Ezra Klein

Andrew Sullivan gets righteous: Protesting government spending is meaningless unless you say what you’d cut.If you favor no bailouts, then say so. If you want to see the banking system collapse, then say so. If you think the recession demands no fiscal stimulus, then say so. If you favor big cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, social […]

It’s not the easiest read you’ll come across all day (which is why I’ve attached a picture of an adorable puppy to trick you into read this post), but Alan Sloan’s argument that the government should be “borrowing as much money as it can by selling long-term Treasury securities before the financial world comes to […]

Not to go nutpicking or anything, but if you’re a bailout opponent, I can sort of see the argument for hanging the Democratic leadership — Reid, Pelosi, and arguably Schumer — and the chairmen of the House and Senate banking committees (Frank and Dodd). But there’s really no reason for John Conyers, John Kerry, Hillary […]

I liked this comment from Mark at Baseline Scenario: I worked as a manager for SBC Communications for three years before business school, managing a crew of 10+ technicians, all covered by the CWA union. In comparing my experience in a few different work groups and that of my peers, I observed that a “bad […]

Over at Baseline Scenario, James Kwak raises the issue of whether unions are actually bad for business. That’s certainly what you’d assume, given the scorched-earth tactics many companies employ to block collective bargaining rights. The problem with researching this questions, writes James, is that though it’s easy enough to tally up differences between companies that […]

“Essentially leaderless, lacking a cohesive message and fighting among themselves, Republicans appear to be in disarray,” writes Jay Newton-Small in Time. And I agree! But when did “disarray” become the standard adjective for describing a troubled political party? That sentence, if written about anything else, could have used the word “chaos” or “trouble” or “breakdown.” […]

A Rasmussen Poll released last week found that 37 percent of Americans under age 30 prefer capitalism, 33 percent prefer socialism and 30 percent are undecided. Harold Meyerson archly analyzes the data: The young may now disdain Wall Street — but what do they know of socialism, past and present? Who even speaks of socialism […]

I like the first sentence of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities annual “Where Do Our Federal Tax Dollars Go?” report. “The federal government collects taxes in order to finance various public services.” That’s it. That’s what taxes are. They’re not “money the government takes from you,” but money the government collects in order […]

Will Saletan has a weirdly phrased column on soda taxes that seems to imply some trickery in a fairly straightforward policy proposal. The idea behind soda taxes — or similar taxes on harmful goods — is that they raise revenue (good!) while discouraging something we want less of (also good!). This is in contrast to […]

I’m listening to the Kaiser/Families USA/NFIB breakfast with Nancy DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform. Some people think health reform is boring. Au contraire. There’s a lot of sharp gallows humor! The speaker from Kaiser — I didn’t catch his name — put up a graph tracking the time elapsed between […]