Tim Fernholz

It’s been a bit since we talked economics, but Steven Pearlstein makes the argument against recapitalization and in favor of buying toxic securities: Now, many of the same people are shocked — shocked! — to discover that the banks aren’t using the money to make new loans to households and businesses, as they had assumed, […]

This one is tougher! Especially after a conference call this morning with David Plouffe, who sounded pleased as he rattled off early vote numbers, which are very high, trending Dem and also contain a high percentage of sporadic or newly registered voters. Plouffe also announced that Obama will be airing ads in Georgia, North Dakota, […]

Example 1: Former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger, who endorsed McCain, says “I don’t think at the moment [Sarah Palin] is prepared to take over the reigns of the presidency.” He then says that, in time, she may be “adequate.” A ringing endorsement for the vice-presidential nominee. One wonders if the gold-star feminists on the […]

With the news that our economy is now contracting — for the first time since 1991 — at .03 percent annually, few could deny that a recession has begun. The hit mainly comes from contracting consumer spending in response to job losses and other economic problems. The candidates used the news to snipe at each […]

In jumping-the-shark news, a press release of staggering importance: Yes, JTP has hired a Nashville-based public relations firm to represent him in all his dealings with the press. No word yet on if the retainer for his public relations team counts as a tax write-off for his hypothetical plumbing business. But many experts counsel blue-collar […]

Jay Newton-Small wonders why Sarah Palin is giving a series of policy speeches this week. I think Newton-Small is implying that Palin is trying to build herself up for 2012, but the real reason the McCain campaign has her on this task, I propose, is simply because voters don’t take her very seriously as a […]

It’s a heady return to the old all-Palin, all-the-time days of early September here at TAPPED, and I for one won’t be left out. ABC’s Imtiyaz Delawala notes that Palin has been getting way out front of, well, everyone, in going after Obama’s utterly anodyne radio interview from 2001. You’d like a taste? “There he […]

The Obama campaign has a new widget detailing McCain’s budget proposals that’s worth looking at. I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that these kinds of interactive, multimedia message devices are the future of political campaigning, or at least the future of political nerdery. But check it out, because it’s pretty informative, […]

A press release touting a new ad from the McCain campaign. Let’s take a look … The ad is even more pertinent today as Haaretz reports that French President Nicolas Sarkozy views Barack Obama’s Iran position as “utterly immature” and based on “formulations empty of all content.” Huh. Nice to see the GOP and the […]

Yesterday, I commented on the state of conservative thought, the folks at Culture 11 picked up on it, and Helen Rittelmeyer had this to say: I don’t mean to suggest that ideas don’t matter, but I do want to drive home the point that, just as Democrats and Republicans are caught in a cycle of […]