US in Recession Since December 2007

The folks in charge of determining whether we're in recession or not have now declared that we've been in one for a whole year, despite not meeting the technical definition. The US economy has been in recession since December 2007, a panel of economists charged with the official designation of business cycles said Monday. The Business Cycle Dating Committee of the ...

Not the Great Depression (Updated)

Daniel Gross makes the case that I've been making for weeks, supplying hard numbers where I've relied on common sense, that the current mess isn't comparable to the Great Depression: Both got going when financial crisis led to a reduction in consumer demand. But the two phenomena differ substantially. Instead of workers with 5 o'clock shadows asking, "Brother, can you spare ...

Das Global Bankensystem Wankt

The following headline appeared in Berliner Zeitung a while back and was captured by Idle: [caption id="attachment_27695" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Global Banking System Staggers"][/caption] Megan McArdle and Alex Massie both found it slightly more amusing that I do but I thought it worth sharing, if a bit too risky for New Atlanticist.

Norquist’s Bailout Plan

Grover Norquist has applied for a $700 billion subsidy from the Treasury.  His appeal reads, in part: I have a plan for this $700 billion which should be just what’s needed to get the American economy going. Since the money came from the taxpayers in the first place, I propose giving it back to them. The rest is less amusing but probably ...

Reports of the Death of Capitalism

have been greatly exaggerated. Representatives from the countries with the twenty largest economies in the world met yesterday and, to what should be a surprise to no one, accomplished very little other than to agree that something should be done…maybe in the spring. Expectations for the weekend summit of global leaders from the Group of 20 countries in Washington, D.C., were low. ...

Conservatives Blew It

P.J. O'Rourke lets his fellow conservatives have it with both barrels in a long essay worth reading in full.  Some excerpts: Let us bend over and kiss our ass goodbye. Our 28-year conservative opportunity to fix the moral and practical boundaries of government is gone--gone with the bear market and the Bear Stearns and the bear that's headed off to do ...

Election Prediction: Obama 325, McCain 213 (Updated)

After nearly four years of watching this campaign unfold, it's about to wrap up.  There are another thirty-six hours of so of campaigning left and probably no more significant polls to be released.  So, it's time to go on the record and predict the outcome. Others' Projections:  An Obama Rout RealClearPolitics: Obama 353, McCain 185 (with Tossups) Dave Leip's Atlas: Obama 318, McCain ...

Barnett Endorses ‘Weak-Ass Jimmy Carter’

Given that Thomas Barnett is an avid internationalist who abhors the National Greatness strain of foreign policy that McCain champions, I was not at all shocked to see via the Security folder in my RSS reader that he has endorsed Barack Obama. Obama's task is the great unwinding of the Bush debacle, which Bush himself started these past two years, but ...

Financial Crisis Boosting Dollar?

Martin Wolf, the chief economics commentator at the Financial Times, told an Atlantic Council audience earlier today that the global financial crisis has  "re-emphasized the centrality of U.S. dollar as a currency" and demonstrated once again that "when things go really badly lots of people want go to the U.S. even if U.S. is why, even in part, things are ...

McCain Pollster: Race Too Close to Call

Bill McInturff, John McCain's chief pollster, released a memo last night saying the campaign has made "significant progress" in the last week and that "All signs say we are headed to an election that may easily be too close to call by next Tuesday." Disclaimer up front: As I've noted numerous times before, my wife is Chief Operating Officer of McInturff's ...