Most bloggable SNL skit in recent memory

Obama & Romney

I've taken some heat from friends and co-workers for not watching any of the presidential debates (although I watched the VP debate with great interest).

I did watch President Obama's and Governor Romney's remarks at last night's Alfred E. Smith dinner, and I got a lot more utility out of it than any of their debates.  I'd have to give the Most Gracious nod to Obama, although both of them found grace for each other and some self-deprecation for themselves.



Ohio tightens a bit, on 3 days of higher-than-usual trading volume.

Here's a nice summary map of Intrade state-by-state predictions, currently giving the win with 281 electoral votes to Obama, vs. 257 for Romney.

Quotes of the day

Who would have thought that Hollywood environmentalists would find themselves aligned with Persian Gulf oil barons? --John Carney

The [Iranian] Fars News Agency, which is close to Iran’s powerful Republican Guard Corps, posted its version of the report on its English-language Web site under the same headline used by The Onion for the original four days earlier: “Gallup Poll: Rural Whites Prefer Ahmadinejad To Obama.”--Robert Mackey

[Warren Buffett] thinks of cash as a call option with no expiration date, an option on every asset class, with no strike price.--Alice Schroeder

Maya Rudolph, an awesome Beyonce

Quotes of the day

In an establishment like Ditka’s, the namesake is Jehovah: always looked for, seldom found.--Rich Cohen

How did Tom Brady go from Joe Montana to Dave Krieg?--Jeremy Lundblad

You know, each team plays their own defensive scheme against them, whether it’s Buffalo or Kansas City or Pittsburgh or whoever it is. We have our scheme. We’ll take some things from each game that we’ve seen and try to apply it to what we do. We’re not them, they’re not us, we have different players - same thing with Kansas City, Buffalo and all that. There’s certainly a lot to be learned but at the same time, we have our own matchups and we’re different from everybody else.--Bill Belichick

Translation: We're not going to play it the way the Steelers did, but we wouldn't have done that anyway ... Oh, and the Steelers were dumb. ... In basketball parlance, the Steelers packed the paint against someone whose only chance was to hit 3-pointers, which Tebow did.--Tony Massarotti

Mark Twain was as brilliant as Ricky Gervais. People try to give labels and change what it is. But comedy has always been the same.--Eddie Brill

Image link here.

I may yet delete this gross, but captivating in-a-cheesy-80s-oeuvre music slideshow

If I get 3 comments to remove it, it shall be done.

Still needs work, there's a "St. Elmo" artifact, and an "Eagles" reference that each should be reworked.

Quotes of the day

Despite its remarkable contribution, The General Theory is an obscure book. I'm not sure that even Keynes himself knew completely what he really meant.--Greg Mankiw

... note that Keynesians think $97B was created via this spending and taxes this year, which is why they love government spending regardless of what it is spent upon. But if they issued $100B in bonds to create this 'new demand', where would that $100B have have gone otherwise? I don't think this makes sense in general equilibrium; money is never 'idle' unless it is under your mattress. I guess if you could caricature the two views: one thinks supply creates its own demand, the other that demand creates its own supply.--Eric Falkenstein

The issue is not that Krugman changed his mind (I’ve done that plenty, Alex too). The issue is that Krugman a) regularly demonizes his opponents, including those who hold Krugman’s old positions, and b) doesn’t work very hard to produce the strongest possible case against his arguments. Krugman’s response shows that he has changed his mind on debt, and explained why, but Heritage has not. It’s an “I am better than they are” response. That is beside the point, which is about elevating the views of others not oneself. The need to show all the time that one is better or more right than the others is itself harmful to depth, and responding with “but I really am better than them” is just falling into the trap again.
...
How about writing a NYRB essay that lays out the short-run negative output gradient to austerity, presents why austerity is considered a serious option nonetheless, discusses catch-up and bounce back effects and their relevant time horizons, analyzes what kinds of policies are actually possible in a 17 (27) nation collective, engages with the best public choice arguments (including Buchanan and Wagner) on a serious level, ponders the merits and demerits of worst case thinking, and ruminates on the nature of leadership in a way which shows some tussling with Thucydides and Churchill? Surely that is within Krugman’s capabilities and if it still comes out Keynesian or left-wing, great, at least someone will have seen those arguments through. Such an essay would stand a far greater chance of influencing me, or other serious readers, or for that matter President Obama. We should hold Krugman to the very high standard of actually expecting that he produce such work. Not many others are capable of it.
...
There is a kind of hallelujah chorus for Krugman on some of the left-wing economics blogs. The funny thing is, it’s hurting Krugman most of all.--Tyler Cowen

