It’s the 5% versus the 1% moreso than the 99% against the 1%.

David Brooks blames our economic woes on a change from a culture that valued productive work to one of gentility. And Bill Cosby.

Reacting to news that Minerals Management Service Director Elizabeth Birnbaum — who was ostensibly charged with regulating drilling in the Gulf of Mexico — has been fired, Dave Schuler offers a sucker bet: Prediction: the MMS will be abolished and its responsibilities split among several other agencies. Most of the same people will remain in [...]

Over at his own digs, Dave Schuler discusses the politics of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster in a post titled “Beyond White House Control.”   I commend it to you in full, but the key ‘graphs are: All of the experience, expertise, and equipment relevant to dealing with the spill are in the [...]

One of the recurring themes that Dave Schuler and I have advanced since the global recession began is that we’re seeing a massive realignment of the economy and that many of the lost jobs will never come back.   That’s especially true of the financial sector.  There will simply be fewer people making big money moving [...]

The latest episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live from 5:30-6:30 Eastern. Dave Schuler and I will be joined by our own Chris Lawrence to talk about the UK elections, the Elena Kagan nomination, the trillion dollar Euro bailout and much more. We’ll also be taking calls at (646) 716-7030. [...]

UPDATE:  WE’RE EXPERIENCING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES.  WE HOPE TO START THE SHOW AT 6. A special Thursday episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live from 5:30-6:30 Eastern. Dave Schuler and I will be joined by special guest Megan McArdle, the business and economics editor of The Atlantic and the world’s tallest [...]

After a brief hiatus, the next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live from 5:30-6:30 Eastern. Dave Schuler and be joined by special guest Arnold Kling of EconLog to talk about the Iceland volcano and its economic and regulatory fallout, financial reform, the value added tax (VAT) debate, and goodness [...]

After a brief hiatus, the next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live from 5:30-6:30 Eastern. The tired and very, very busy Dave Schuler and I will be joined by a special guest, Colonel Pat Lang of Sic Semper Tyrannis to talk about the WikiLeaks Iraq video, Afghan president Hamid [...]

After a brief hiatus, the next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live from 5:30-6:30 Eastern. Dave Schuler and I will be joined by a special guest, Dr. Steven Taylor of PoliBlog to talk about ObamaCare:   How big an F’ing deal is it, really?  Is it Constitutional?  What will be [...]

While not at all pleased by the outcome of the year-long sausage making extravaganza that gave us a health care reform bill that virtually no one likes, I’m much closer in agreement Steven Taylor than with Megan McArdle over what it all means for the system. Do we, as Megan suggested at the apex of [...]

The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live from 5:30-6:30 Eastern. Dave Schuler and I will be joined by a special guest, Dr.  John Arquilla, co- author of the classic book Networks and Netwars. We’ll be talking about his new Foreign Policy essay, “The New Rules of War” and [...]

In my discussion with Dave Schuler on the hearings about Toyota safety issues on last night’s episode of OTB Radio, I noted in passing my concern that Congress has a conflict of interest now that the federal government is effectively the owner of General Motors and Chrysler — direct competitors with Toyota. PJM’s Tom Blumer [...]

The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live from 5:30-6:30 Eastern. Dave Schuler and I will talk about ObamaCare, Toyota’s woes, the Olympics, Joseph Stack, and other news of the week.  We’ll be joined at 6:00 by David Weigel of The Washington Independent to talk about CPAC, the state [...]

The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live from 5:30-6:30 Eastern. Dave Schuler and I will be joined by special guest Pat Lang of Sic Semper Tyrannis to discuss the Baradar capture, the state of the war in Afghanistan, the US-Pakistani relationship, and the unfolding Iran story are all [...]

While John Cole agrees with the substance of my mild criticism of our food stamp policies, he thinks “we can’t do anything about it.” I’m sure the House could pass a bill containing a small stipend for Americorps volunteers- in fact, I bet it would get a good bit of support. Likewise, I bet almost [...]

My colleague Dave Schuler, writing at his own digs, explains why he’s “discouraged” by the news of the day, both foreign and domestic. Healthcare reform. As I commented not long ago over at OTB I wouldn’t oppose a single-payer system in the U. S. if (and only if) it were accompanied by measures that would [...]

While progressives are kvetching and conservatives are chortling over President Obama’s failures to enact his most visible policy initiatives, he’s quietly ratcheting federal control of society up to unprecedented levels. In a lengthy TNR feature, John Judis details how “Obama has reinvented the state in more ways than you can imagine.” Obama’s three Republican predecessors [...]

