Jon Stewart on Dickishness

Jon Stewart gives his opinion on Mark Halperin’s calling the President a Dick

This is what happens when there is a public record

You get the inevitable flip flop

Soldiering on: Why Our Military Adventures Matter to Investors

Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of The Good Soldiers today. As I can’t know where you stand on these wars, I can’t say whether or not reading the book will change your mind. But I can guarantee you that its on-the-ground perspective will enlighten you as to the true and disturbing nature of what’s really going on, and the futility of it all. It is anything but entertaining, but is very well written and very illuminating. Meanwhile, use the military budget as a proxy for the seriousness (or lack thereof) of the government’s intent to reduce its spending by any significant amount

Stephen Colbert: Newt Gingrich is not done (satire)

This is good satire from Stephen Colbert. It reminds me a little of Conan, William Shatner and Sarah Palin doing their poetry readings in

Ron Paul on Liberty

Here’s Ron Paul on Chris Matthews’ show talking about giving people greater liberty and freedom on a number of different issues. I agree with much of what he says. But here’s the part I want to focus in on: property rights. I am all for property rights. See my post “Three eminent domain cases show corporatism in action” for example. But this conversation pitted business property rights against individual liberty – and I say individual liberty wins

Seth Meyers remarks at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner

This is making the rounds on the Internet because it is very funny. Take a look

The President’s Speech

No, I am not talking about tonight’s speech from President Obama. This is about another President’s speech, very loosely based on the Oscar Winner, “The King’s Speech”.

Can you guess who the President is? Have a look at the video. Pretty funny (hat tip Scott)

Debt Ceiling Showdown Coming

A sovereign nation that issues debt in its own fiat currency cannot default involuntarily. Again, this is the Ecuador risk factor, defaulting for purely political reasons, not because of the inability to pay. It is not clear whether there will be a risk premium associated with this risk, increasing the yield of Treasury bonds, as the showdown draws near. We saw this in Russia when the Rouble crisis hit in 1998.

Here are the issues

Government shutdown averted, more of the same coming soon

The U.S. narrowly avoided a federal government shutdown this past weekend. While President Obama has hailed the compromise which allowed the government to continue to function, it is already clear that more shutdown battles are coming very soon.

What is noteworthy is that core constituencies on both sides of this debate about government spending were unsatisfied with the deal hammered out in the last hour.

Isn’t that the former Chancellor of the Exchequer sleeping during the budget debate?

Apparently, George Osborne, the current Chancellor, has such a bedroom voice that he puts the Lord Chancellor to sleep. Sweet dreams

Japan’s Nuclear Accident is Impacting European Politics

By Marc Chandler The Japanese nuclear accident has implications for Europe. The EU wants to have stress tests on members nuclear plants. The tests are not mandatory, but may be difficult to refuse. Switzerland has halted its nuclear program, according to reports. Perhaps the most interesting response is in Germany. Chancellor Merkel has been an

Initial Thoughts on the Obama Budget

I was on the BBC this morning talking about the Obama FY 2012 budget proposal. Here’s what I said and what I think about the proposal so far (If I get the video, I will post). This post will be more about the political tactics and positioning than about advocating a specific policy course since the budget and the framing of its objectives is a purely political process. I will give some broad strokes on the advocacy front, however.

The Obama Agenda

Clearly, President Obama is in full re-election mode now – and that means everything he does from here on out will be done with an eye to how these policy moves will be perceived in a 2012 general election. The Obama budget shows a lot more budget cutting than the President announced during the State of the Union address last month. This is probably by design because the President wants to exceed expectations on the deficit cutting front to paint himself as fiscally responsible in his efforts to beat back the Republicans efforts to paint him as a tax & spend liberal.