so what's Galbraith's proof? It's a little confusing.
Sep 9 2009, 12:00PM
The Looming Debate Over Tax Increases
Sep 9 2009, 11:09AM
The Case Against Bank of America
Sep 9 2009, 9:42AM
Why Dodd's Choice to Remain Senate Banking Chair Matters
But good news for financial reformers. Sen. Chris Dodd is staying! Good luck with your potentially doomed re-regulation and re-reelection plans, Sen. Chris Dodd!
Sep 8 2009, 4:31PM
If You Think Health Care Is Fun, Wait for the Energy Bill
Sep 8 2009, 2:08PM
Why Are Unions More Unpopular Than Ever?
Economix has some smart thoughts. Those auto bailouts were outrageous, and Americans could be transferring their frustration over to the unions. Nate Silver has a simpler explanation: Unemployment and falling union support like to hold hands.
Sep 8 2009, 11:52AM
Why BaucusCare Should Worry Democrats
The AFL-CIO will only support legislation that has an employer mandate, no taxes on health-care benefits, and a public insurance option, with Trumka calling the conditions "absolute musts."But today Sen. Max Baucus, ring-leader of the Senate's bipartisan "Gang of Six" on health care reform, released his long-awaited $900 health reform plan. Let's check for "absolute musts." Employer mandate? Nope. No taxes on health-care benefits? Sorry! Public insurance option? Not exactly.
Uh oh.
Sep 8 2009, 10:06AM
Don't Read This Blog Post
On the Internet, that leaves ... not much at all. Including this blog post. Click away! Save your brains! What's left of them, anyway.Evidence shows technology which requires a short attention span - such as Twitter and short YouTube clips - is bad for our brains.
Sep 4 2009, 3:28PM
What's So Bad About Obama's Education Speech?
Sep 4 2009, 12:32PM
Joe Biden, Republicans Tying Stimulus to Healthcare Reform
Christopher Beam of Slate says that when Joe Biden talks about the stimulus plan, he's really talking about that other multi-hundred billion bill they've got in the pipeline.
Sep 4 2009, 11:22AM
Could This Graph Save Health Care Reform?
USA! USA!
Sep 4 2009, 10:14AM
Why the Rising Unemployment Numbers Aren't All Bad
Sep 3 2009, 1:57PM
How to Pass a Health Care Bill
Sep 3 2009, 1:10PM
The Media's Instinct to Cover Crazy People
Sep 3 2009, 11:38AM
How Pathetic Was the SEC's "Investigation" of Bernie Madoff?
Sep 3 2009, 10:32AM
What Do Today's Jobless Numbers Mean for the Unemployment Rate?
Sep 3 2009, 10:22AM
Does the Internet Make Better Pundits?
Sep 2 2009, 5:17PM
Did the Stimulus Save the Economy?
Sep 2 2009, 4:25PM
Don't Worry About the Debt?
Boy I hope he's right! But paragraphs like this make me worry:
Sep 2 2009, 3:11PM
Guess Which Cities Lead in Unemployment?
Now the Bureau of Labor Statistics has fresh city-by-city unemployment numbers for July 2009, and you'll never guess which states face the worst damage...
Sep 2 2009, 2:47PM
Public or Private, Americans Love Their Health Care
Sep 2 2009, 1:19PM
Will It Ever Be OK to Use 9/11 in an Ad?
Sep 2 2009, 12:20PM
The Most Misreported Statistic in Economics?
But that's simply not true, writes BusinessWeek economist Michael Mandel. Consumer spending -- money coming out of our wallets and bank accounts that contributes to our GDP -- is closer to half that number. Have I been living a lie?
Sep 2 2009, 11:23AM
Don't Pay Attention to the US News College Rankings
Sep 2 2009, 10:34AM
Losing the Practical Case for Healthcare Reform
You can think about the healthcare bill as two overarching principles. The first is moral: Extending care to those who can't afford it; and keeping insurance companies from denying based on preexisting conditions or rescinding care when costs run high. The second is about fiscally practical: Making this year's bill deficit-neutral over ten years and limiting health care inflation in the years that follow. I think the moral argument is probably the better case for the public (it's much easier to tune out statistics than inspiring rhetoric laced with moral maxims) but recently I've been thinking more about the cost controls: Will they work? Which ones should we support? And will there be rationing?
Sep 1 2009, 4:59PM
Could the Economic Bailout Turn a Profit?
But today (via Curious Capitalist) I find an argument for why we should expect the Fannie/Freddie rescue to pay back its funds -- and then some! -- in the next four years.
Sep 1 2009, 2:59PM
The Worst NYT Trend Story of the Year?
The exodus is not evident from the site's overall numbers.The exodus is not evident from the site's overall numbers! Some trend!
Sep 1 2009, 1:30PM
Why Online News Should Be More Like Cable
Americans willing to pay for cable television subscriptions to channels they never watch must be persuaded to subscribe to online versions of the publications they read in print or on the Internet.
Sep 1 2009, 11:49AM
Why Did eBay Sell Skype?
Sep 1 2009, 11:20AM
Is FLYP the Future of Online Publishing?
Could it be FLYP?
Aug 31 2009, 4:15PM
Are Regular Books Greener Than the Amazon Kindle?
Aug 31 2009, 1:42PM
Are We Turning a Profit on TARP?
Aug 31 2009, 12:36PM
Why Do Seniors Oppose More Government Healthcare?
1) They're older and more conservative. The end!
Aug 31 2009, 10:05AM
Do Presidential Approval Ratings Follow Gas Prices?
Like gasoline prices!
Aug 28 2009, 4:10PM
Do Presidential Approval Ratings Follow the Dow?
Aug 28 2009, 2:57PM
How Too Big To Fail Got Even Bigger
Aug 28 2009, 12:30PM
Philadelphia Eagles Get Tax Credit for Michael Vick
Aug 28 2009, 12:02PM
How Obama Could Really Bury Us in Debt
Aug 28 2009, 11:09AM
Tim Pawlenty is Right About the Stimulus. Kind Of.
