A Discordian Dilemma
09/02/2009
“ Monetary excesses were the main cause of the boom. The Fed held its target interest rate, especially in 2003-2005, well below known monetary guidelines that say what good policy should be based on historical experience. Keeping interest rates on the track that worked well in the past two decades, rather than keeping rates so low, would have prevented the boom and the bust. Researchers at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development have provided corroborating evidence from other countries: The greater the degree of monetary excess in a country, the larger was the housing boom. „
How Government Created the Financial Crisis By John B. Taylor
Quote posted at 16:53
08/02/2009
“ CBO anticipates that the current recession, which started in December 2007, will last until the second half of 2009, making it the longest recession since World War II. (The longest such recessions otherwise, the 1973–1974 and 1981–1982 recessions, both lasted 16 months. If the current recession were to continue beyond midyear, it would last at least 19 months.) It could also be the deepest recession during the postwar period: By CBO’s estimates, economic output over the next two years will average 6.8 percent below its potential—that is, the level of output that would be produced if the economy’s resources were fully employed (see Figure 1). This recession, however, may not result in the highest unemployment rate. That rate, in CBO’s forecast, rises to 9.2 percent by early 2010 (up from a low of 4.4 percent at the end of 2006) but is still below the 10.8 percent rate seen near the end of the 1981–1982 recession. „
Quote posted at 19:49
“ Most conservatives believe that America will back them if they simply stand firm on their principles. But that’s not enough because today’s liberal dominance in Washington reflects American attitudes more than we’d like to admit. The economy, demographic shifts and having a skilled liberal communicator as president make it insufficient for conservative officeholders to abide by their principles. „
How can Republicans repair their brand? by Ernest Istook
Quote posted at 07:27
05/02/2009
“ An artificial appropriation of different styles from different eras, the hipster represents the end of Western civilization – a culture lost in the superficiality of its past and unable to create any new meaning. Not only is it unsustainable, it is suicidal. While previous youth movements have challenged the dysfunction and decadence of their elders, today we have the “hipster” – a youth subculture that mirrors the doomed shallowness of mainstream society. „
Quote posted at 20:51
“ At no period in American history has our democracy been in such peril or has the possibility of totalitarianism been as real. Our way of life is over. Our profligate consumption is finished. Our children will never have the standard of living we had. And poverty and despair will sweep across the landscape like a plague. This is the bleak future. There is nothing President Obama can do to stop it. It has been decades in the making. It cannot be undone with a trillion or two trillion dollars in bailout money. Our empire is dying. Our economy has collapsed. „
It’s Not Going to Be OK By Chris Hedges
Quote posted at 08:01
04/02/2009
“ This yearning for a more powerful progressive voice at the court itself encompasses several distinct criticisms. The first is that the court’s liberals are just not very persuasive. As Stone explained to Liptak, what’s missing at the court is someone to “pull the other justices who are inclined to be sympathetic to that voice in that direction.” Why, in other words, can’t Ginsburg or Souter just get Justice Kennedy on speed dial? Whether they persuade by the force of their personality, a la Brennan; or their life story, a la Marshall; or their browbeating analysis, a la Scalia, the big justices tend to be the ones with the big ideas. Once in a while, Breyer or Ginsburg has a big idea. But for the most part, the court’s liberals work the law as if they were working a crossword puzzle, “Um. Honey, what’s a seven-letter word for ‘suspend the right of habeas corpus’? „
I Need a Hero: Seeking a bomb-throwing, passionate, visionary, liberal Scalia for a seat on the Supreme Court. by Dahlia Lithwick
Quote posted at 19:48
03/02/2009
“ The right had a chance of prevailing, but only if it attracted the broad base of voters who were non-ideological and, in some cases, not even attached to either major party. To attract these voters in the middle, the GOP had to acknowledge that most were as dependent on big government as Chambers’s Maryland neighbors had been. What was more, amid the upheavals of the ’60s citizens wanted government—specifically the federal government—to exert the authority Burke and Disraeli had claimed for it. It made no sense for conservatives to attack “statism” when it was institutions of “the State” that formed the bedrock of civil society. „
Conservatism Is Dead by Sam Tanenhaus
Quote posted at 11:13
29/01/2009
“ Osama bin Laden is the most important political theorist of our times, the only major international figure who has conceived an effective means of combating the Squish. How effective, and for how long, remains to be seen. Even someone like Hassan Nasrallah has been coopted and subverted by the Squish, and Hezbollah apes past violent revolutionary groups by becoming a part of the apparatus of their state. Of course, terrorism can’t destroy the Squish. It’s too big. But they can perhaps keep it hungry and unstable, all-consumptive until it pops. „
The Squish from Who Is IOZ?
Quote posted at 20:10
28/01/2009
“ There’s no doubt that the public perception is that things are getting worse, and that kids are having sex younger and are much wilder than they ever were,” said Kathleen A. Bogle, an assistant professor of sociology and criminal justice at La Salle University. “But when you look at the data, that’s not the case. „
The Myth of Rampant Teenage Promiscuity by Tara Parker-Pope
Quote posted at 07:19
27/01/2009
“ I think that our leadership, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, are taking the right approach,” Gingrey said. “I mean, it’s easy if you’re Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh or even sometimes Newt Gingrich to stand back and throw bricks. You don’t have to try to do what’s best for your people and your party. You know you’re just on these talk shows and you’re living well and plus you stir up a bit of controversy and gin the base and that sort of that thing. But when it comes to true leadership, not that these people couldn’t be or wouldn’t be good leaders, they’re not in that position of John Boehner or Mitch McConnell. „
House GOP member to Rush: Back off By Jonathan Martin
Quote posted at 22:08
