Dear William,

With the departure of most of the Obama economics team due by the end of the year, still crossing our fingers for a Geithner announcement, this from the most practical and least divisive choice for any available position, Joseph Stiglitz. If only baffled Ben hadn't been renominated to another 4 yr term we might already have him. I especially enjoyed the Q & A issues related to controlling bubbles and the competitive advantages of disincentives are persuasive and correct.

When Democrats lose seats in this November's election their failure to manage liberal policy proposals and media coverage should be recognized as the most important strategic political and policy error. MSNBC and the recognized liberal media are being subversive and more coherently critical while providing no real policy advocates. While the conservative media's fear mongering, they don't even pretend to be interested in policy, ties them up in the horse race for ratings. The public has seen this rerun before playing out multiple times over the last decade. But Republicans at least used the media to promote their agenda and disseminate, rightly or wrongly, how they wanted people to come to think about the available policy options. Remember Iraq as the mushroom cloud provider or the wonder of deregulated energy. The Obama adminstration has failed not just to shape the way people think about policy options but to properly inform them of the options in the first place. ...

I guess JKG is off the list with this slap in the face to Obama's special commission. Statement to the Commission on Deficit Reduction James K. Galbraith, Lloyd M. Bentsen, jr., Chair in Government/Business Relations, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, The University of Texas at Austin June 30, 2010 Mr. Chairmen, members of the commission, thank you for inviting this statement. I am a professional economist, but I have served in a political role, as Executive Director of the Joint Economic Committee of the United States Congress. I am offering this statement on behalf of Americans for Democratic Action, an organization co-founded in 1949 by (among others) Eleanor Roosevelt, John Kenneth Galbraith, Arthur M. Schlesinger, jr., and Ronald Reagan. Accordingly I would like to begin with a political comment. 1. Clouds Over the Work of the Commission. Your proceedings are clouded by illegitimacy. In this respect, there are four major issues. First, most of your meetings are secre...

With our effort to oust him underway Timmy Geithner is hitting the public circuit in defense of his leadership. His poorly titled and elusive piece in the NY Times . "Welcome to the Recovery" raised more questions at a time when we need answers not cheerleaders. Not so from Marshall Auerback. The Real Reason Banks Aren’t Lending via New Deal 2.0 Banks won’t lend until the American people are creditworthy again — and that takes full employment. Our Treasury Secretary has conceded that it is still a “tough economy” for most Americans, and warned it’s possible the unemployment rate will go up for a couple of months before it comes down. Given the constellation of recent economic data that has come out, Tim Geithner is probably correct. The US economy is showing signs of slowing, as the fiscal stimulus is dissipating and spending contractions at the state and local government level increasingly undermine the injections from the federal sphere. Worse, it appears that much of the...

While we are stuck in Afghanistan and Iraq on a fools errand Sachs offers a close substitute for our $700 million defense budget. Bonus it has the potential to spark economic growth and avoid environmental disaster. An industrial policy for climate change By Jeffrey Sachs 23 February 2009 from http://whatmatters.mckinseydigital.com I believe that the biggest question on the planet today involves sustainable development: is there room enough on the planet for seven billion to ten billion human beings, tens of millions of other species, and economic convergence between rich and poor? As I argue in Common Wealth,1 the answer is no with current technology, and yes if we focus on sustainable technology. The major challenge for our generation is to overhaul several key technology systems on a global scale, including: power production, food supplies, transport services, and infectious-disease control. These steps should be combined with a massive effort in family planning and voluntary ferti...

The Return of Industrial Policy by Dani Rodrick from Project Syndicate CAMBRIDGE – British Prime Minister Gordon Brown promotes it as a vehicle for creating high-skill jobs. French President Nicolas Sarkozy talks about using it to keep industrial jobs in France. The World Bank’s chief economist, Justin Lin, openly supports it to speed up structural change in developing nations. McKinsey is advising governments on how to do it right. Industrial policy is back. In fact, industrial policy never went out of fashion. Economists enamored of the neo-liberal Washington Consensus may have written it off, but successful economies have always relied on government policies that promote growth by accelerating structural transformation. China is a case in point. Its phenomenal manufacturing prowess rests in large part on public assistance to new industries. State-owned enterprises have acted as incubators for technical skills and managerial talent. Local-content requirements have spawned productive ...

Well, the World Cup 2010 is on and today the test of juggling work and watching games surfaced in a most unexpected way. Today's challenge attempting to watch two games, USA v Algeria and UK v Slovenia, both on at the same time 9 am. Originally,the plan was to go to Flossmoor Station and watch with Joe and Roger in Homewood. However, the weather did in cable availability and timing was a concern so I searched the area down Western ave and 115 Bourbon Street assuming that these popular areas would be open, of course they weren't. By this time the game had started and frustration built knowing that I would be unable to watch both games and that I would probably have to drive another 20 minutes home. Heading in that direction down 111th Street just before Pulaski I spotted my opening, Quigley's Irish Pub, cars in the parking lot and cigarette smoking at the door. Relieved I walked in to find about a dozen guys and a Mexican woman sitting at the bar settled having a drink...