Aug 27 2009, 1:11PM
Why Are Medicare Recipients Against Government Healthcare?
Older voters are not only more likely to have government-provided health care, but also they're more likely to be against the government spending more on health care. Does that make any sense?
Aug 27 2009, 12:05PM
What Would the Deficit Look Like Without Bush?
Aug 27 2009, 11:20AM
Which Law School Grads Have It the Worst?
Aug 27 2009, 10:27AM
GDP, Initial Jobless Claims Signal Slowing Recession
Aug 26 2009, 4:06PM
Could Europe Get Its Energy From the Sahara?
Aug 26 2009, 2:59PM
Imagining the Deficit Under President John McCain
Aug 26 2009, 2:12PM
Will Kennedy's Death Affect Healthcare, Financial Reform?
Aug 26 2009, 12:05PM
The eReaders Wars: Amazon vs. Sony vs. Apple...
Aug 26 2009, 11:12AM
California Now Hawking Stuff on Ebay to Fight Deficit
Aug 26 2009, 10:40AM
The Impossible Politics of Deficit Reduction
Aug 25 2009, 2:50PM
Was Bernanke the Wrong Choice for Fed Chair?
Aug 25 2009, 1:00PM
Economic Roundup: Home Prices, Consumer Confidence Up
Aug 25 2009, 12:09PM
Please Excuse This Brief Rant About Facebook-Haters
Aug 25 2009, 10:08AM
Is This Google's Two-Step Plan to Take Over iPhone?
Aug 24 2009, 5:19PM
Bank of America's Bizarre Defense of Merrill's Bonuses
Aug 24 2009, 2:53PM
College Football TV Entering the Third Dimension
Aug 24 2009, 2:00PM
The US Has Made a Profit Off of Citigroup
Aug 24 2009, 12:46PM
Why Are People Still Buying GM's Worthless Stock?
Aug 24 2009, 10:35AM
Don't Let Health-Care-for-Illegals Kill Health Reform
Aug 21 2009, 3:41PM
Email Debate about Cash for Clunkers and Keynes
Conor's publishing a rejoinder to my rejoinder later this afternoon on the Dish, but in the meantime he sent me a draft of it, and we had a little email chat about Cash for Clunkers, Keynes, stimuli and time travel. I thought about summing up, but it's just so much easier to produce the original emails, after capitalizing the letters and deleting all of Conor's smiley face emoticons. (JK!) Here it is, with Conor's emails indented:
Aug 21 2009, 2:54PM
Should Universal Health Care Cover Illegal Immigrants?
Aug 21 2009, 11:57AM
Maps That Shouldn't Surprise Me
Aug 21 2009, 11:00AM
Was Cash for Clunkers a Success?
Aug 20 2009, 4:00PM
Why Florida is Obama's Worst State
Aug 20 2009, 1:05PM
Cash for Clunkers Clunks as Dealers Leave in Droves
Aug 20 2009, 12:50PM
Where is the Stimulus Money Going? New York ...
Aug 20 2009, 11:58AM
How the Media is Killing Health Care Reform
Aug 19 2009, 4:12PM
No, Fox News Should Not Fire Glenn Beck
Aug 19 2009, 3:13PM
Should We Do Cash for Clunkers for Computers?
Yes, we can! Computers. Dude, you're getting a Dell... rebate from the government!
Aug 19 2009, 2:18PM
Yes, the Internet Can Make You (and Your Kids) Smarter
Aug 19 2009, 12:33PM
Rumor: Not One, But Two Apple Tablets?
Aug 19 2009, 10:31AM
Is the Public Option for Health Care Overrated?
So it's both surprising and and refreshing to read Steven Pearlstein, the business columnist for the Washington Post who's received a lot of link-love from liberal bloggers, begin today's column: "Enough already with the public option!"
Aug 18 2009, 4:19PM
iPhones: Saving Your Deleted Emails ... and Exploding?
Aug 18 2009, 12:17PM
No Apple Tablet Until Early 2010?
Aug 18 2009, 11:42AM
An Idiot's Guide to Health Care Reform
1) What will the health care bill do?
2) Why do we need reform?
3) How would the law affect you?
Aug 18 2009, 10:25AM
How Do You Steal 130 Million Credit Card Numbers?
Aug 18 2009, 9:50AM
Recession Roundup: Producer Prices, Housing Starts Decline
Aug 17 2009, 4:48PM
Cash for Clunkers: It's Still a Clunker
Today I've stumbled upon two pieces of information that make me proud of trying to sound the alarm of C4C -- but also a bit sad for those billions of taxpayer dollars.
Aug 17 2009, 3:45PM
Does Today's Stock Sell-Off Signal a Broader Downturn?
Aug 17 2009, 2:25PM
Only 18 Percent See Stimulus Helping Them Personally
Aug 17 2009, 12:15PM
Would GM's New $4,000 Car Sell in the US?
Aug 17 2009, 11:00AM
Why is Asia Dominating in the World Recovery?
Why?
Aug 17 2009, 10:15AM
Facebook's Evil, Genius Plan to Own Your Life
Aug 14 2009, 11:20AM
Why Bike-Sharing Programs Are Really Good Ideas
Aug 14 2009, 9:58AM
How to Read 10 Pages a Minute
Aug 13 2009, 3:38PM
Is Europe Beating the US Out of the Recession?
Aug 13 2009, 12:49PM
Standard Format Keeps E-Readers on the Same Page
Aug 13 2009, 11:55AM
Despite Cash Stimulus, July Retail Sales Are a Clunker
Aug 13 2009, 10:45AM
Actually, America Isn't a Small Business Country at All
Aug 13 2009, 9:45AM
Initial Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Inch Higher to 558,000
Aug 12 2009, 1:48PM
Arizona and Florida Lead Home Sales Surge
Aug 12 2009, 9:49AM
Replacing NYC Subway Would Take 200 Fifth Avenues
Aug 12 2009, 9:25AM
Television: The Next Victim of the Advertising Famine
Aug 11 2009, 3:14PM
Hey Obama, Americans Don't Care About Facts!
