As the walls close in, Steve Clemons wonders, what ever happened to Wolfowitz the strategist?

Rudy Giuliani makes nice with the farmers he offended, and Tagg Romney thinks his father's conversions are "very very" convincing.

That and more in our our Election Central Happy Hour Roundup.

Are bubbles actually good for the economy?

Daniel Gross, aka Slate's "Moneybox", makes that counterintuitive case at TPMCafe's Book Club this week in support of his book Pop!: Why Bubbles Are Great For The Economy.

Daniel Altman, Paul Kedrosky, Justin Fox, Jesse Eisinger, Jonathan Miller, Andy Kessler, and Barry Ritholtz join him for the conversation.

Update: Gross presents the argument in his first post here.

Welcome to the TPMCafe Book Club! This is where we regularly invite authors to come and discuss their most recent works with readers and invited commentators. Past Book Club authors include Thomas Frank, Anthony Shadid, Larry Diamond, George Packer, Ivo Daalder/James Lindsay, Robert Dreyfuss, Chris Mooney, Gene Sperling, Gershom Gorenberg, Peter Beinart, Kevin Phillips, Sidney Blumenthal, Reed Hundt, Anne-Marie Slaughter/John Ikenberry, and Jonathan Cohn.

This week we'll be discussing Daniel Gross' Pop!: Why Bubbles Are Great For The Economy.

Gross, widely known for his "Moneybox" column in Slate Magazine, makes the counterintuitive case for economic bubbles as trail blazers for eventual economic development. Overinvestment, he argues, lays the mental and physical foundations for more careful economic development once the bubble has popped. From train tracks to telegraph wires to Web 1.0, Gross traces the history of American investments that destroyed lives and fortunes in the short run, but led to economic transformations in the long.

Debating and discussing Gross' thesis will be Daniel Altman, Paul Kedrosky, Justin Fox, Jesse Eisinger, Jonathan Miller, Andy Kessler, and Barry Ritholtz.

-ahg