Ezra Klein - Economic and Domestic Policy, and Lots of It - December 12, 2010

Reconciliation

Recap: Our incoherent Congress; Obama's brand remains surprisingly strong; and executive pay at Nintendo. Elsewhere: 1) Is Microsoft done? 2) Great Adam Serwer piece on the individual mandate. 3) I don't know that Obama for America could ever have thrived...

By Ezra Klein | December 17, 2010; 6:23 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (20)

Save & Share:

Do Republican presidents really refuse compromise?

In his article on Obama and "triangulation," Matt Bai quotes Robert Reich making an argument I hear an awful lot: “Again and again, we have Democratic presidents who say, ‘Don’t make the perfect the enemy of the better,’ and ‘This...

By Ezra Klein | December 17, 2010; 5:23 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (19)

Save & Share:

Republicans embrace ObamaCare, call it Ryan-Rivlin

If you're looking for a description of the Ryan/Rivlin Medicare reforms that have gained so many admirers on the right, Matt Yglesias has a good write-up of the idea. But I'd add another way of explaining the proposal: The...

By Ezra Klein | December 17, 2010; 4:50 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (22)
Categories: Health Reform
Save & Share:

CEO pay, social norms and Nintendo

The New Yorker's Nick Paumgarten had a tough time securing an interview with Nintendo's resident genius, Shigeru Miyamoto. Here's why: The corporate ethos in Japan, and especially at Nintendo, is self-effacing; the humility that has kept Miyamoto at the company...

By Ezra Klein | December 17, 2010; 2:46 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (29)
Categories: Inequality
Save & Share:

What is Wikipedia worth?

I donated a bit of money to Wikipedia this year, and I just got another appeal to donate a bit more. It's penned -- at least in theory -- by Jimmy Wales, the site's founder, and it makes a good...

By Ezra Klein | December 17, 2010; 1:56 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (11)

Save & Share:

Lunch Break

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas, and that means, at least in my household, it's time to break out the Christmas music. Here's Barenaked Ladies with the greatest song ever written about the working conditions of the elves:...

By Ezra Klein | December 17, 2010; 12:00 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)

Save & Share:

After Del.icio.us

As a longtime user of the del.icio.us boomarking service, I'm very sad to hear that Yahoo is closing it down. But for users looking for another service they can use to clip and save bookmarks, I'd suggest Evernote, which I...

By Ezra Klein | December 17, 2010; 10:20 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (8)

Save & Share:

Obama brand remains surprisingly strong

Some interesting -- and unexpected -- results in The Washington Post's big post-election poll. First, Obama's position against the Republicans in Congress is much stronger than that of his predecessors. The following polls were all taken in the December after...

By Ezra Klein | December 17, 2010; 10:18 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (15)
Categories: Polls
Save & Share:

Can you count on Mitt Romney's never-ending pasta bowl?

David Frum busts out the "Olive Garden" theory of Mitt Romney: I sometimes imagine that Romney approaches politics in the same spirit that the CEO of Darden Restaurants approaches cuisine. Darden owns Olive Garden, Longhorn steakhouses, and Red Lobster among...

By Ezra Klein | December 17, 2010; 9:43 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (20)
Categories: 2012 Presidential
Save & Share:

An incoherent Congress

The tax deal passed last night, and without changes. Liberals don't really like it. Conservatives don't really like it. Even people who supported the deal -- myself included -- don't really like it. It's tempting to say that this...

By Ezra Klein | December 17, 2010; 9:14 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (42)
Categories: Taxes
Save & Share:

Wonkbook: What went right, and what went wrong, in Congress last night

Congress was up late last night. First, something that could've gone wrong didn't. The tax deal passed, and despite a day of peculiar haggling over the way the vote would go down, most House Democrats joined with most House...

By Ezra Klein | December 17, 2010; 6:33 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Wonkbook
Save & Share:

Reconciliation

Recap: Some thoughts on Peter Orszag's move to Citigroup; what public servants should do after government; and Republicans are set to write fiscal irresponsibility into the House's rules. Elsewhere: 1) Megan McArdle's guide to kitchen gifts. 2) More perspectives on...