Aug 11 2009, 2:11PM
Worker Productivity Surges, But It Isn't All Good News
Aug 11 2009, 12:35PM
Mancession! An Illustrated Analysis
Aug 11 2009, 11:30AM
Does Google Search Need a Hit of Caffeine?
Aug 11 2009, 10:10AM
Yes, We Should Use Commenters to Shill Products!
Seriously, it's happening at New York magazine.
Aug 10 2009, 3:20PM
Did Big Government Republicans Save This Economy?
Wait a tick. Check out the arrows in the government's anti-recession quiver -- $700 billion of TARP, another $100 billion AIG bailout, trillion-dollar emergency action under Fed Chair Ben Bernanke. Weren't those all initiated under a Republican administration?
Aug 10 2009, 1:04PM
Americans Pay $38 Billion of Bank Overdraft Fees a Year!?
US banks stand to collect a record $38.5bn in fees for customer overdrafts this year, with the bulk of the revenue coming from the most financially stretched consumers...I'm sorry. How is that mathematically possible?
Aug 10 2009, 11:55AM
Why Selling GM Cars on eBay is Good for the Auto Industry
Aug 10 2009, 11:35AM
Is It Immoral to Pay for Unpaid Internships?
So goes the argument. I, former unpaid intern, don't buy it.
Aug 8 2009, 1:10PM
Fox News Profit Soars As GOP Implodes
Aug 7 2009, 3:45PM
Apple Tablet: Super E-Reader or Super Mini-Computer?
Aug 7 2009, 12:35PM
AIG (Finally) Posts Profit, Still Owes $87.6 Billion
Aug 7 2009, 12:00PM
Cash for Clunkers ... for Refrigerators?
Don't like your clunky computer monitor? Here's some money for a greener screen. Got a problem with your water heater, thin windows and black-tile roof? Here's a fat check for an eco-home makeover! Refrigerator making lots of white noise and emissions? Here's some state cash for a new one! Yes, Cash for Clunkers for refrigerators is alive and kicking in New England.
Aug 7 2009, 11:29AM
Why Did CNBC's Ratings Fall Off a Cliff?
Aug 7 2009, 9:39AM
Why Did the Unemployment Rate Go Down?
Aug 6 2009, 3:41PM
Have You Seen Microsoft Bing's Award-Winning Jingle?
Aug 6 2009, 1:41PM
Is the End Near for BofA CEO Ken Lewis?
Aug 6 2009, 12:37PM
CYBER-THUGS: @Twitter we're clogging up ur tubes!
Aug 6 2009, 11:33AM
Jobless Claims Continue to Fall, Signaling Distant Recovery
Aug 6 2009, 10:09AM
Is Murdoch's Plan to Charge for Online News Doomed?
Aug 5 2009, 5:20PM
Sony Hunting Amazon (and Apple?) With E-Reader
Aug 5 2009, 3:15PM
Remember, 95 Percent of Voters Already Have Health Care
Aug 5 2009, 1:14PM
The End of the iPhone?
A few months ago, I wrote an article explaining how the Verizon MiFi, a wireless wifi card, combined with a mobile web device with speaker and audio like the iPod Touch could replace the cell phone. Living inside MiFi's permanent wifi cloud, you could make all your calls through Skype, or another voice-over-Internet program, on that iPod. Goodbye, cell phones?
Aug 5 2009, 11:30AM
Three Problems with Congress Extending Cash for Clunkers
I think I've made it pretty clear where I stand on Cash for Clunkers.
Aug 5 2009, 10:00AM
Is the Recession Making Waitresses Hotter?
Aug 4 2009, 5:28PM
The CBO Might Be Wrong, But Orszag Isn't Right
Aug 4 2009, 3:39PM
Do Democrats Live in States With Higher Unemployment?
You decide how they match up:
Aug 4 2009, 12:00PM
Geithner's Meltdown Over Financial Reform
Aug 4 2009, 11:16AM
How Great Will Our 3rd-Quarter Recovery Be?
Aug 4 2009, 10:02AM
Could the Apple Tablet Kill the Kindle?
Aug 3 2009, 4:59PM
Bank of America's $33 Million Fine Won't Be Its Last
Aug 3 2009, 3:09PM
Do We Want the US to Be More Like Texas?
Aug 3 2009, 12:30PM
Why Google's CEO Schmidt Left Apple's Board
Aug 3 2009, 11:41AM
The Senate Should Kill Cash for Clunkers
Aug 3 2009, 10:31AM
Three Ways to Fix Facebook
Aug 3 2009, 9:30AM
Hey David Gregory, This is Why the Stimulus Is Not Working
I'm sure it was frustrating for Dr. Summers -- who wasn't exactly forthright about stimulus numbers himself (more on that later) -- but it would have been easier for him to make his point if he came to MTP with graphs. Like this one:
Aug 2 2009, 12:44PM
Is Health Care Talk Toxic for Cable TV?
Jul 31 2009, 4:41PM
Cash for Clunkers Shifts Into Second Gear
Jul 31 2009, 2:22PM
Can We Please Ban Voicemail Instructions Forever?
Jul 31 2009, 12:30PM
With 2,000 News Writers, What is AOL Up To?
Jul 31 2009, 11:10AM
The Good and Bad of the US Economy's Light GDP Dip
Well, today is July 31. The GDP numbers are out. And they are...
Jul 31 2009, 9:30AM
Why Did Cash for Clunkers Run Out of Cash?
