Article

This is a guest post from political scientist Lucy Barnes, Prize Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford: ***** The recent exchange between Jonathan Chait and Veronique de Rugy over the progressivity of the U.S. tax system in comparative context, and subsequent contributions (e.g. from Brad de Long) exemplifies the widespread confusion over what tax […]

1. I was unfair to call him a Tucker Carlson. 2. Murray talks a lot about upper-class liberals. That’s fine but I think his discussion would be improved by also considering upper-class conservatives, given that I see the big culture war occurring within the upper class. 3. Using the case of Joe Paterno as an […]

More on the debate over whether poor whites are trending Republican.

Richard Thaler: The moral here is simple. If governments want to encourage good citizenship, they should try making the desired behavior more fun. Elizabeth Addonizio, Donald Green, and James Glaser: …we set out to explore the feasibility of creating a more celebratory and community-focused atmosphere at the polls. Can the festive, social environment surrounding old-fashioned […]

The Financial Times suggests that brinkmanship in the eurozone may lead to catastrophe. Eurozone officials are deliberately refusing to allow Greece to sign off on a €200bn bond restructuring plan because the threat of default is the leverage they have to convince recalcitrant Greek ministers to implement necessary cuts. While some recognise that Greek politicians […]

. . . if this was how the world worked? Do swing states economies matter? Posted by Ezra Klein John Sides says no, and rounds up some evidence showing that voters judge the president based on their perception of the national economy, not the conditions of their local economy. If that’s correct, then you can […]

I am thrilled to see the number of posts that have been generated by my original question regarding whether or not Romney is likely to have a military problem (see here, here, and here on The Monkey Cage and here at The New Republic). I think this is one of the best features of the […]

Zombie politics—a play on Zombie Economics—refers to ideas about politics that have become so cemented in conventional wisdom that it is virtually impossible to dislodge them.  It doesn’t matter what the data says, or what published research says, or what this blog or any blog says.  Zombie politics means that even though the ideas are […]

A Monkey Cage reader has suggested some reply to the economics-themed valentines that Justin Wolfers summarizes here.  I made a half-hearted stab and then realized, “Hey, let’s make this a contest!”  Leave your suggestions in comments.   To get things started, here’s what I came up with in 10 minutes, including handy links to research […]

James Fallows writes, “Try to think back to when sophisticated people thought that Sarah Palin was the key to Republican victory.” All I can say is, Fallows wasn’t hanging out with the right sort of sophisticates! Overall, Fallows’s article seems fine to me; I was just struck by that offhand remark about Palin. I have […]