Category: Politics
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Bailout Trillions
Barry Ritholtz calculates the total taxpayer liability of all the accumulated bailout programs at $8.5 trillion dollars. (Not including the $5.2 trillion in Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac mortgages.) US GDP was estimated in 2006 to be $13.13 trillion dollars. Wow!
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Cap and Cash Back
Peter Barnes has written an excellent article for Reuters on a hypothetical scheme an Obama administration might develop to address carbon emissions and stimulate investment in clean energy in a way that is financially and politically viable over the long term. Exciting stuff.
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“Project Houdini” and the Obama Campaign
Buried deep in Newsweek’s fascinating “Special Election Project” piece is the following nugget: The Obama campaign’s New Media experts created a computer program that would allow a “flusher”—the term for a volunteer who rounds up nonvoters on Election Day—to know exactly who had, and had not, voted in real time. They dubbed it Project Houdini,…
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Evidence Based Policy and an Obama Administration
That I’m a fan of Barack Obama is not a surprise to anyone who knows me. One of the things that appeals to me most about him is that he seems to be evidence based rather than ideology based. He is clearly very smart and secure enough in that intelligence that he can surround himself…
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Obama on Reagan
Ben Smith’s blog (link courtesy Matt Drudge of all places) has a clip of Obama talking thoughtfully about Ronald Reagan. I find the ability to look across the aisle and see the good in the other side tremendously appealing although I’m not so confident that the democratic rank and file will see it the same…
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The Dilbert Blog: Atheists: The New Gays
The always insightful Scott Adams has a hillarious new blog post: Atheists: The New Gays While I think many Atheists have an unfortunate tendency to be evangelical about their non-belief, I do think that recent events have made atheism more publicly acceptable in America than ever, even if it’s unfortunate that it’s at the expense…
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Election Hangover
It’s 6am the morning after the election and the democrats have done it. They’ve taken control of the house and the Senate is still up for grabs. Montana and Virginia are too close to call. If the democrats take both of those, they’ll have control of the Senate too, 51:49. While I’m very pleased with…