Jul 30 2009, 4:00PM
Cash for Clunkers FAQ
Jul 30 2009, 1:40PM
Obama to Business: Be Grateful I Saved This Economy
Jul 30 2009, 12:10PM
Does Obama Understand How to Make Jobs?
Jul 30 2009, 10:40AM
Today's Unemployment Numbers Made Simple
Jul 30 2009, 10:00AM
And Then the Government Came for Your Nose Job
Jul 29 2009, 11:50AM
What the Federal Reserve's Unpopularity Means for Health Care
Huh? Hear me out.
Jul 29 2009, 10:25AM
Hey Obama, You're Letting a Crisis Go to Waste
Jul 29 2009, 9:10AM
This Tax Might Save Health Reform
Jul 28 2009, 5:10PM
Politicians: No More Erectile Dysfuntion Ads!
But now a group of congressmen are pushing bills to ban or tax prescription drug ads. Do they have a shot?
Jul 28 2009, 2:44PM
Pandora's Bucks and the Future of Music
Jul 28 2009, 1:39PM
Home Prices Rise for First Time in Three Years
But wait, say my trusted bloggy advisers on housing issues, Calculated Risk and Felix Salmon. We're not out of the woods yet...
Jul 28 2009, 12:39PM
Was the Bank Bailout Just a "Big Fat Lie"?
Jul 28 2009, 10:10AM
In Praise of the Four-Day Workweek
Jul 27 2009, 3:17PM
Dark Days for Obama's Health Care "Game-Changer"
Jul 27 2009, 1:07PM
Home Sales Up 11%: Three Reasons to Cheer
Jul 27 2009, 10:45AM
My Internet Browser Crashed While I Was Writing This Article About Whether or Not Robots Were Evil, Which Makes the Answer to That Question Pretty Self-Evident!
So ... hey, you know what I think about robots? I think they're wonderful. Every last one. Bless our robots! Especially Mozilla Firefox. And as I return to the story about robots' morality, I proceed with caution and promiscuous use of the Save button.
Jul 24 2009, 4:40PM
Obama's $4 Billion Education Prize: Incentive or Bribe?
Jul 24 2009, 11:45AM
Dow 10,000?
Jul 24 2009, 11:02AM
Hey Obama, There is Consensus on Health Care Reform!
Jul 23 2009, 3:50PM
Why Apple is Dominating the Premium Computer Market
Jul 23 2009, 3:11PM
Fannie and Freddie: The Mother of All Bailouts
Jul 23 2009, 11:55AM
Americans: 3X More Miserable Than Previously Calculated
Jul 23 2009, 10:55AM
How Relationships Help Explain Obamanomics
Jul 22 2009, 5:45PM
Would You Stand on Planes for Cheaper Tickets?
Jul 22 2009, 3:55PM
The Lessons of the Californiapocalypse
Jul 22 2009, 1:40PM
The Three Things Obama Should Say About Health Care
Jul 22 2009, 10:59AM
Should Google Make YouTube More Like Apple iTunes?
Jul 21 2009, 5:55PM
Which College's Graduates Make the Most Money?
Jul 21 2009, 2:55PM
Is Obama Shunning Liberal Economists?
Jul 21 2009, 11:45AM
$23,000,000,000,000!?
Jul 21 2009, 9:55AM
The Problem with Flying to the Moon and F-22s
That is the moon. On it are exactly 12 sets of human footprints -- untouched, unchanged, abandoned. For the first time in history, the moon is not just a mystery and a muse, but a nightly rebuke.I'm sorry to ruin the moment for anybody, but am I the only person who feels terribly unmoved by this eloquent cosmic paean?
Jul 21 2009, 7:40AM
California Budget Offers Path Out of Fiscal Apocalypse
Jul 20 2009, 4:08PM
This is Why You're Fat
Jul 20 2009, 12:30PM
Why Obama is Facing Friendly Fire on Health Care
Jul 20 2009, 10:55AM
Making Only Millionaires Pay for Health Care
Jul 20 2009, 9:49AM
Amazon to World: We are Not Evil Totalitarians
Jul 17 2009, 2:41PM
Looking for a Job? Go to D.C.
Jul 17 2009, 1:53PM
California, Nevada Match All-Time Unemployment Highs
And how about the national axis of gloom that is MichiCaliFliArivada (that is, MI, CA, FL, AZ and NV)? They claim three of the top six worst unemployment rates.
Jul 17 2009, 1:05PM
What Bank of America and Citi's Profits Mean for Wall St
Jul 17 2009, 10:59AM
What Does "Too Big to Fail" Mean Anymore?
As a result, we've avoided government nationalization at the expense of basically allowing JP Morgan and Bank of America to nationalize the banks for us.
Jul 16 2009, 4:35PM
Lies, Intimidation and Bank of America
Jul 16 2009, 2:43PM
Clinton Economist: Recovery Will Be Slow
Jul 16 2009, 1:27PM
The Miserable State of MichiCaliFlArivada
For example: Today's foreclosure rate survey is out, and - surprise!- the top four states are all in that Unfab Five.
Jul 16 2009, 12:30PM
California's Strategy: Be More Like Texas
Jul 16 2009, 11:00AM
This Recovery Will Be Very, Very Painful
David Leonhardt, writing in the New York Times, paints a picture of US employment in dark, morbid colors, and makes the argument that even if the recession is over, we're a long way from a recovery that feels like a recovery. We might be moving into the epilogue of recession otherwise known as the slog, but this is why you shouldn't expect
Jul 15 2009, 5:40PM
America's Newest Social Security Crisis
Jul 15 2009, 3:06PM
Taxes for the Rich, Health Care for the Rest
How does this bill do that? It promises Medicare/Medicaid savings and forces almost all employers to cover their workers. But most importantly, it taxes the rich.
Jul 15 2009, 1:37PM
In Recession, Hawaii to Build a "Spaceport"
Jul 15 2009, 1:00PM
This Recession is Over
Jul 15 2009, 10:30AM
Should We Kill the Stimulus?
