News update

Haven't done this in a while and am really too busy to be doing it, but there were quite a few interesting ones today.

• Paul Krugman's insistence on the duration of the economic crisis, leading to a lost decade (similar to Japan's experience in the 1990s) is one of the more depressing subplots not sufficiently discussed today. I hope that he (and Adam Posen one of the experts on Japan's deflationary period) is wrong, but I feel like that might not be true and it is people like Bernanke proclaiming the economy will pick up again this year that delude themselves. I, II


• Can Obama's policies even succeed theoretically? Increased spending and a balanced budget? Drezner


• I didn't really read anything on Mr Jindal's speech, but Mr Krugman definitely didn't like it. Also it seems quite funny how the Republicans are trying to prove that they are not the least bit racist these days. A black secretary general (or whatever their part leader officially is called) and the main against-Obama speaker of Indian origin. Are these guys supposed to be representative?


• The impact of economics on the success of the surge in Iraq. Crazy, crazy theory. Read it.


• Manche Leute sind einfach zu blöd. Nicht wahr Herr Mahler? taz

Change we can believe in

I guess I should be a classy winner and cynic and just let it go. But I still have some hope left to convert some of my younger and more naive American friends to a more realistic view of their new President. NY Times