Hypothetical Bias

Bruce Bartlett on policy lags

Maybe too little, always too late:

The history of anti-recession efforts is that they are almost always initiated too late to do any good. This chart, based on recession timelines from the National Bureau of Economic Research, shows the enactment of stimulus plans is a fairly accurate indicator that we have hit the bottom of the business cycle, meaning the economy will improve even if the government does nothing. — Bruce Bartlett, author of “Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy.”

January 21 morning playlist

Music to do, er, research by:

• Meat Puppets - Too High to Die
• Drive-By Truckers - Decoration Day
• Pixies - Trompe Le Monde
• Mark Lanegan - Field Songs

Unique taste

Who doesn't love Maria McKee fronting the 1980s cow-punk band? My cassette tape deteriorated some years ago and I've been trying to get Lone Justice's debut album in CD form. Here is the email I received today:

We're still trying to obtain the following item[s] you ordered on October 11 2007 18:24 PDT.
    
     Lone Justice (Artist) "Lone Justice" [Audio CD]

You have unique (and excellent, of course) taste, and this item is difficult for us to get our hands on.

Still want it? We'll keep on trying. To keep your order for this item open, please click the link below. Otherwise, we'll cancel your order on January 28 2008, if we haven't located it by then.

I clicked the still want it link, but, any suggestions? And don't suggest I download it to my IPod. My what?

Policy lags?

In reading about Bernanke's testimony, I was struck by the statement $100 billion might provide a $60 billion stimulus during the later part of 2009. And then no one mentioned policy lags except Krugman:

Right now, Mr. Bernanke is in crisis-management mode, trying to deal with the mess his predecessor left behind. I don’t have any problems with his testimony yesterday, although I suspect that it’s already too late to prevent a recession.

And in the later part of 2009 we're likely out of recession and the politically-driven 2008 stimulus might be inflationary. Or something like that.

And is Krugman confusing slow growth with a recession? If it "feels weak" is an economy weak? Or recovering slowly? Should slow growth get a stimulus package? Why do fish jump out of the water?

Walker, Texas Ranger on the economy

Via Gail Collins:

Mike Huckabee’s campaign is a mixture of feelings, which are all on the side of the average working stiff, and policies, which are all on the side of the stock exchange. His sidekick, Chuck Norris, has his own stump speech that seems to blame our economic woes on “sheiks and Arabs” who “come over here, buy millions of dollars of merchandise and take it back to their homeland and don’t pay any taxes on it.”

Chuck Norris also played, as his-bad-self, one of the judges in Dodgeball.