By Ezra Klein | December 16, 2010; 6:19 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)

Save & Share:

What do conservatives think will happen if the individual mandate gets struck down?

Real-life libertarian Tim Lee is confused by the arguments against the individual mandate: There’s nothing particularly outrageous about the health care mandate. The federal government penalizes people for doing, and not doing, any number of things. I’m currently being punished...

By Ezra Klein | December 16, 2010; 4:31 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (40)

Save & Share:

A confusing commission

The point of the 9/11 Commission was to knit classified information and expert testimony into a coherent narrative of the attacks that would help us reform our intelligence agencies and disrupt future attempts. The point of the Financial Crisis Inquiry...

By Ezra Klein | December 16, 2010; 2:35 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (13)

Save & Share:

An unusual argument

Ross Douthat looks at the case for Mitt Romney: Yes, the argument runs, Romney seems serially insincere, and nearly every position he stakes out comes across as a blatant (and often inconsistent-looking) pander to a conservative electorate that regards him...

By Ezra Klein | December 16, 2010; 2:13 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (19)

Save & Share:

Republicans are not fiscally responsible

In the Clinton era, and then again in the Obama era, congressional Democrats operated under "paygo" rules. Paygo meant, quite simply, that each dollar of spending or tax cuts had to be matched by a dollar of spending cuts or...

By Ezra Klein | December 16, 2010; 1:50 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (38)

Save & Share:

Lunch Break

We're definitely not in Kansas anymore. My favorite bit is at 4:02....

By Ezra Klein | December 16, 2010; 1:40 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (3)

Save & Share:

The winner of the 2010 PhD challenge is announced

Congratulations to Gabriel Parent of Carnegie Mellon for getting the phrase "I smoke crack rocks" into the final version of a peer-reviewed paper....

By Ezra Klein | December 16, 2010; 11:13 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)

Save & Share:

How to change the Senate's rules

This may be more than you ever wanted to know about the various options open to 51 senators who want to change the body's rules, but here it is. The basic answer is that 51 senators can do quite a...

By Ezra Klein | December 16, 2010; 11:03 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (23)
Categories: Senate
Save & Share:

What should public servants do after government?

My earlier post on Orszag got me thinking a bit about what we actually want from public servants after they've left government. And, to be honest, the more I think about it, the more confused I get. After being in...

By Ezra Klein | December 16, 2010; 10:56 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (26)

Save & Share:

Orszag and Citigroup

James Fallows gently chides me and my paper for not writing more on Peter Orszag's decision to take an executive position with Citigroup. He's probably right to do so, though my silence was in part motivated by terror at having...

By Ezra Klein | December 16, 2010; 8:50 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (34)

Save & Share:

Wonkbook: Tax deal advances; Obama pushes CEOs on jobs; China talks trade

The House will vote on an amendment to the estate tax language in the tax deal today. Whether the amendment passes or not -- and even whether the tax deal passes or not -- it shows how totally Democrats...

By Ezra Klein | December 16, 2010; 6:53 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (19)
Categories: Wonkbook
Save & Share:

Reconciliation

Recap: An estate-tax primer; how the tax deal could hurt Obama in 2012; and House Dems should either demand bigger changes to the tax deal or leave it be. Elsewhere: 1) The return of the Anonymous Hedge Fund Manager! 2)...

By Ezra Klein | December 15, 2010; 6:27 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (3)

Save & Share:

House Democrats should go big on the estate tax or stay home

The House Democrats are pushing to amend the estate tax deal in the compromise -- which may blow up the whole deal. That sort of risk might be worth it for a major amendment to the policy, but that's not...

By Ezra Klein | December 15, 2010; 4:34 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (40)

Save & Share:

Lies, damn lies, and statistics

Michael Mandel really doesn't like the oft-repeated factoid that consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of American economic activity. This post makes his case with graphs....

By Ezra Klein | December 15, 2010; 2:36 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (2)

Save & Share:

The 'Walking Dead' theory of financial markets

Mike Konczal argues that when you're betting against very unlikely events, as many in the financial market do, you're doing something that's closer to buying insurance than any other activity. And that has implications. Undead implications: There’s good reason...