In his years in Washington reporting for The Scotsman, Alex Massie developed an appreciation for many things this country has to offer, such as college football.  But, as he explains in a piece for Foreign Policy, our Congress was decidedly not amongst them. His piece is subtitled “Viewed from across the pond, the U.S. Congress [...]

The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live from 5:30-6:30 Eastern. Dave Schuler and I will talk about the Haiti earthquake, China’s Google turnaround, the Harry Reid “negro” affair, and perhaps some other things. We’ll also be taking calls at (646) 716-7030. Owing to a high trolls to legit [...]

The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live from 5:30-6:30 Eastern. Dave Schuler and I will be joined by King Banian of SCSU Scholars to talk about the “cash for cloture” shenanigans required to secure 60 votes for health care reform, the merits of federal regulations to limit airlines’ [...]

Last fall, a commenter at Dave Schuler’s Glittering Eye blog made an observation to the effect that Barack Obama’s progressive supporters were enthusiastic about him because they believed everything he said whereas the so-called Obamacons assumed he was lying on the matters with which they disagreed. (The original was pithier but, alas, I failed to [...]

Peggy Noonan takes a harsh view of the way Obama’s first year has unfolded. In a presidency, a picture or photograph becomes iconic only when it seems to express something people already think. When Gerald Ford was spoofed for being physically clumsy, it took off. The picture of Ford losing his footing and tumbling as [...]

Wednesday’s column by Maureen Dowd, eviscerating President Obama for his shabby treatment of former White House Counsel Greg Craig and supporter Caroline Kennedy, is getting favorable responses from his supporters in the blogosphere. Only a year after he had helped Barack Obama get elected by eviscerating his close friend, Clinton White House colleague and Yale [...]

The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live from 5:30-6:30 Eastern. Dave Schuler and I will talk about Sarah Palin’s comeback tour and ensuing controversies and President Obama’s Asia trip.  Alex Knapp will join us to provide his legal expertise on the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed trial and Steve Verdon [...]

The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live from 5:30-6:30 Eastern. Dave Schuler and I will be joined by Zenpundit‘s Mark Safranksi to talk about the “elections” in Afghanistan, today’s off-off-year elections in the USA, and the state of opportunity in America.  We’ll also be taking calls at (646) [...]

In a much discussed post, Ezra Klein produced a series of graphs showing that Americans pay more for office visits, scans and imaging, drugs, and other aspects of health care — often, far more — than is the case in Canada or Western Europe. There is a simple explanation for why American health care costs [...]

Taegan Goddard links a Public Policy Polling survey [PDF] showing that President Obama would have beaten the most commonly mentioned Republican hopefuls had the election been held from October 16th to 19th and opened to registered voters.  (I hasten to add, it wasn’t.) In fact, according to the survey, “Obama leads Mike Huckabee 47-43, Mitt [...]

The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live from 5:30-6:30 Eastern. Dave Schuler will cost-host and we’ll be joined by Joshua Foust of Registan.net to talk about General McChrystal’s Afghanistan strategy review, rumors that President Obama is lowering his Afghanistan ambitions, whether we should be befuddled at this change, [...]

Obama administration officials are now admitting what has been apparent for weeks: that they are giving serious consideration to radically downsizing the Afghanistan mission.  Peter Baker and Elisabeth Bumiller break the story in this morning’s NYT, noting that a combination of factors have President Obama strongly reconsidering the Biden Plan, which he rejected as recently [...]

Ezra Klein has yet another op-ed in WaPo on health care in which he outlines a state of facts that one would think is beyond dispute and then leaps to conclusions that are quite disputable. The title of the piece is “You Have No Idea What Health Costs,” which is likely true for most people, [...]

The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live from 5:30-6:30 Eastern. VodkaPundit’s Stephen Green is tentatively scheduled to join Dave Schuler and me to talk about the Tea Party protests, Joe Wilson’s outburst, the ACORN scandal, and various other items in the news.  If Steve can’t make it, blame [...]

Ezra Klein details why it’s so hard to get a comprehensive reform of our healthcare system passed. There are three primary difficulties in finding the money for health-care reform. The first is that costs inside the system grow more quickly than incomes outside of the system. Imagine if your mortgage grew by 10 percent a [...]

Charles Krauthammer proclaims “Obamacare Version 1.0 is dead” and helpfully proposes a version 2.0.  Basically:  No public option, no death panels end-of-life counseling, softpeddle government “best practices,” abandon cost-cutting, and guaranteeing universal coverage. What’s not to like? If you have insurance, you’ll never lose it. Nor will your children ever be denied coverage for preexisting [...]