Jul 14 2009, 3:15PM
Take That Google Apps: Free Microsoft Office Online
In May, Microsoft struck at Google's search empire with Bing, a good-looking and smart-acting new search engine that the Times' David Pogue (and I) called better than Google, barely. Google struck back this week with Google Chrome, a planned operating system built for the growing netbook world of internet-based computing. And now Microsoft's counterstrike: the software giant will offer a free online version of its Office product (ie Word, Excel, PowerPoint) in 2010. Free Microsoft Office! And this guy said the Microsoft-Google wars were bad for customers...
Jul 14 2009, 1:30PM
Where to Get a Job in Tomorrow's Economy
Jul 14 2009, 11:10AM
Sarah Palin's Cap-and-Trade Takedown
Let's think about this for a second.
Jul 14 2009, 10:11AM
June's Retail Rise: Good News or Bad News?
Jul 13 2009, 4:55PM
And You Thought Detroit Had Issues
Le populist rage from the Financial Times: "Workers at a failed French car parts supplier are threatening to
blow up their factory unless the company's two biggest clients - Renault and PSA Peugeot Citroen - stump up extra compensation." And just in time for Bastille Day!
This comes after a wave of "bossnappings" across the country, where frustrated workers would take their bosses hostage "sometimes for several days."
Jul 13 2009, 3:03PM
Why Aren't Kids These Days Downloading Music?
But a new report suggests that illegal music downloading has fallen off more than 60 percent in the last two years, as teens are increasingly turning to streaming sites, such as YouTube, Pandora, Grooveshark and others. As they leave file-sharing behind, is this good news for the music industry?
Jul 13 2009, 2:20PM
BusinessWeek's Sale and the Future of the Newsweekly
Jul 13 2009, 11:00AM
Are Kindles and iPods the End of Culture Snobbery?
This is what you call culture snobbery, and as James Wolcott explains -- in Vanity Fair, no less -- it is dying a slow, digitized death. Because when all culture can be reduced to a file living in our e-reader and iPod, will we ever be able to judge strangers by the covers of their reading material again?
Jul 10 2009, 3:00PM
California vs. Texas for the Future of America
So aruges The Economist. So let's ask: Is Texas ready to be the future of America?
Jul 10 2009, 12:15PM
Are the Obese Weighing Down Health Care?
Jul 10 2009, 10:50AM
Did the WSJ Just Admit Global Warming Is Real?
But the analogy only works when the thing we're asking to "roll back" is, in fact, real and damn near inevitable. Did the Wall Street Journal editorial page just admit that climate change is real?
Jul 9 2009, 4:30PM
It's Not Just a Recession. It's a Mancession!
Jul 9 2009, 2:08PM
What's the Matter with Economic Journalism?
Jul 9 2009, 11:33AM
Is Microsoft Bing Really Better Than Google?
So for the first time since I first wrote about Bing's launch, I gave it a whirl. And you know what? It really might be better than Google.
Jul 9 2009, 9:42AM
Should Incumbent Senators Be Worried about 2010?
Jul 8 2009, 2:00PM
Yes, Google Chrome Could Beat Microsoft Windows
Jul 8 2009, 11:58AM
What World Leaders Should Discuss at Italy's G8 Summit
Jul 8 2009, 10:20AM
Why It's So Hard to Find a Job Right Now
Jul 7 2009, 5:17PM
Why Unemployment Could Hit 14%
Jul 7 2009, 2:29PM
Yes, Obama Will Have to Raise Your Taxes
Jul 7 2009, 11:59AM
Why So Many Jobless Recoveries, Recently?
Jul 7 2009, 10:50AM
Could California's Crisis Kill Health Reform?
Jul 7 2009, 9:22AM
Will Michael Jackson Break the Internet?
Jul 6 2009, 4:01PM
The Federal Reserve's Magical Balance Sheet
Jul 6 2009, 1:40PM
What Changed Between 1981 and 2007?
Jul 6 2009, 12:35PM
This Graph is Why the Recession is Over
Jul 6 2009, 11:40AM
California, Florida Still Dragging Us Down
Jul 6 2009, 10:30AM
The Politics of a Second Stimulus
Jul 6 2009, 9:35AM
Transformers II is Big, But It's No Mary Poppins
Video
Jul 2 2009, 3:50PM
Is Obama Anti-Business?
Jul 2 2009, 3:39PM
Jack Welch Launches Online Biz School
Jul 2 2009, 12:45PM
Should Journalists Be Entertainers?
Jul 2 2009, 11:50AM
California's Deficit Plan Now Includes IOUs
Jul 2 2009, 10:50AM
Can Republicans Be the Party of Growth?
Jun 26 2009, 4:03PM
Consumer Spending Up, As Stimulus Takes Effect
Jun 26 2009, 1:20PM
Transformers II: Most Expensive GM Ad Ever
Jun 26 2009, 11:20AM
Merrill Lynch Camp: Ben Bernanke Is Telling the Truth
Here's where the story gets murky, and interesting.
Jun 26 2009, 10:15AM
How Much Would You Pay for Cap-and-Trade?
Jun 25 2009, 5:10PM
What's Up with These Dumb, Pornographic Fast Food Ads?
Jun 25 2009, 1:50PM
Finally! A Financial Crisis Poster for Your Room.
Jun 25 2009, 12:05PM
The United States of America vs. Karl Rove
This is the world that Karl Rove lives in: Obama's approval rating is in deep trouble, the public wants to kill government-run health care, and the Republicans have a shot at riding health reform like a gust of wind out of their smoldering ashes. The rest of us live in a world that looks, well, the utter and exact opposite. This is what Karl Rove being wrong looks like:
Jun 25 2009, 10:40AM
How to Fix Too Big to Fail
1. Do Nothing.
Jun 24 2009, 5:15PM
What if the President Smoked Pot?
