Fixing False Arguments

Lotta serious below, but it is good to start with some humor. This TPM daily video may be their best edited ever.



Krugman kills some zombie lies and brings clarity to the economic discussion.

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More Krugman: Can America be saved?

So I read this:

Boehner said Americans want government to practice the same financial restraint they have been forced to exercise: “It’s time for government to tighten their belts and show the American people that we ‘get’ it.”

and I wonder if this country can handle the crisis we’re in. Remember, John Boehner is, in effect, the second-most influential member of the GDP (after Rush Limbaugh). And while Democrats hold a majority, it’s not enough of a majority to make the minority party irrelevant.

So the fact that Boehner’s idea of economics is completely insane matters.

What’s insane about Boehner’s remark? He’s talking about the current economic crisis as if it were a harvest failure — as if we faced a shortage of goods, so that the more you consume the less is left for me. In reality — even most conservatives understand this, when they think about it — we’re in a world desperately short of demand. If you consume more, that’s GOOD for me, because it helps create jobs and raise incomes. ... ...

Richard Wolffe: Well, I love the "socialist" debate. It's just so amazing that people throw the word around and they have obviously no idea what it actually ever meant. You just have to be grateful that this congress wasn't dealing with the Soviet Union otherwise they would have threatened Sweden with nuclear annihilation.

Socialists? Sully's Quote For The Day II. "If you go out and interview these people working on this road in Maryland... these people are thrilled. They are thrilled that they are working in March on a good paying job building roads, which is what they were trained to do. That's going to be happening all over America. So the idea that this is socialism -- it is not socialism, it is economic development. It is going to provide an economic engine around communities all over American for jobs; good paying jobs; and help people pay their bills. I don't call that socialism.... We are the model for the world when it comes to infrastructure. We are the model for the interstate system. I don't call that socialism. Our $40 billion [for the Department of Transportation]: not socialism. It is good paying jobs that is going to drive the economies in a lot of states and a lot of communities," - Obama transportation secretary, Ray LaHood, a Republican.


Yglesias says Carbon Pricing Looks Expensive Only If You Ignore the Benefits

It seems the George C. Marshall Institute has come out with a study which shows that pricing carbon emissions would be costly to the economy. But one problem with the study, as Tony Kreindler points out, is that they forgot that run-amok climate change is costly too. This seems like an important point! If I added up the ruinous costs of auto ownership—thousands of dollars in up front costs, fuel costs, repairs, insurance, etc.—but forgot to mention that you get to drive your car around it would seem baffling that anyone buys one.

The same principle applies to carbon pricing. If there were no climate change, or if climate change wasn’t caused by carbon dioxide, or if rising global temperatures were totally harmless, then cap and trade would look like a terrible idea. It’s when you put the mild short-term decrease in the rate of GDP growth against the alarmingly catastrophic impact of doing nothing that cap and trade starts to look good. ... ...

Dennis Blair: Iran Has Not Re-Started Its Nuclear Weapons Program. This morning, Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) asked Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair to address the “confusion” about what the intelligence says about Iran’s weapons capacity. Blair said the intelligence community has assessed that Iran does not possess any highly-enriched uranium, and clarified that Mullen had been referring only to low-enriched uranium. ... Despite the repeated assessments of intelligence analysts, the right continues to spew false claims about Iran’s weapons programs.(via Think Progress)

KOS says Dems don't need 60 votes

Here we go again, with the stupid "60 votes" thing:

At least six Senators who have voted to move forward with the so-called card-check proposal, including one Republican, now say they are opposed or not sure -- an indication that Senate Democratic leaders are short of the 60 votes they need for approval.

Dems don't need 60 votes to pass EFCA. They need 50. They may need 60 votes for cloture, but is there any indication that some senators who might vote against the bill would vote against cloture? There's none in this article, nor any other I've seen, and those are certainly ...

An important qualifier to the Buffet's concern (below) about a "muddled message:" The GOP and their media enablers are conspiring to muddle the message at a time of national crisis.

Cole: The Trend

This graph from Calculated Risk is getting uglier and uglier:

In the words of the Oracle:

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett said on CNBC that the economy “has fallen off a cliff” and that Obama’s team is sending some mixed signals about its approach, hurting confidence.

“The message has to be very, very clear as to what government will be doing,” said Buffett, an informal adviser to the White House. “And I think we’ve had – and it’s the nature of the political process somewhat – but we’ve had muddled messages and the American public does not know. They feel they don’t know what’s going on, and their reaction then is to absolutely pull back.”

I suppose the good news is that ....

In Sully's continuing The View From Your Recession series:

A reader writes:

My wife and I are the owners of a small, neighborhood adult boutique (ok, ok, a SEX shop) and website in Los Angeles, CA. Each week, we nervously watch as small business after small business on our stretch of Venice Blvd folds up and calls it a day.

It started with the video store up the street, then the female-owned surf shop, a restaurant or two, the auto parts store… you get the picture. Empty storefronts now almost equal occupied spaces. Each day, our few customers ask us how we’re weathering the downturn. “Hangin’ in,” we tell them. Inevitably, a comment comes forth to the effect that the adult industry is somehow immune to the economics of other businesses; that, somehow, people tend to have MORE sex in lean times, like drinking alcohol, watching more television, and going to movies. We just nod.

Why bother telling them our sales are ... ...