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. ...