Jun 24 2009, 3:30PM
Weaponized Keynesianism and the Republicans
Jun 24 2009, 12:00PM
The Craziest Plan To Save Newspapers Ever
So if you only want the website, the Daily News will pay you $100 to take the newspaper. You don't have to read it. You don't have to look at it. You can toss it, use it for fish wrap, or just blanket yourself in the local business section like a paper Snuggie. Could this possibly work?The Daily News will now charge $145 annually to a newspaper subscriber, $245 if a subscriber wants the paper and access to the paper's web site--and, here's the key figure, $345 if the subscriber only wants the web site.
Jun 24 2009, 10:55AM
America's Lost Decade for Jobs
Jun 23 2009, 3:05PM
Today's Home Sales Report Made Simple
1. Maybe This Improvement is Just Seasonal.
Jun 23 2009, 11:50AM
Do Moon Cycles Affect the Stock Market?
Jun 23 2009, 10:30AM
Are Goldman Sachs' New Record Bonuses Good?
Jun 23 2009, 9:36AM
Ron Paul: I'm Not Bailing Out California
Jun 22 2009, 4:25PM
What if Health Care Reform Never Happens?
Jun 22 2009, 2:30PM
Burger King's Horrible, Creepy Ad Campaign Isn't Working
In other words, thank you America, for compelling our elites to put the strategic back into strategic advertising.
Jun 22 2009, 12:47PM
Is It Dumb to Bring Up U.S. Life Expectancy?
Jun 22 2009, 12:15PM
How to Use Smartphones at Work: A Visual Guide
Jun 22 2009, 10:40AM
Health Care 2009 = Social Security 2005?
Jun 19 2009, 2:41PM
2009 State Tax Tsunami Already Hitting 23 States
Jun 19 2009, 12:53PM
What's Wrong with California, Nevada, Arizona and Florida?
Jun 19 2009, 11:30AM
How Do We Make Doctors Better?
Jun 19 2009, 8:37AM
Are Americans Asking Obama to Repeat FDR's Mistakes?
Jun 18 2009, 4:30PM
Why You Could Pay for Your Next Checking Account
Jun 18 2009, 2:45PM
The 5 Strangest Economic Indicators
Jun 18 2009, 12:30PM
Alaska Getting Poorer, Faster
Jun 18 2009, 11:26AM
Karl Rove's Bizarre Plan to Kill Obama's Health Reform
Jun 18 2009, 10:20AM
Obama's Grand Rhetorical Strategy: It's All Connected
Beam hits on most of the advantages of Obama's karmic approach to selling policy, but I wanted to highlight two distinct drawbacks. First, it forces him to promise too much from his reforms. Second, as anybody who's played Jenga knows, interconnectedness has its risks.
Jun 17 2009, 7:18PM
The World's Dumbest Financial Criminals Ever?
And here's one of the most delightfully absurd paragraphs I've ever read in a news story:
Jun 17 2009, 4:30PM
The Problem with Fareed Zakaria
Jun 17 2009, 10:27AM
What the World's Great Recession Looks Like
But today I got my hands on alarming graphs from the folks at VoxEU (via a column by Martin Wolf) which convincingly demonstrates that, for the much of the world, 2009 looks, without question, just as bad, if not worse, than the first years of the Great Depression.
Jun 16 2009, 5:59PM
Do Doctors Deserve to Be Paid Less?
Jun 16 2009, 4:00PM
This is What the Great Recession Looks Like
Jun 16 2009, 12:30PM
California Screamin'
Jun 16 2009, 10:30AM
Is Banking Reform Effectively Dead?
Jun 15 2009, 5:39PM
Are Unpaid Internships Destroying America?
Jun 15 2009, 2:35PM
Is Europe Reading Paul Krugman, or History?
Jun 15 2009, 10:49AM
In Health Care, Do We All Lose to Singapore?
Jun 15 2009, 10:40AM
What's the Matter With Rich Liberals?
But as Folbre rightly notes, this is a very silly argument because "the most visible support for raising taxes on the rich comes from ... the rich," like the chief executive of Netflix begging the president to raise the highest income tax bracket to 50 percent. Raise my taxes! is another pretty bizarre strain of economic self-interest. Maybe we should ask: What's the matter with America?
Jun 12 2009, 5:30PM
The Bizarre Brouhaha Over Facebook Usernames
Jun 12 2009, 2:47PM
How Bad Would America Be Without the Stimulus?
In Lab USA, which has experimented with a Keynesian stimulus plan and massive federal involvement in the bank system, we expect to see a bottom of the recession in the fall. Lab European Union, which has limited both its monetary and fiscal response, expects a recovery in the middle of 2010, and its GDP has contracted 50 percent more than the States, where the shock began. Keynes wins again?
Jun 12 2009, 12:45PM
Should California Legalize and Tax Marijuana?
Jun 12 2009, 11:05AM
Will Health Reform Fail Like Social Security Reform?
At Time, reporter Jay Newton-Small compares the current debate over the public option for health care to the debate over privatizing Social Security, which reared its head after the 2004 election and promptly crashed and burned. Could the same thing happen to health care? I wouldn't be so sure. In many ways, the Social Security debate is not the right template for the health care reform debate.
Jun 11 2009, 1:02PM
How Bad is the Bank of America/Merrill Lynch Scandal?
Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis has testified that former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and current Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke essentially forced him to acquire Merrill Lynch despite evidence of its growing losses. Even though this was certainly done with "America's best interests" in mind, it's still a bit troubling. It's especially troubling because early this year, Merill CEO John Thain was forced out for hiding Merrill's red ink. But doesn't Lewis' testimony reveal that explanation as completely, 100 percent bogus? For me this raises three big questions about one of the biggest financial mergers of our time:
Jun 11 2009, 11:53AM
Can Google Change Election Outcomes?
