Ezra Klein

You often hear conservatives argue that we shouldn’t increase the minimum wage, we should raise the Earned Income Tax Credit. Setting aside the claim’s disingenuousness — not much in the way of EITC increases after six years of Republican governance, I fear — it’s not true that the two policies are interchangeable. The minimum wage […]

But a team named “Nobody Summons Megatron!” dominated Wonderland’s pub trivia last night. Libertarians like Dave Weigel, Megan McCardle, and Julian Sanchez may never agree with Brian Beutler and me about the minimum wage, but we can all agree on kicking Alex Pareene‘s ass.

I’ve some trepidation about jumping into a brawl between Brad DeLong and Jeff Faux, but given my basic sympathies for Faux’s analysis of the the class pressures affecting economic policy-makers, I’m saddened to see Faux dodge the charge that he wants to “keep China a society of poor subsistence rice farmers as long as possible.” […]

I actually want to focus in on this think tank issue a little bit. Here’s the mission statement for The Heritage Foundation: Founded in 1973, The Heritage Foundation is a research and educational institute – a think tank – whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free […]

The Pew Charitable Trust is about to offer $2.2 million to forge some sort of consensus position on social mobility in America. Consensus because, as The WSJ explains, “the funding will go to scholars at the American Enterprise Institute and Heritage Foundation, which have a conservative bent, and the Brookings Institution and Urban Institute, which […]

Badler writes: I’m also coming around to the view that campus progressives should start to generate their own publicity stunts. How about global warming bikini day, where students wear skimpy bathing suits to class? I’m not sure that would have quite the consciousness raising effect you’re going for, Ben. Indeed, I think I’d happily trade […]

Some pictures from the upcoming episode of Blogging Chef, for which I was a sous blogger. I can’t possibly explain the absurdity of this event to you, at least not until the video is posted so you don’t think I’m making this up. Suffice to say that Spackerman whipped up the finest risotto I’ve ever […]

As I live with committed, vocal, frat hater Badler, I’m often given occasion to wonder if I really hate fraternities, believe them the singular source for all sad days and skinned knees, or think they are are all aspects of Satan’s eternal evil. Decisions, decisions. I went to UCLA, and actually lived on sorority row. […]

Twalib Kweli: Music sales are down 40 percent, so to make a statement like, “I only rap about that [gangster] stuff because that’s what’s selling and I want to sell,” that’s not only a cowardly statement but that’s also an ignorant statement. That’s like the crack dealer who says, “I sell crack because I wanna […]

This bit on how smiling projects low status is fairly interesting, particularly because I’m damn quick with a grin. As the theory goes, smiling is an adaptive behavior for weaker/lower status members of the tribe to set others at ease. That’s why more elite models and football players in the pictures seem so somber. Put […]