Blog: TAPPED

FOX’S FURY. I have to disagree with Garance below. I think John Edwards‘ decision to pull out of the Fox News debate was a good thing, but not, for him, a smart move. What Edwards did, it seems to me, is take one for the team. He put himself out front as the candidate willing […]

READING BETWEEN THE LINES. Matt and Tom Gitlin think “raises questions” financial stories about presidential candidates (on the left!) are bogus. I have a diferent view. I think people still learn something valuable from these sorts of stories; that very often it’s not all what the reporter intended to tell them; and that they have […]

A BOLD MOVE. John Edwards is the first Democratic presidential candidate to pull out of the Fox News sponsored Democratic presidential primary debate scheduled to take place in Nevada later this year, and kudos to him for doing so. None of the Democrats will get a fair hearing on that channel as it currently exists, […]

JUST POSTED ON TAP ONLINE. Sarah Wildman reports on the hunger strike of an ETA icon that has dominated Spanish headlines in recent weeks, while Harold explains why the real instigator of the decline of the traditional family wasn’t the ’60’s left but the Reagan ’80s right. –The Editors

I’M NOT USUALLY IN THE BUSINESS OF SELF-PROMOTION, but Kay‘s and Dana‘s posts on Hillary Clinton‘s plans to reintroduce the Paycheck Fairness Act reminded me that I have written a very accessible three-part series on the gender gap in wages for a noneconomist. It begins with a survey of some alternative theories, continues with a […]

JUROR, IMPRESSIONIST. It’s worth checking out this impressionistic account by Scooter Libby juror Denis Collins. Sure, Collins is an author and former journalist looking for face time in the media. But he’s been providing some very compelling information about the jury’s deliberations. (Here’s his appearance on Larry King Live yesterday. Also don’t miss poor Scott […]

NEWT �08. Newt Gingrich has seen his opening. And you can�t blame him — given that all three of the leading GOP �08 contenders have their problems with the base, there seems to be a gap somebody like him could fill. How do we know he�s leaning toward throwing his visionary, forward-looking, world-transforming hat into […]

A PRODUCTIVITY PRIMER. As Dean Baker notes, productivity growth is slowing, which may well presage a fairly significant recession. Productivity has been a tricky indicator in recent years, as it used to track quite closely to wage growth, but that link has severed over time, and economists don’t really know why or what to do. […]

SPEAKING OF GOOD HUMOR. This is a hoot. –Garance Franke-Ruta

WHERE’S MY 20 CENTS? Sen. Clinton recently re-introduced paycheck equality legislation timed to women’s history month, presumably to curry favor with women voters. It’s well documented that women still earn roughly 80 percent of what men earn, and the legislation is designed to close loopholes worked into the 1963 Equal Pay Act. While requiring businesses […]