Janet Yellen: yes we are failing.

Maddening Monetary Policy Making by Tim Duy

Charlie Rose had a show on the anniversary of Hitchens's birthday yesterday which included Salman Rushdie, James Fenton, Ian McEwan and Martin Amis.

They captured how generous and democratic he was socially with impeccable manners and had one of the best senses of humor around. He was also very tough and "honorable." Rushdie who is very funny, describes himself crying he was laughing so hard with Hitchens one night and McEwan said he'd get stomach cramps from all the laughter. Amis had some great anecdotes also. And Fenton was right to describe him as the spirit of '68.

Rushdie's memoir will drop Sept. 17. It's called Joseph Anton after the name he took when in hiding from Iran's supreme leader's fatwa. He derived it from the first names of two of his favorite authors, Conrad and Chekov.

HBO picked up Game of Thrones for a third season.

Some Reflections on the Crisis and the Policy Response by Ben Bernanke

(via DeLong)

Dean Baker reduces uncertainty

Inflation: The Secret Answer to the Eurozone Crisis by Baker

Some people argue that Ned Stark had too much honor or was a fool. But Janos Slynt, (former) commander of the city watch, found out that having no honor doesn't benefit you either. Tyrion doesn't trust him and sent him to the Wall. Being too wised-up or cynical can make you a fool as well.

The Night Lands
(or a Song of Ice and Fire
or on HBO Sunday night is Onion knight)

Religion, theology and the supernatural figured prominently in the second show of the second sesason of Game of Thones. Rakharo could or could not enter the Dothraki afterlife. The Greyjoys uttered their religious callout-saying*: "What's Dead May Never Die" to their Drowned God. The small council pondered how do you kill a dead man. With fire apparently, replied Tyrion. He said he believes Mormont whom he met on his trip to the Wall, while Maester Pycelle said the notherners have always been superstitious. Davos Seaworth told his "True Believer" son Matthos that prayer doesn't work, but no reflection on how Melisandre the Red Priestess survived drinking the poison last episode? Melisandre tells Stannis he must give all of him to the Lord of Light in exchange for victory while Jon Snow stumbled upon the arrangement Craster has with The Others.

One thing mind-blowing about the first season what how the premiere episode had The Others arranging wildling body parts in a gnostic circle for the luckless Nightswatch ranger to find.** And then the season finale had a shot of Khal Drogo's funeral pyre which formed a gnostic circle also. And the dragon eggs hatched.

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*I can't find what this is called and it's making me feel stupid (although maybe there isn't a specific word for it). It's a religious phrase automatically said in response to some other religious word or phrase, usually in unison by everyone present. I now it's done in Islam and Catholicism. In this episode, the Greyjoys are saying in response to the naming of a deceased relative.
**And then The Others quickly took the wildling body parts back (to eat?).

Because the stakes are so small by Steve Randy Waldman

Black Sabbath rumored to headline Lollapalooza along with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Black Keys.

The Cash Nexus (or - almost - everyone has a price) 


The Sellsword Bronn tells Tryion he'd kill babies for a price. Tyrion had told Slynt he had no honor something Bronn admits to. I think back to Ned telling Varys that his life wasn't so precious to him that he would dishonor it. And for Littlefinger, it's accumulate, accumulate, accumulate.

Game of Thrones Week 2: Who Watches the Watchers? by Charlie Jane Anders

"The Night Lands" (for experts) Onion recap

Many comments.

"The Night Lands" (for newbies) Onion recap

Good comments too!

Happy Zombie Jesus Day!

Welfare Limits Left Poor Adrift as Recession Hit

David Simon is tired of your love for The Wire

In a typically contentious New York Times interview, the guy who would probably appreciate it if we didn’t refer to him as “Wire creator” waxed crotchety over his exhaustion with all the too-late love for the show, which could have used that sort of attention when it was still on the air. Because, like the scrappy punk band that only sold a handful of records in its heyday, but now everyone is so into it, you just weren’t there, man: 

Damsels in Distress Onion review

My pick for the three dragonriders who will conquer Westeros are Old Nan, Hodor and Patchface.

The Red Priestess

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

Camila Vallejo, the World’s Most Glamorous Revolutionary

 
Spain Jolts Euro Zone Back on Alert

"Embarrass the Future"? by Linda Greenhouse

The chief justice’s concurring opinion in the strip search case, only three paragraphs long, is interesting for a reason beyond what it might suggest about intramural stress. Here is the final paragraph:

“The court makes a persuasive case for the general applicability of the rule it announces. The court is nonetheless wise to leave open the possibility of exceptions, to ensure that we not ‘embarrass the future.’ ”

“Embarrass the future”? The quote, from a 1944 opinion by Justice Felix Frankfurter in a tax case, is usually offered to mean that the court shouldn’t encumber itself by declaring solutions to problems that have yet to emerge. Maybe that’s all the chief justice meant. But John Roberts is both a careful prose stylist and a man acutely conscious of his and the court’s place in history. There are so many other ways of expressing a minimalist impulse than this unconventional use of the word “embarrass” that I have to wonder whether he didn’t have in mind the prospect of institutional embarrassment, and not only in the case at hand.

