New Wes Anderson movie where the female lead reminds one of Hermione Granger/Emma Watson with her youthful earnestness. Via Slate:



New Van Halen song. Do the lyrics include "tattoo" and "dragon"?

How Is It Possible The Fed's Image Can Be Tarnished Further? by Baker

Addendum: This is what people who were not Greenspan sycophants were saying at the time.

Robert Shiller also called the bubble but now is speaking of a "bond bubble" which makes me wonder.

Elite Expert Fail

Fed’s image tarnished by newly released documents by Zachary Goldfarb

Wasn't it already?

In the six years since, Greenspan’s record — seemingly so sterling when he left the central bank after 18 years — has come under substantial criticism from outside economists and analysts. Many say a range of Fed policies under his watch contributed to the financial crisis, including keeping interest rates low for too long, failing to take action to stem the housing bubble and allowing inadequate oversight of financial firms.

Isn't it a conservative complaint that Greenspan kept rates too low for too long? Does it hold up poorly like every other one of their talking points?

In Fed Officials’ 2006 Meetings, No Deep Worry on Housing by Binyamin Appelbaum

One fundamental reason for this blindness was that Fed officials did not understand how deeply intertwined the housing sector and financial markets had become. They also were convinced that financial innovations, by distributing the risk of losses more broadly, had increased the strength and resilience of the system as a whole.

“I would say that the capital markets are probably more profitable and more robust at this moment, or at least going into the six-week opportunity, than they have perhaps ever been,” Kevin Warsh, the Fed governor who watched Wall Street most closely [and young Bush appointee who quit], said at the meeting in September 2006. Three months later Mr. Warsh said almost exactly the same thing. He did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment Thursday.

For the Fed 2006 began with the departure of Mr. Greenspan, who presided in January over his final meeting as Fed chairman and was then widely regarded as the epitome of a central banker, a master who had guided the American economy through almost 20 years of remarkably consistent growth.

“I’d like the record to show that I think you’re pretty terrific, too,” Mr. Geithner said in adding his voice to the chorus of tributes at that final meeting. “And thinking in terms of probabilities, I think the risk that we decide in the future that you’re even better than we think is higher than the alternative.”

Ms. Yellen said: “It’s fitting for Chairman Greenspan to leave office with the economy in such solid shape. The situation you’re handing off to your successor is a lot like a tennis racquet with a gigantic sweet spot.”

Why We Listen to Paul Krugman: The Balance of Macroeconomic Risks in the Summer of 2006 Department by DeLong


There Is No Bubble and Even if There Is It's Not a Problem... by Thoma

Monetary Witchcraft by Yglesias

Fire Congress, Dump Mississippi and Alaska: How a private-equity firm would refurbish the United States for quick resale to China. by Will Oremus

Jane and John Carter

Paula Patton was really, really good as Jane Carter in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Now I want to see Jumping the Broom! She was in Just Wright, Precious, Deja Vu, Swing Vote and Hitch. John Carter looks good. The title character is a Victorian Brit who can jump real high and excels at killing alien creatures and giving Braveheart/St. Crispin's Day motivational speeches. The preview has music which sounds like a rip-off of Zeppelin's Kashmir.

Sassy Angel by Lorrie Moore

Mark Weisbrot on the American Economics Association annual meeting in Chicago

But a rapid descent into hell was imminent. Former CBO director Douglas Holtz-Eakin was next, talking about the need to "repair" social security and Medicare. The United States has all the characteristics of countries that run into trouble, he said. Then he warned that the US is going to end up like Greece. This is one of the dumbest things that anyone with an economics degree can say. 
...

During the discussion, Blinder – who identified himself as a Democrat – expressed his frustration in not being able to convince fellow Democrats to cut social security. Double yuck. The average social security check is about $1,177 a month, and a majority of senior citizens are getting most of their meager income from social security. Why these people insist on creating more poverty among the elderly, especially when the program is solvent for decades to come, is beyond me.
...

