Hitchens on 9/11 ten years later

Treasuries, TIPS, and Gold (Wonkish) by Krugman


Currency Wars Could Save the World by Yglesias

When the moon is round and full, gonna teach you tricks that will blow your mind

Rosenberg on True Blood:

I did actually think that moment in the show was handled well, with some real emotional grounding and force. Alcide’s efforts to stay with Debbie have been one of the most consistently-rendered storylines this season, each time bringing Alcide closer and closer to his limits. First, he’s joining a new pack, even if he’s not particularly comfortable with the people in it, as a way to try to help Debbie stay clean. He’s resisting Sookie, even though she might be an easier partner. And he’s stood by Marcus up to the point when it became clear that his packmaster wasn’t man enough to do his own fighting, much less enough wolf. But Debbie’s infidelity, her role in stealing someone else’s child, are too much, and True Blood made us feel the force of Alcide’s ritual without explaining it into the ground.

Meredith Woerner:

Pro: In spite of Debbie's GIGANTIC flaws and mistakes, she insists that she loves Alcide. I know I'm a Debbie sympathizer, but out of all the incredibly unrealistic turns and twists a show about vampires having sex inflicts on its audience week after week, Debbie does appear to act like an actual human being. She's an addict, she makes horrible decisions, she plagued by her past, and hounded (GET IT?!?) by Alcide's obvious infatuation with Sookie. Yes, OF COURSE she was going to fuck this all up. I'm not making excuses for her, I'm just happy that out of all the jumbled plots on this show, Debbie's continues to be the most surprisingly realistic (again, for a show about vampires that have sex with each other). Of course she's not going to run away with Mr. He-who-pauses-awkwardly-in-speeches, Marcus. She's in love with Alcide. Debbie is going to do everything in her power to try and fix their relationship, which probably means burning whatever little bits of happiness they have left to the ground and then pissing on the embers. As messed up as she is, everything she does makes sense for her character.

Two Views of Fiscal Headwinds by Jared Bernstein

True Blood recap (last show before season finale) by Meredith Woerner

Krugman: the beatings will continue until morale improves

When the recession officially ended, [government] spending was rising at an annual rate of around $60 billion; now it’s declining at an annual rate of $60 billion. That difference is around 1 percent of GDP, and maybe 1.5 percent once you take the multiplier into account. That makes the turn toward austerity a major factor in our growth slowdown.

Debt, Deleveraging and the Liquidity Trap

LIBOR

What's in a number?

Team Debbie

Not wonkish, but too-much-information-ish ... I ran across a bad-ass ex-girlfriend at the local Starbucks this morning. Hadn't seen her in years. She sort of reminds me of Debbie Pelt and vicey versey. Since we broke up, she had gone to rehab and hooked up with one of her bad-ass ex-boyfriends that she used to date before we had met. He's her age whereas I'm 8 years older.

On True Blood, Alcide seems more interested in Sookie and helping other people like Sam, than in Debbie. With me, I'm too interested in the things I blog about, like True Blood, politics and economics, things which didn't interest my ex. Plus she ran with the pack who work bars and restaurants and stay out all night, while I had a 9-5 office job.

DeLong on Gauss (wonkish)

Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss said that when you are analyzing variability, you should measure it by squaring deviations from the average and then averaging those squared deviations.

Jonathan Chait on FDR and Reagan's re-elections.

... That caveat aside, this sounds like pure delusion. Roosevelt in 1936 and Reagan in 1984 had high unemployment, yes. But they also had very rapid economic growth. Here's the picture in 1936:

And 1984:

These were situations where the public could discern rapid improvement from a bad situation. No such thing is likely to be the case next year. 1936 and 1984 are not good lessons. They're counter-examples, like learning how to handle a drought by studying what happened during Hurricane Katrina.

Dennis Lockhart, President and CEO of the Atlanta Fed discusses the structural adjustment of deleveraging

Men and Women to Avoid

Match them up

Bank of England's Adam Posen backs more QE

(via Yglesias)

Part 1 of CNBC interview with Charles Evans, President of the Chicago Fed

Part 2

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Charles Evans of the Chicago Fed is a Mensch, and He Sees the Situation Clearly by DeLong

Martin Wolf on the "second great contraction"

(via Krugman)

Yes, We Can Do Stimulus Without Adding Debt. Here’s How. by Robert Shiller

Dean Baker has a new book