Feldstein v. Lazear on the Size of the Output Gap by EconoSpeak (ProGrowthLiberal)

Lazear wants us to believe that the economy could have continued to grow by 3.4% per year since 2007QIV even though average growth was less than 2.5% for the 2001 to 2007 period. If that claim had any credence then potential real GDP would have been almost $15.3 trillion as of 2011QIV as opposed to actual real GDP being only $13.4 trillion. In other words, Lazear wants us to believe that the current GDP gap is 12%. Not that anyone should believe such nonsense but isn’t it interesting that Dr. Feldstein is worried that we may be overestimating the GDP gap.

Republicans are simultaneously pushing two themes. One theme is that current Federal Reserve policy is endangering an inflationary spiral, which seems to be the concern of Dr. Feldstein. The other theme is that the Obama Administration is somehow making the recession worse, which Dr. Lazear was so happy to echo. Funny thing – these two themes appear to be contradictory.

(via Thoma)

Cold Winds Are Rising.

Briefly, three things struck me about last night's Game of Thrones season 2 opener. I liked how they used the red comet in the sky to shift scenes from Bran at Winterfell to Daenerys in the Red Wastes of Esteros to Jon Snow north of the Wall to Stannis Baratheon on Dragonstone. There was also the symmetry of the new kings standing up to their respective strong-willed mothers: Robb to Catelyn and Joffrey to Cersei. (Turns out they should heed their mothers' advice.)

Also during the small council meeting, Maester Pycelle displayed the white raven from the Citadel in Oldtown which means the maesters had determined the long summer was over and Winter is Coming. Littlefinger noted they had enough wheat for 5 years but if the winter lasted longer, well they'd have fewer peasants, of course.

For some reason this reminded me of macroeconomic policy discussion. In the United States, the Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is generally seen as the authority for dating US recessions just as the conclave of maesters date the seasons in Westeros. And it reminded me of the way elite policymakers take an "objective" view of the fates of the "small people." Fewer peasants if they didn't store enough wheat? No biggie. Transforming cyclical unemployment into long-term unemployment and degrading the nation's productive capacity with a prolonged output gap? Oh well, won't really effect our social circle, just the common people, who as Jorah Mormont said "don't care about the games the high lords play" and only "pray for rain, health and a summer that never ends."

Charlie Jane Anders recap of season 2 episode 1 "The North Remembers"

(A couple of side notes: first, when Cersei makes a fuss over Littlefinger's mockingbird pin, was I the only one who went, "OMG, Littlefinger's in league with Katniss"? And second, the only pornotastic moment in the episode, in Littlefinger's brothel, involves newbie sex workers getting schooled in the art of fakery, underscoring that for Littlefinger, both knowledge and falsehood are power.)*

George R.R. Martin’s A Song Of Ice And Fire by Genevieve Koski and Tasha Robinson

The North Remembers (for experts) - the Onion recap

(good comment section. Spoilers by the barrel-full.)

The North Remembers (for newbies) - the Onion recap

What I find myself drawn to in the books and show are the characters who have a sense of honor and goodness.** Tyrion, Ser Jorah Mormont, Ser Barristan Selmy, Davos Seaworth and Brienne Tarth. I find it compelling even if some of them might in some people's minds have too much honor (like Ned Stark and Stannis). It makes a nice contrast in a world of such cruelty. As Robert Baratheon tells Cersei, "that's all the realm is now: backstabbing and scheming and ass-licking and money-grubbing." And then with Joffrey the people get another evil, capricious dictator not unlike the "Mad King" Aerys Targaryen who the Houses Stark, Baratheon, and Arryn rebelled against (with the Lannisters coming in at the very end).
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* The Hunger Games soundtrack is doing well with two bands Krugman has promoted at his blog: The Civil Wars and Arcade Fire (although Arcade Fire were already huge.) There's also Neko Case who I love and Taylor Swift who I like but feel somehow I shouldn't like. She's too pop? Too young?

** I'm also drawn to the characters who are sort of cheeky, brave, fearless-in-a-way and smart-asses like Tyrion (who isn't afraid of his sister and talks back to his father) and Oberyn Martell who fights the Mountain - Jaime to an extent but for him its almost to a fault - and Renly Baratheon in the book. In the show to me he's painted as being more resentful of his brother Robert. In the book he comes off as more devil-may care (which turns out badly for him) although I like the actor who plays him in the show.