By Ezra Klein | December 15, 2010; 2:18 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (8)

Save & Share:

Lunch Break

Mario Batali talks at Google:...

By Ezra Klein | December 15, 2010; 12:56 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)

Save & Share:

Perhaps Orwell would have something to say about this?

I had to read this a couple of times to make sure I had it right: During a private commission meeting last week, all four Republicans voted in favor of banning the phrases "Wall Street" and "shadow banking" and the...

By Ezra Klein | December 15, 2010; 12:45 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (14)

Save & Share:

An estate tax primer

The estate tax is going to dominate the final arguments over the tax deal, so it's worth quickly running through what it is and how much the various plans will cost us. The basic insight behind the estate tax is...

By Ezra Klein | December 15, 2010; 11:24 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (44)
Categories: Taxes
Save & Share:

Headlines I wouldn't have expected to read at The Atlantic

"Okay, it seems the Panda-Men are real."...

By Ezra Klein | December 15, 2010; 10:44 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)

Save & Share:

Deficit hawks vs. deficit frauds

I wouldn't blame the current spasm of misguided concern about short-term deficits on money that Pete Peterson and others have pumped into the deficit issue. As far as I can tell, Washington's serious deficit hawks have made a real effort...

By Ezra Klein | December 15, 2010; 10:25 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (17)
Categories: Budget
Save & Share:

The tax deal and 2012 revisited

When political scientists say that elections are all about the economy, what they mean is that elections are all about the direction of the economy. A bad economy that's getting better will do more for an incumbent than a good...

By Ezra Klein | December 15, 2010; 9:29 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (14)
Categories: Political Science
Save & Share:

Wonkbook: Senate will vote on tax deal today; House looks to change estate provisions; Admin's housing plans criticized

If you're a deficit hawk, today's Wonkbook won't be easy reading for you. We lead with the tax vote, of course. The $858 billion package does more damage to the deficit than anything other piece of legislation passed during...

By Ezra Klein | December 15, 2010; 6:46 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (29)
Categories: Wonkbook
Save & Share:

Reconciliation

Recap: How the tax deal could fail; a shot at Senate reform; and the Washington Wizards' theory of inequality and financial crises. Elsewhere: 1) Dave Weigel rounds up the statements of all the Republicans who might be presidential candidates and...

By Ezra Klein | December 14, 2010; 6:29 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (1)

Save & Share:

You know what's not working well?

The judicial nominations process: As the first congressional session of Obama's presidency draws to a close, what began as a slow process of confirmation has ballooned into a full-blown judicial crisis. The Senate has overseen the slowest pace of judicial...

By Ezra Klein | December 14, 2010; 5:44 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (7)

Save & Share:

The Washington Wizards theory of inequality and the financial crisis

The graph atop this post is one I think a lot about: It charts pre-tax income inequality over the last 100-or-so years, and seems to suggest that income inequality is a potential indicator for massive financial crises. As you...

By Ezra Klein | December 14, 2010; 5:43 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Inequality
Save & Share:

AFL-CIO, SEIU, Sierra Club and others call for filibuster reform

One thing you're seeing today that you weren't see a few years ago is that Senate reform is now a priority of what we might call "the institutional left." Consider this letter (pdf), which is signed by the Communication Workers...

By Ezra Klein | December 14, 2010; 2:26 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (15)
Categories: Senate
Save & Share:

The logic -- and illogic -- of changing the tax deal

It looks likely at this point that the House will vote to amend the estate tax in the tax deal. If the vote succeeds, there's somewhere between zero chance and no chance that Senate Republicans will accept it, particularly...

By Ezra Klein | December 14, 2010; 2:05 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (25)
Categories: Polls
Save & Share:

Lunch Break

Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly do an almost frame-by-frame reconstruction of the epically awkward and wonderful Bowie-Crosby Christmas collaboration. "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy" with Will Ferrell & John C. Reilly from Will Ferrell...

By Ezra Klein | December 14, 2010; 12:17 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (3)

Save & Share:

What an individual mandate gets you

The latest insurance data (pdf) from Massachusetts is out, and it shows what a difference an individual mandate makes: About 98 percent of the state's residents have health insurance, as do 99.8 percent of the state's children. Among adults...

