From this past year Part One

"They will bend the knee or be destroyed."

Excerpt from "Winds of Winter" (Jan. 2, 2012)

...Theon's laugh was half a titter, half a whimper.  "Lord Ramsay is the one Your Grace should fear." 

Stannis bristled at that.  "I defeated your uncle Victarion and his Iron Fleet off Fair Isle, the first time your father crowned himself.  I held Storm's End against the power of the Reach for a year, and took Dragonstone from the Targaryens.  I smashed Mance Rayder at the Wall, though he had twenty times my numbers.  Tell me, turncloak, what battles has the Bastard of Bolton ever won that I should fear him?"

Inflation target tyranny by John Quiggen (Jan. 27, 2012)

Last but not least, a nominal GDP target would create room for fiscal policy as well as monetary policy. What is needed now is the abandonment of counterproductive austerity policies as a response to the slump in Europe and the US. Austerity should be replaced by a combination of short-term fiscal stimulus and long-run measures aimed at a sustainable budget balance. That can only be achieved if central banks co-operate with pro-growth fiscal policy, instead of seeking to counteract it in the name of inflation targets.

Christina Romer on Learning from the Great Depression (Feb. 18, 2012)

 I think that what the Fed needs instead is a regime shift. A number of economists have suggested that the Fed adopt a new framework for monetary policy, like targeting a path for nominal GDP. If the Fed adopted such a nominal GDP target, they would start in some normal year before the crisis and say nominal GDP should have grown at a steady rate since then. Compared with that baseline, nominal GDP is dramatically lower today. Pledging to get back to the pre-crisis path for nominal GDP would commit the Fed to much more aggressive policy – perhaps more quantitative easing and deliberate actions to talk down the dollar. Such a strong change in the policy framework could have a dramatic effect on expectations, and hence on the behavior of consumers and businesses.

Game of Thrones: Season 2 teaser (Feb. 27, 2012)

Season 2 Trailer: Power and Grace

Valar Morghulis (March 3, 2012)

Kenyan Socialism has two mottos. Eppur Si Muove and Valar Morghulis (Old Valyrian for: "all men must die").

"Dornish law does not apply." Tyrion had been so ensnared in his own troubles that he'd never stopped to consider the succession. "My father will crown Tommen, count on that."

"He may indeed crown Tommen, here in King's Landing. Which is not to say that my brother may not crown Myrcella, down in Sunspear. Will your father make war on your niece on behalf of your nephew? Will your sister?" [Oberyn] gave a shrug. "Perhaps I should marry Queen Cersei after all, on the condition that she support her daughter over her son. Do you think she would?"

Never, Tyrion wanted to say, but the word caught in his throat.... "I don't know how my sister would choose, between Tommen and Myrcella," he admitted. "It makes no matter. My father will never give her that choice."

"Your father," said Prince Oberyn, "may not live forever."

Something about the way he said it made the hairs on the back of Tyrion's neck bristle. Suddenly he was mindful of Elia again, and all that Oberyn had said as they crossed the field of ash. He wants the head that spoke the words, not just the hand that swung the sword. "It is not wise to speak such treasons in the Red Keep, my prince. The little birds are listening."

"Let them. Is it treason to say a man is mortal? Valar morghulis was how they said it in Valyria of old. All men must die. And the Doom came and proved it true."

        George R.R. Martin -- A Storm of Swords

THE FIGHT OVER THE CATO INSTITUTE: JUDEAN PEOPLE'S LIBERATION FRONT/PEOPLE'S LIBERATION FRONT OF JUDEA BLOGGING by DeLong (March 8, 2012)

Charles Evans's Odyssean Strategy (March 26, 2012)

Charles Evans and friends on the Odyssean strategy

Circumstances will tempt the FOMC to renege on these promises precisely because the policy rule describes its preferred behavior. Hence this kind of forward guidance resembles Odysseus commanding his sailors to tie him to the ship's mast so that he can enjoy the Sirens' music.

And a little meta-humor in the first footnote! Very David Foster Wallacian. (below)

1 Since one of the authors regularly attends meetings of the FOMC, perhaps it is tempting to just ask him this question directly. The vantage point of this paper is a research inquiry: how can these questions be answered from the standpoint of economic researchers with only publicly-available information?