Matthew Yglesias

THE EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION RACKET. Direct compensation for top CEO’s went up by “only” 16 percent in 2005 after a more robust 41 percent in 2004. By comparison, median wages increased 3.2 percent in 2005 and somewhat less than that in 2004. Obviously, this is due to a dramatic acceleration in CEO productivity, catapulting the value […]

TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES. We learn in today’s Washington Post that the military is running a covert propaganda campaign aimed at exaggerating the importance of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in particular and al Qaeda in general in Iraq. In theory this is supposed to be aimed at Iraqis (which is legal), but in practice it seems to […]

THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS. If you ask me, the real problem with the Anna Nicole Smith nipple cover is that it doesn’t show enough skin. If you look at Eugene Delacroix‘s original, Liberty Leading the People, the entire right breast is exposed along with a considerable portion of the left. –Matthew Yglesias

PHILOSOPHICAL CLEAN-UP. Tom Friedman says the Bush administration “tried to make history on the cheap. But you can’t will the ends without willing the means. That is Strategic Theory 101, and ignoring it is not just some ‘tactical error.’” It’s not Strategic Theory 101, it’s Philosophy 101 (or, in my case, Philosophy 168) — Friedman’s […]

CAN’T WIN IF YOU DON’T DISAGREE. I’m sensitive to concerns that there are some districts out there where a robust anti-war stance would create problems for Democrats in the fall. On the other hand, as this story indicates there are some GOP incumbents — like Chris Shays — for whom the war is their major […]

THE HIGH PRICE OF IDEALISM. Joe Stiglitz says the Iraq War will cost about $1 trillion if you’re optimistic. Jeff Sachs says that ending poverty worldwide would, if other countries followed America’s lead, require US government expenditures of about $60 billion per year. Even if other countries refused to up their foreign aide in response […]

POSTCARDS FROM MARS. I was going to call the scenario for Iraq outlined in today’s column by David Ignatius a fairy-tale fantasy, but the column does specifically assure me that the bargains he has in mind “are not a fairy-tale fantasy, as some critics argue.” So who’s right? Well, I am. As my mid-March Iraq […]

BETTER THAN KIDDY PORN! This wouldn’t be much of a liberal blog if we didn’t note the arrest of DHS press secretary Brian Doyle on various child sex and kiddy porn charges. Obviously, if you’re looking to stay out of hot water with the law you won’t want to be subscribing to any kiddie porn […]

GOOD FOR HIM. No doubt this is far too late to save his 2008 presidential campaign, but today’s op-ed on Iraq from John Kerry is very good. Read it yourself if you want to know the policy details. I especially like that he’s tapped into the old-school Kerry and brought a little outrage: “Half of […]

DECK CHAIRS, SHUFFLING, SINKING SHIPS. The latest Iraq policy gambit has the US and UK getting behind efforts to remove Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jafari from office and replace him with someone presumably more congenial to Kurdish and Sunni Arab opinion. As Jim Henley observes this seems to reflect “as much as anything the American obsession […]