By Ezra Klein | December 14, 2010; 11:28 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Health Reform
Save & Share:

Economic security -- and insecurity -- in one graph

Jacob Hacker, Philipp Rehm and Mark Schlesinger are out with the latest version of their Economic Security Index (pdf): a massive survey project that aims "to provide a meaningful, succinct measure of Americans' economic security." The effort has a couple...

By Ezra Klein | December 14, 2010; 11:22 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Charts and Graphs
Save & Share:

A single shot at Senate reform

"Last week, the U.S. Senate failed for the first time in 48 years to pass an annual bill authorizing money for national defense," reports Philip Rucker and David Fahrenthold. But that's not all: Judicial nominations are stopped up. Congress...

By Ezra Klein | December 14, 2010; 10:59 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (15)
Categories: Senate
Save & Share:

Why the tax deal might fail

I listed some of the conservative critics of the tax deal in Wonkbook today (Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, the Tea Party Patriots, Charles Krauthammer), but Playbook shows their ranks are growing: Mitt Romney has an op-ed in USA Today...

By Ezra Klein | December 14, 2010; 9:30 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (147)
Categories: Taxes
Save & Share:

Wonkbook: Tax plan proceeds with high public support; judge rules against health mandate; Summers final speech

The tax plan easily passed its first cloture vote through the Senate, and seems likely to sail through the body. But then comes the House, where Democrats are considerably less favorably inclined, and a single question: Are the negotiations still...

By Ezra Klein | December 14, 2010; 6:21 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (18)
Categories: Wonkbook
Save & Share:

Reconciliation

Recap: Health-care reform had a good news/bad news sort of day; a primer on unemployment benefits; and what the Filibernie revealed about filibusters. Elsewhere: 1) A roundtable on Larry Bartels's "Unequal Democracy." 2) The tax deal beat a filibuster in...

By Ezra Klein | December 13, 2010; 6:02 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (3)

Save & Share:

Paygo for regulations?

Mark Warner is pushing a proposal to apply the logic of Pay-Go to regulations: The legislation "would require federal agencies to identify and eliminate one existing regulation for each new regulation they want to add." There's a part of me...

By Ezra Klein | December 13, 2010; 5:05 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (20)

Save & Share:

Why Bloomberg can't win -- and won't run

It's the electoral college, stupid. Jonathan Capehart -- who advised Bloomberg during one of his earlier campaigns -- lays it out: Let's say Bloomberg gets the dream scenario that gives him the opening to jump in the race: Palin...

By Ezra Klein | December 13, 2010; 3:59 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (5)

Save & Share:

A world without an individual mandate

Health economist Jon Gruber runs the numbers on a world in which the individual mandate is struck down and not replaced by anything: -Repeal of the requirement to buy insurance would mean more people would wait until they get sick...

By Ezra Klein | December 13, 2010; 2:29 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Health Reform
Save & Share:

Cutting off your policies to spite your opponents

To step outside the latest Supreme Court case, it's worth remarking on the long-term damage conservatives are doing their cause by focusing their fire on the individual mandate. The political case for their strategy is clear: The individual mandate, like...

By Ezra Klein | December 13, 2010; 2:21 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (19)
Categories: Health Reform
Save & Share:

Is the Hudson ruling good news for health reform?

District Court Judge Henry E. Hudson, a George W. Bush appointee, has, as expected, ruled the individual mandate unconstitutional. So why are health reformers so unexpectedly pleased? There are two reasons, but first, let's put this into context. Hudson's ruling...

By Ezra Klein | December 13, 2010; 1:36 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (52)
Categories: Health Reform
Save & Share:

Lunch break

Why finance needs a woman's touch:...

By Ezra Klein | December 13, 2010; 12:43 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (2)

Save & Share:

An unemployment benefits primer

The tax deal, says Red State's Erick Erickson, "will also continue subsidizing unemployment — yes you read that right. At some point it becomes welfare, not unemployment compensation." That's the sort of thing that's true in certain conditions, but...

By Ezra Klein | December 13, 2010; 11:55 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (19)

Save & Share:

Network News

Ezra Klein: December 12, 2010 - December 18, 2010