Jun 11 2009, 10:11AM
Stimulus Money Bought Many More Fords Than GMs
Jun 10 2009, 3:42PM
What Shall We Cheers To? Alcohol Taxes!
Jun 10 2009, 1:00PM
Is Telecommuting Bad for Business?
Jun 10 2009, 11:50AM
What the Heck Can We Do About the Deficit?
Jun 10 2009, 10:31AM
Do Republicans Need Their Own Bill Clinton?
Via Andrew, Richard Posner isn't too worried about the country's leftward drift. In fact, he thinks that if Obama shifts America too far from the center, it will be good for conservatism, opening the door for a Republican Bill Clinton. But what would a Republican Bill Clinton even look like?
Jun 9 2009, 4:14PM
Your Dirty Old Underwear Is Prolonging the Recession
Jun 9 2009, 3:49PM
How Obama Saved the Banks Without a Bank Plan
Jun 9 2009, 12:45PM
America, the Part-Time Nation
"No one I know has a job anymore," Daily Beast editor Tina Brown observed early this year. "They've got Gigs." You know, gigs. Part-time jobs, here and there, that provide a decent trickle of checks without the umbrella of benefits. I remember reading that and wondering whether Tina was getting a representative cross-sample or hanging out with too many New York journalists and bankers. Both things could be true of course, but it looks like Tina was onto something:
Jun 9 2009, 11:42AM
Will the New iPhone Save Journalism?
Jun 9 2009, 10:45AM
10 Crazy Ideas for Fixing Our Education System
1) Eliminate summer vacation.
Jun 8 2009, 3:40PM
Could McDonald's Really Beat Starbucks?
Jun 8 2009, 12:13PM
And Then the Recession Came for Hipsters...
Jun 8 2009, 11:59AM
Should We Save the Jobs of Bad Teachers?
But wait, I thought the point of stimulus spending was to save jobs. Can that really be true of every industry except education? In a recesion, is it worth it to save the job of a bad teacher?
Jun 8 2009, 10:59AM
Go To College
Jun 8 2009, 10:23AM
Do We Really Need Another Stimulus Already?
Jun 5 2009, 5:50PM
Extreme Makeover: Federal Reserve Edition
The Fed has probably done more than any other institution to avoid a financial disaster on par with the Great Depression. Although the stimulus spending is slow, TARP is sort of a political mess, Geithner's public-private plan is kaput, (and let's not even bring up Detroit), somehow, we're nearing a softer-than-expected landing to the recession. So why does the Fed need a facelift? And why hand the scalpel to an Enron lobbyist?
Jun 5 2009, 1:58PM
Today's Unemployment Numbers Made Simple
Got it? Maybe this would be easier with pictures:
Jun 5 2009, 11:55AM
How to Make the United States Innovative Again
Jun 5 2009, 9:30AM
Juicy Learnings from the Harvard Crimson's Graduation Report
The survey also includes more, um, intimate details.
Jun 4 2009, 4:20PM
GOP Proposes Spending Cuts. Are They Serious?
Jun 4 2009, 2:39PM
Maybe the US Isn't So Innovative, After All
Jun 4 2009, 11:15AM
How to Keep the US From Turning Into the Soviet Union
Jun 4 2009, 10:20AM
Hulu Might Start Charging for Content
Jun 3 2009, 5:35PM
Does Microsoft's Bing Ad Blame Google for the Financial Crisis?
Why is Microsoft comparing online searches with the recession? And is it the weirdest indictment of Google you've ever heard?
Jun 3 2009, 3:50PM
Even Tim Geithner Can't Sell His House
Jun 3 2009, 3:15PM
In Recession, Television Beats Clothes, Food and Cars
Jun 3 2009, 12:50PM
Austan Goolsbee is Brilliant, But is He Right?
"Look, we enter the government essentially in a hotel that is on fire. We're throwing people from the windows into the pool to save their lives and this is the evaluation of the Olympic diving committee."Zing! But Goolsbee isn't really answering the question:
Jun 3 2009, 11:10AM
Why Mitt Romney Won't Run GM
I'm not going to disagree with my editor, because 60 percent of me thinks he's right, and the rest of me really likes my job. Instead I'll name the reasons why Mitt Romney will never run General Motors.
Jun 3 2009, 10:35AM
How Health Care Stole Your Pay Raise
Jun 2 2009, 5:23PM
Which State Was Least Great in 2008?
Jun 2 2009, 3:00PM
Do Poor Fat Americans Deserve More Taxes?
Jun 2 2009, 1:56PM
The Chinese Are Buying Hummer. Are You Outraged?
Jun 2 2009, 12:10PM
What's Wrong With Florida and California?
Jun 2 2009, 9:35AM
How GM Could Fail Sooner Than You Think
This month's Atlantic piece Do CEOs Matter? argues that very often they do not. The ethos and worldview of companies are often so homogenous and insular that the chief executive could often be replaced by any number of minions under him. If that is indeed the case, it is not good for GM.
Jun 1 2009, 6:40PM
How Should Obama Run GM?
Jun 1 2009, 2:05PM
How Hearst is Crushing Conde Nast -- For Once
Jun 1 2009, 1:59PM
How GM Could Rebound Sooner Than You Think
That's the tone of most things I'm reading from smart people I trust. But can we imagine a scenario in which GM could come out of this thing looking OK?
Jun 1 2009, 11:15AM
Why Socialists Don't Build Good Cars
Brian Deese [is] a not-quite graduate of Yale Law School who had never set foot in an automotive assembly plant until he took on his nearly unseen role in remaking the American automotive industry.Oh dear.
May 29 2009, 3:40PM
Why in the World is the G20 Meeting in Pittsburgh?
May 29 2009, 12:30PM
Levi's Mannequins for Gay Marriage
May 29 2009, 10:15AM
How the New Google Wave Will Change Emailing, Blogging, Your Life
May 28 2009, 6:59PM
How Harvard University Almost Destroyed Itself
May 28 2009, 3:38PM
The Graph That Will Solve the Financial Crisis
May 28 2009, 1:54PM
Will Microsoft Bing Be a Google-Killer Search Engine?
