I have to imagine that a large portion of blog readers want to jump off a cliff every time a new Social Security post pops up. It seems, at least it did to me, that one day Matt, Kevin, and Brad awoke, having undergone a Matrix-style download of Social Security data ("I know kung-fu bend points."), forcing the rest of us to read a slew of killer-dull material on the subject. But for those who haven't and are still a bit lost, this NY Review of Books article by Krugman is far and away the best introduction I've seen to the subject. Read it and feel caught-up.

August Pollack thinks my suggestion that whichever party controls the Oval Office during a national crisis can use it to massively enhance their image on national security is implausible. His counter-argument, basically, is that if 9/11 happened in 1998, Republicans would have mauled Clinton over it:

Reacting to Matt's TAP column, Brad Plumer writes: