That's very funny. You've earned the buccaneer hat. (Get a hat.) Still, never be cavalier about inflation. It's like walking under a ladder or spilling salt. As the Latin Americans learned the hard way, inflation expectations is the mid-point between behavioral and structural economics. Once they're anchored, it's a decade-long process to cut the chain (continuing the nautical theme.) Nothing distorts an economy more or causes more damage to the weakest.

Posted at April 16, 2008 10:42 AM in response to More Reasons to Worry about McCain-onomics

Stop waving the bloody shirt of Exxon profits. Sure, they'll pocket some change. You know perfectly well that's not what's driving oil prices. Asset prices must reset, but our politics won't let that happen. We're a nation of spoiled bubble addicts, with a layer of Wall Street crybabies on top who want Daddy state to help after wrecking the car. And now we've got a bailout for homebuilders, realtors and deadbeats for $25 billion. Everyone sees we're going with easy money and inflation -- hence, the move to commodities, hence even higher oil/food prices, weaker dollar and more inflation for the cheap imports no one noticed as the complained about jobs shipped overseas. Rentier class my ass!!! They're called retirees and Haitians and consumers. Maybe jollyroger didn't live through the 1970s when inflation expectations got anchored and Mr. Volker (Obama's eco adviser; let us pray) had to change the pieces on the board. It was not fun.

Posted at April 15, 2008 6:16 PM in response to More Reasons to Worry about McCain-onomics

The apartheid language troubled me a lot less after a bit of travel around the Territories. Still, it's inapt and inflammatory -- and I think Carter meant it to be. This struggle is about land, not dominance. Israel doesn't need or want cheap Arab labor. The occupation is a means of gaining control over land for zealous minority and security belt against terror for the ambivalent middle. MJ presents a pretty rosy scenario of the security Israelis live in, but as the era of advanced asymetrical warfare unfolds, fueled by the long arm of Iran (whose goals are clearly stated), being the fourth-biggest military power in the world (?) may not be all that useful. Still, the only long-term way forward is like South Africa: strike a deal with the folks on the other side who believe in the future instead of the past then repress the hell out of the rest. Hacking away at the tentacles of settlement enterprise would be a good place to start.

Posted at April 15, 2008 1:20 PM in response to Mr. Olmert: "Tear Down That Wall....I Mean 'Those Settlements' " & Israelis Refuse to Protect Carter

It is a sad turn of events that the hypocrisy and hoisting of Penn on Hillary's petard has to take place on the back of Colomnbia. There's is nothing ignoble or wrong about lobbying for the agreement; it should be passed. Uribe has done a heroic job of reducing violence across the board in the country, and the Colombian unions themselves will say (should anyone bother to ask) that the safety of union organizers isn't the issue. The stunning piece is that when Penn went to the Embassy, they didn't know whether he was there on behalf of the campaign or Burston-Marsteller. That's outrageous and signals everything wrong with Billary.

Posted at April 8, 2008 6:19 PM in response to Bill Clinton Has Deeper Ties To Colombia Like Mark Penn