What the budget hawks are basically telling us is that we must assume that insurance and pharmaceutical companies will have a veto over the provisions of healthcare reform for decades to come. And that, therefore, we must find other ways to make up for these excessive costs, including cutting social security and other government spending, and pushing us into higher rates of poverty and inequality than we already have.

And even worse in the short run, all this crap about the deficit and the debt will be used to block the necessary stimulus measures – "stimulus" has already become a dirty word that Democratic politicians are afraid to utter. This means high unemployment and a lot of unnecessary misery in the world's richest country for the foreseeable future.

A dismal performance for the dismal science, on some of the most important issues of the day. Of course, there are other economists, including Nobel Prize winners such as Paul Krugman, Joe Stiglitz and Robert Solow (full disclosure: the latter two are members of CEPR's advisory board), who would offer more sensible views. But this panel was, sadly, representative of economists with the most influence on public policy.

Van Halen tour with David Lee Roth

I saw a good documentary on hardcore punk with interviews with Ian MacKay and Henry Rollins among others. Bands mentioned in no order: D.O.A., Minor Threat, Black Flag, Bad Brains, Dead Kennedys (? more traditional punk), Circle Jerks, Germs, Fear, Jerry's Kids, Gang Green, SS Decontrol, Negative FX, Agnostic Front, Minutemen, the Misfits, Negative Approach, MDC and many others. Many hated Ronnie Raygun and put photos of him on their concert flyers.

Hitchens on Reagan

More on the Celebrations Over the December Jobs Report by Baker

The Soft Bigotry of Low Employment Expectations by Krugman

Rushdie on Hitchens

Charles Dickens's Inner Child by Hitchens

How Many Stephen Colberts Are There? by Charles McGrath

The reincarnation of Keynesian Economics by Greg Mankiw

(via Krugman)

What are asset bubbles and why do they happen? by Noah Smith

excerpt from The Winds of Winter

Winter Is Coming

Did a 2011 overview here. Discussed The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo here.

Forgot to mention Johnny Depp's second Hunter S. Thompson movie The Rum Diary, where Thompson puts the bastards on notice. Also, there was the George R.R. Martin's A Dance of Dragons and HBO's Game of Thrones. 

Tyrion Lannister was great and the scene of Eddard Stark's execution was the most shocking and heartbreaking scene I've witnessed in a while, with the man from the Nightswatch Yoren clutching Arya and yelling at her "Look at me! Look at me!" And afterwards she looks at the blue sky where a flock of birds flies.

Really enjoyed The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I liked the Karen O, Trent Reznor, and Atticus Finch cover of Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" at the opening and the Swedish setting with its social democratic trains. It was funny that the killer listened to Enya and Mikael Blomkvist sported dark speedo underwear. Hopefully they'll make it into a franchise as has been suggested.



The late, great Hitchens on Stieg Larsson, his books and Sweden, published in December 2009.

The Problem by Krugman

Richard Koo has another paper on balance sheet recession out (pdf), with good charts for a number of countries. I still have some differences with him over monetary policy — I still don’t understand why he doesn’t see debt-eroding inflation as something helpful in dealing with debt overhang — but his view of the sources of our Lesser Depression is completely right.

Triffin's Dilemma And the Global Safety Shortage by Yglesias

What a weird year 2011 was. The highlight was meeting Laetitia Sadier. Steely Dan at the Ravinia Theater was amazing. Also, Calexico covering Love was a great moment. Also, Archers of Loaf rocking out at the Onion Blockparty. The movie Drive was cool. Christina Romer wrote about NGP level targeting, Bernanke was annoyed when asked about it and a Time columnist wrote in support of it. Chicago Fed President Charles Evans stepping up and arguing that the Fed should do more.

The fall of Saddam led to Tahir square and Dan "Double D" Davies sparked Occupy Wall Street with a Crooked Timber post. The European Feedback Cycle of Doom kicks in after the ECB raised rates in April. Muammar Gaddafi, Osama bin Laden, Václav Havel, Kim Jong-il and Christopher Hitchens all die.

Pepper-spraying cop at UC Davis.

Hitchens on North Korea.