This past episode (21) of New Girl titled "Kids" had Zooey Deschanel mentioning Bridge to Terabithia* and for some reason she reminded me of the lovely actress Debra Winger with her kind blue eyes, raspy voice, and mischievious smile. (Maybe Winger could play her mother. Or Deschanel could make a remake of Legal Eagles.)

I recently saw 21 Jump Street which was created in part by DeLong's cousin Phil Lord. Jake Johnson from New Girl was in it, as was Nick Offerman. It was pretty funny. Offerman also had a bit part in the very funny Will Ferrell movie Casa di mi Padre.



For some reason Blogger force me to redesign the blog. The links on the right are messed-up and will be fixed.

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* Deschanel's character Jess said it was movie that made children cry. As an adult I thought it was pretty sad. Deschanel had a supporting role playing a teacher, just as Jess is a teacher.

Remembering Christopher Hitchens by David Remnick

The speaker that struck me most deeply was the first: James Fenton. A superior poet, and perhaps the greatest reader of poetry in the English-speaking world, Fenton opened the program by reciting verse of his own:

What would the dead want from us
Watching from their cave?
Would they have us forever howling?
Would they have us rave
Or disfigure ourselves, or be strangled
Like some ancient emperor’s slave?

None of my dead friends were emperors
With such exorbitant tastes
And none of them were so vengeful
As to have all their friends waste
Waste quite away in sorrow
Disfigured and defaced.

I think the dead would want us
To weep for what they have lost.
I think that our luck in continuing
Is what would affect them most.
But time would find them generous
And less self-engrossed.

And time would find them generous
As they used to be
And what else would they want from us
Than an honoured place in our memory,
favourite room, a hallowed chair,
Privilege and celebrity?

And so the dead might cease to grieve
And we might make amends
And there might be a pact between
Dead friends and living friends.
What our dead friends would want from us
Would be such living friends.

Birthday anniversary discussion on Charlie Rose show with Rose, James Fenton, Salman Rushie, Ian, McEwan, and Martin Amis.

Know Thy Enemy

Really, Mr. Chait, Really? by Greg Mankiw
On July 1st, Mankiw who advises Romney and was CEA Chair for George W. Bush, will be rewarded for his schoozing on behalf of the one percent* and will become chairman of the Harvard econ department.

The upside is that he'll be blogging less. For example just the other day he posted a Dilbert cartoon strip. I've always hated Dilbert with a burning passion. When ever someone likes Dilbert, it's a bad sign.

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* For instance in the famous 2008 Summers econ memo to Obama, Mankiw denied to say that any stimulus was needed. And this is who Harvard choses to head their econ department?

Inflationistas*

Is Inflation a Highly Regressive tax on wages? by Dean Baker

Much Ado About Zero (Wonkish) by Krugman

In Wicksellian Terms, It Is Easier for a Central Bank to Alter the Nominal Market Rate of Interest than for It to Alter the Nominal Natural Rate of Interest: Why the Zero Lower Bound Matters by DeLong

As I see it, having high unemployment is a regressive tax on the "middle class." Government policies are structuring the market so that we have slow growth and high unemployment. Wages don't rise with productivity. Inequality rises though.

That last time wages rose with productivity was in the late '90s, something candidate Obama pointed out to BusinessWeek and the Wall Street Journal.

When the economy isn't running at capacity, the government is engineering a regressive tax on wages.

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*Inflationistas want low inflation and slow growth

 
R'hllor, The Lord of Light

The night is dark and full of terrors,
but the fire burns them all away

The Drowned God

What's dead may never die,
but rises again harder and stronger

Simpsons tribute to the Game of Thrones opening credits at :23.

The NYT Doesn't Like Argentina's Decision to Nationalize Repsol by Dean Baker

Occupy the Peter G. Peterson Institute! by Ezra Klein

On Game of Thrones, everyone’s a king, and children are pawns by Charlie Jane Anders (episode 3 recap)

Alas poor Yoren! I knew him well.
(or the dragons are gone....)

"What's Dead May Never Die" Onion recap (for experts)

Good comments.


"What's Dead May Never Die" Onion recap (for newbies)

More good comments.

Greg Mankiw hides the role of government in redistributing income upwards by Dean Baker

This is no doubt how Mitt Romney and other wealthy people would like the public to see the debate. However the reality is that the government has implemented a wide range of policies that have led to a massive upward redistribution of before tax income over the last three decades. These policies have affected every corner of the market economy.

I heard comedian Judah Friedlander talking on the radio about the entertainment industry and he made a very good point about those who succeed are usually good schmoozers. The context was he said that it's part of the reason why comedy films are bad these days in that people who rise to the top are often good schmoozers but not good film-makers, actors etc. He then said it's true in every industry and line of work and I agree. They are smart about schmoozing and work hard at schmoozing and then once installed have sort of an inefficent crony capitalism.

I watched Parks and Recreation but didn't watch the first run of 30 Rock because I had a crush on Tina Fey during her "Weekend Update" and Sarah Palin impersonation years and it's very, very weird and wrong to have a crush on a TV personality. So you shouldn't encourage it. Friedlaner is on 30 Rock and lately I've been watching the reruns which are addictive.

One of the tenets of "Kenyan Socialism" is that the U.S. is a schmoozocracy. The ruling elite would have you believe it's a meritocracy but it's not.

I See No Way to Read This from Greg Mankiw Other than as the Strongest Possible Endorsement of Obama and the Democrats by DeLong