Karen Tumulty declares over on Swampland that “The Great Health Care Debate of 2008 is Finally Engaged,” and she’s definitely right that the approach McCain announced yesterday is radically different from what Obama and Clinton have been talking about. It is pretty much the same as what the Bush administration has been promoting for several [...]

So after two days of gabbing, the folks on Federal Open Market Committee did what was mostly expected of them and cut the intended Federal Funds rate down to 2%. I really can’t be bothered to come up with something to say about a measly quarter-point rate cut, so I’m going to outsource to my [...]

So they let my old friend Don Siegelman out last month. But now the Bond Buyer reports (thanks to Mrs. CC for the tip; link only works if you have a subscription, and it’s highly unlikely that you do) that: The Securities and Exchange Commission today filed securities fraud charges against Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford, [...]

From an e-mail that just landed in my inbox: Irvine, Calif., April 30, 2008 – Is that a rumble of hunger in your stomach, or a rumble of anticipation as you stare at Taco Bell’s all-new Big Bell Box Meal? Hunger will meet its match beginning today with a Bacon Club Chalupa, Beef Crunchy Taco, [...]

This struck me as the smartest of a bunch of smart observations by former Dallas Morning News (and still syndicated) personal finance columnist Scott Burns in a Q&A with Talking Business News (via Romenesko): As much as I love newspapers, they are hamstrung by their attachment to a business model that no longer works. The [...]

It’s always dangerous to read too much into the advance GDP estimates made by the Bureau of Economic Analysis–they’re subject to revision in subsequent months, and the changes can be substantial. But today’s report that the U.S. economy grew at an estimated 0.6% annual pace, adjusted for inflation, in the first quarter is nonetheless eye-catching. [...]

They don’t really have street addresses in Tokyo, and I’ve always chalked that up to a combination of the city’s plethora of really short streets running into each other at odd angles, and the widespread Japanese desire to remain undecipherable to foreigners. They don’t really have street addresses in Managua, either, and when I was [...]

Robert Waldmann has coined a new word (he did it almost a week ago, but hey, I’ve been on vacation): Nordtopian adj based on the illusion that the Nordic model can and might be adopted elsewhere. Now this blog has certainly exhibited many telltale signs of Nordophilia (which I guess is why Felix Salmon pointed [...]

So now Hillary Clinton has decided to endorse John McCain’s silly idea of a three-month federal gas tax holiday. Only Barack Obama, who voted for an Illinois gas tax holiday back in 2000 but has since seen the error of his ways, is standing firm against this nonsense. Why’s it nonsense? First of all, because [...]