May 28 2009, 12:50PM
The Stimulus Is Lagging. Why is Obama Bragging?
May 28 2009, 10:10AM
The Case for Taxing Emails
Why would governments do such a thing? To kill spam, save bandwidth, and make a ton of money.
May 27 2009, 3:37PM
Stress Test "Adverse Scenario" Looks a Lot Like Reality, Part II
Today there's another graph that makes it look like we've living through the adverse scenario of our recession:
May 27 2009, 2:30PM
Sonia Sotomayor and the Economics of Gender
But more interesting to me is the question Sotomayor's comment raises: How does experience, gender in particular, impact political judgment?
May 27 2009, 12:35PM
Why I Drink More Alcohol Than You
May 27 2009, 12:15PM
How the Crash Will Reshape the World's Cities
May 27 2009, 10:45AM
Does Unemployment Guide the Stock Market?
May 26 2009, 2:40PM
Should We Blame California's Government or Its Citizens for the Deficit?
May 26 2009, 11:50AM
Two Ways to Talk About Health Care Reform
May 26 2009, 10:30AM
NYT: Texting on Cell Phones Causes Anxiety, Insomnia, Dumbness
May 25 2009, 12:18PM
The Case Against Pennies, Coins and Paper Money
May 25 2009, 9:05AM
Hank Paulson Admits He Doesn't Understand Mortgage Securities
Paulson--by his own admission--was not paying much attention to the way banks were slicing and dicing mortgages and selling them as complex securities. "I didn't understand the retail market; I just wasn't close to it," he told NEWSWEEK.If Newsweek won't play prosecutor, I will: "Hank Paulson, you were Goldman's chief executive as mortgage securities boomed in 2004-5. Your earned an incredible severance, partly because of it. And you say you didn't understand mortgage securities? How is that remotely possible?"
May 22 2009, 2:55PM
Does Twitter Make Blogging Obsolete?
May 22 2009, 11:59AM
The End of Television As You Know It
It's a sorry spectacle -- only the latest sign that television no longer makes sense and we're nearing the end of TV shows as we know them.
May 22 2009, 10:45AM
Gawker's Nick Denton on the Financial Crisis
May 21 2009, 5:21PM
Cheney's Right About Obama
"The administration seems to pride itself on searching for some kind of middle ground... They may take comfort in hearing disagreement from opposite ends of the spectrum. If liberals are unhappy about some decisions, and conservatives are unhappy about other decisions, then it may seem to them that the President is on the path of sensible compromise."Hey Cheney, that's an excellent analysis of Obama's bailout plan! Huh? Let me explain:
May 21 2009, 3:10PM
Why the Banks Are So Eager to Pay Back TARP
Having regained a financial footing as well as a bit of their old swagger, major banks are racing to pay back billions of taxpayer dollars ... Now that big banks seem to have stabilized, regulators are trying to determine how and when these institutions should be allowed to return their bailout money.That's great thing, right? Not exactly, says Ezra Klein:
May 21 2009, 1:01PM
Is the Recession Ending? A Guide to Today's Economic Indicators
May 21 2009, 10:56AM
Should We Blame Congress or the White House for Deficits?
May 21 2009, 9:24AM
In Praise of Sin Taxes for Cigarettes, Soda, Marijuana...
May 20 2009, 2:45PM
Do Journalists Deserve To Be Paid?
Ouch, Picard. Since I've already Twittered about this article (literally) and asked for micropayments from my comment section (still waiting, guys...), I guess the only thing left to do with this piece is blog it. To value creation and beyond!Wages are compensation for value creation. And journalists simply aren't creating much value these days. Until they come to grips with that issue, no amount of blogging, twittering, or micropayments is going to solve their failing business models.
May 20 2009, 11:47AM
Governments Aren't As Bad at Running Companies as You Think
The Obama administration is bent on becoming a major player in -- if not taking over entirely -- America's health-care, automobile and banking industries. Before that happens, it might be a good idea to look at the government's track record in running economic enterprises. It is terrible.No, that's not really true:
May 20 2009, 11:00AM
Is America Better Off Without Conservatives?
May 19 2009, 3:35PM
Google's New Algorithm Can Read Employees' Minds
May 19 2009, 2:05PM
Would Obama Make a Good CEO?
May 19 2009, 12:00PM
Wolfram Alpha, Google and the Future of Search Engines
May 18 2009, 4:33PM
Study: Millennials Really Love Their Big Government
May 18 2009, 12:50PM
In Praise of Calorie-Counting
May 18 2009, 11:05AM
Is the Recession Making You a Nicer Person?
May 8 2009, 10:50AM
Why the Verizon MiFi Could Kill the Cell Phone
Apr 27 2009, 11:34AM
Maybe John Thain Wasn't the (Most) Bad Guy After All
Apr 25 2009, 1:30PM
Why Your Next Credit Card Could Be Backed by Obama
Apr 25 2009, 9:04AM
The Dow Roller Coaster ... As an Actual Roller Coaster
Apr 24 2009, 12:17PM
Jackie Chan and Patriotic Consumption
Apr 24 2009, 11:25AM
Simon Johnson's Not So Quiet Media Coup
Apr 24 2009, 10:26AM
David Brooks' Words of Wisdom for Republicans
Apr 23 2009, 4:12PM
The Daily Show's Silly Sweden "Report"
Apr 23 2009, 12:09PM
What is Obama's Grand Economic Theory?
Apr 23 2009, 10:50AM
L.U.V.ing It: What Letter is This Recession?
Apr 23 2009, 9:46AM
Our Diamond-Shaped Recession: Lasting, but Not Forever
Apr 22 2009, 5:23PM
Should GM Be More Like Amazon.com?
Apr 22 2009, 3:01PM