Over at his web site Dave has put up a post discussing how resources are allocated. I’ve touched on this very briefly in comments and a post or two, but nothing this extensive. As such, go read it, it’s good. Here is a snippet, Despite the author’s attempt to assuage concern by pooh-poohing the idea [...]

“Is is possible to make a coherent argument that government-provided healthcare is a moral obligation but that our obligation doesn’t extend to people in Zambia? I don’t think it is but I’m willing to listen to the arguments.” – Dave Schuler It’s possible to make a practical argument along those lines, as well as to [...]

The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live from 5:30-6:30 Eastern. Dave Schuler and I will talk about the latest developments in the health care debate, the evolving situations in Iraq and Afghanistan, furloughing government workers, and whatever else we meander into. We’ll also be taking calls at (646) [...]

Dave Schuler reports that this is exactly what happened in his hometown of Chicago. The Monday furlough that was touted as a draconian way to cut the budget wound up hurting only the government employees who get screwed out of a day’s pay. Dave suggests, “If this keeps up the people of Chicago may decide [...]

The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live from 5:30-6:30 Eastern. Dave Schuler and I will be joined by special guest Dave Dilegge of Small Wars Journal fame to talk about the renewed debate on Afghanistan.  See “Afghanistan Debate Intensifies,” “Back Off Jack Keane Wannabees,” and “What Are Our [...]

David Frum frets that conservatives might be in for a Pyrrhic victory in the health care fight if they define winning as “beat back the president’s proposals, defeat the House bill, stand back and wait for 1994 to repeat itself.” [W]e’ll still have the present healthcare system. Meaning that we’ll have (1) flat-lining wages, (2) [...]

The theme of Wednesday’s edition of OTB Radio was “Crazy Politics.” Spurred by the bitterness of recent discussion threads on seemingly innocuous topics, Dave Schuler and I wondered where it was all headed. Well, we got a pretty good clue last night. Six people were arrested last night in St. Louis  after one of the [...]

I’ve refrained from rapid reaction to the controversy over Bill Clinton’s trip to North Korea to secure the release of two American journalists because I’ve been torn between competing maxims.  I agree with the critics who say rewarding despots who have seized American citizens is bad precedent, incentivizing illegal behavior.  Yet, Bob Manning is right, [...]

Andrew Sullivan thinks Republicans hate the cash-for-clunkers program, wherein the government gives people up to $4500 of taxpayer money to trade in their cars for newer ones that get slightly better gas mileage, out of “emotional reaction to the end of the far right’s dominance of American discourse.” [C]ash-for-clunkers is one example of the government [...]

In last night’s press conference, President Obama weighed in on the disorderly conduct arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates. “The police are doing what they should,” he said. “There’s a call. They go investigate. What happens? “My understanding is that Professor Gates then shows his I.D. to show that this is his house, and [...]

The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live from 5:30-6:30 Eastern. Dave Schuler and I will be talk about Obama at the 6 month mark. We’ll also be taking calls at (646) 716-7030. Owing to a high trolls to legit callers ratio, however, we’ll be using the BTR chat [...]

The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live from 5:30-6:30 Eastern. Dave Schuler and I will be talk about various goings on in this crazy mixed up world in which we live in. We’ll also be taking calls at (646) 716-7030. Owing to a high trolls to legit callers [...]

Over at his other digs, Dave Schuler muses, Is it my imagination or do things become very, very quiet on Fridays these days? I know that traffic at this blog drops sharply on Fridays which suggests to me that a lot of people read blogs from work and that they aren’t at work on Fridays. [...]

I do a massive roundup of the news coverage of the massive show of force in Afghanistan’s Helmand Valley that kicked off in the wee hours this morning in my New Atlanticist post “U.S. Launches Major Afghan Offensive.” My detailed take at the link but what’s most remarkable is not so much the sheer size [...]

The events in Honduras today have been some of the more dramatic in recent Latin American (and especially Central American) politics. The events are certainly of relevance to the democratic evolution of Honduras. Dave Schuler asked that I post a few comments given my academic focus on Latin America. If anyone is interested in the [...]

Until yesterday, it seemed a fait accompli that the vital NATO supply base in Krygyzstan was closing, owing to a combination of geopolitics and a strong bid by Russia.  Thanks to an eleventh hour deal, Manus Air Base will stay open after all. I analyze this in some detail at the link.  The short story, [...]