krebscycle

  • Why do right wingers hate Keynes so much?

    It’s not because they don’t believe “Keynsian stimulus” works – although they pretend otherwise. Listen to Republicans talk about Federal spending on the military or state spending on roads – they know that government spending can create jobs and wealth even if they usually say the opposite. What Republicans and…

  • The overweening arrogance of the progressives

    The Dem base–even its big donors–are in a real uproar over Keystone. As they should be–it’s a fateful decision washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-pol… — Bill McKibben (@billmckibben) May 10, 2013 //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js So Bill McKibben claims to speak for the Democratic Base even though the AFL-CIO President supports the pipeline. The sheer arrogance and…

  • Henry Farrell, Colin Crouch, and why the old line progressives are hopeless

    Crouch sees the history of democracy as an arc. In the beginning, ordinary people were excluded from decision-making. During the 20th century, they became increasingly able to determine their collective fate through the electoral process, building mass parties that could represent their interests in government. Prosperity and the contentment of…

  • Taxpayers help banks, Apple, stock investors, again

    Apple just borrowed $17,000,000,000 (seventeen billion dollars) even though it has $145,000,000,000 (one hundred forty five billion) in cash.  Why borrow when you have so much cash sitting around? Apple, Apple Stockholders, bond investors, Goldman-Sachs and Deutsche bank all benefit from this strange deal because – yes you guessed it,…

  • George W. Bush kept us safe

    This is what Republicans were saying last week: After 9/11, George W. Bush kept us safe. The slick con-man “after 9/11”,  as if the President who ignored a national security briefing with the title “Bin Laden Determined to Strike Inside the US” was somehow not responsible for his own inaction…

  • How does the world change?

    In 1860, the cash value of the slaves in the cotton belt of the United States was more than the value of all the railroads and factories in the USA. The technology employed to move cotton down the Mississippi and goods up it was the leading edge of modern technology.…

  • Please take your disappointment with President Obama and have a fucking seat

    Please take your disappointment with President Obama and have a fucking seat

    If you are disappointed that President Obama always speaks civilly and keeps reaching out to the ill-mannered, ignorant, and often badly intentioned racist Republicans, grow the fuck up and put a sock in it. President Obama repeatedly explained that this would be his strategy from the day he ran for…

  • Process versus Substantive Civil Liberties and Miranda Warnings

    The purpose of the Miranda warnings is to discourage police from coercing confessions or self-incriminatory statements from people in police custody. Let’s note two important facts: The warning is far from completely effective. For example, the Central Park 5 were coerced into confessing rape and assault and spent many years…

  • Criticism from the left

    Criticism from the left

    Suppose you were a left liberal, what we used to call a “progressive” writing about President Obama’s proposed 2014 budget. You might write something like this:  The 2014 budget makes some steps towards: fixing the economy, with a $50B infrastructure investment fund, to a healthier society with things like universal…

  • The kind of sharp political analysis you find at DailyKos

    The DailyKos analysis of the Chained CPI dispute starts from the premise that the President has alienated older voters:  Except it’s not the base of the party that’s (57+ / 0-) upset. It’s the majority of Americans, especially elderly voters, whose votes Democrats need in the 2014 elections. The President…