Really, what do you do with a guy who insults fellow economists, while admitting in writing that he doesn't even read the opeds and blog posts that are the cause for his insults (let alone their actual academic work, where ideas can be documented and defended)? He often doesn't even link or name the articles he's criticizing so his readers can decide for themselves!--John Cochrane

Sure, the top 10 [macroeconomists] make a good living, but no one else does, as companies and municipalities don't need macroeconomists any more than they need sociologists.--Eric Falkenstein

[Rex Ryan] kind of looks like Mario Batali.--Jason Gay, channeling Eli Manning

The vitriol toward [Josh] McDaniels has always surprised me. ... OK, he lost. Lots of coaches lose and get fired. But the overriding sentiment is that McDaniels destroyed the franchise, setting it back for years. On Sunday, the quarterback, record-setting receiver, third receiver and two starting offensive linemen came from the 2010 draft that McDaniels oversaw. The quarterback he picked and was ridiculed for is 8-4 and saved your season and just knocked the defending conference champ out of the playoffs and has your team in the final eight of the NFL. ... your disdain for McDaniels is irrational. He needed a strong GM, never got one, blew a bunch of draft picks and lost most of his games. That we know. Can you tell me if, say, Raheem Morris or Eric Mangini or Todd Haley, other coaches who got jobs in 2009, got the Denver job you'd be better off now? I can guarantee you none of them would have taken Tim Tebow in the first round.--Peter King

He’s a big dude, a strong guy. I know we talked about it, but I didn’t realize. He’s just a physical guy, his stature, just a big guy. I’ve seen some big guys over the years, but he’s probably one of the biggest and toughest, probably one of the strongest, that I’ve faced.--Vince Wilfork, 4 time All-Pro and Pro Bowl (325 lb) defensive lineman

[Nick] Saban walked off, escorted by three police officers. A couple of miles away, on Bourbon Street, the party raged, an army of drunken fans from Muscle Shoals and Dotham and Birmingham no doubt crooning along to ill-advised Skynyrd covers. Meanwhile, the coach did a neat bunny hop onto the back of a golf cart, hair slicked back in a Gatorade pompadour, and his wife sat next to him, and off he went, no doubt thinking fastidious thoughts. ... Saban adhered to his own process, measured and cautious; he lost when it didn't matter, and won when it did, and he did so with five field goals and one garbage-time touchdown. You may not like him, but you have to respect that, in a sport driven by misplaced emotion, the man always knows when to carry an umbrella. He will be remembered as the greatest coach of this era because he won a number of big games in the sort of methodical fashion that makes them very easy to forget. And maybe, when you think about it, the only way to end this season was with a frustrating anticlimax.--Michael Weinreb

On January 1, 1991, the federal excise tax on beer doubled, and the tax rates on wine and liquor increased as well. These changes are larger than the typical state-level changes that have been used to study the effect of price on alcohol abuse and its consequences. ... A conservative estimate is that the federal tax reduced injury deaths by 4.7%, or almost 7,000, in 1991.--Philip J. Cook, Christine Piette Durrance

Photo links here, here, here and here.

Video of the day: Civil Unrest Legos

Via Joshua Brown.

Quotes of the day

There’s No ‘I’ In Teamwork But There’s Something That Looks Like An ‘I’ In “WWIII”--Bess Levin

This summer, [Derek Jeter] ended up hooking up with a girl who he had hooked up with once before, but Jeter seemed to have forgotten about the first time and gave her the same identical parting gift, a gift basket with a signed Derek Jeter baseball. He basically gave her the same gift twice because he’d forgotten hooking up with her the first time!--pal of Derek Jeter

I hope I don't have any pals like this one.--Cav

If, say, Portugal had borrowed lots of money in the last decade and invested it in gold, it really wouldn't have a problem at all. It would have a huge debt burden but also a corresponding asset that is liquid enough to allow it to service the debt. This is small example of a problem overlooked by a lot of macroeconomic types who focus on "aggregate demand," as if the actual things produced through government sponsored demand didn't matter. But they do matter, a lot. This one of the reasons that government spending can slow the economy. It misdirects spending to political ends, rather than economic ends.--John Carney

What if the entire restaurant industry actually began to look forward to working Sunday lunch? If they said amongst themselves, "I love the church crowd. They are kind, patient and very generous. It's my favorite part of the week waiting on Christians." How might such a change affect the way the world sees us? Think about it. Just being a decent human being for one hour each Sunday and the world sees us in a whole new way.--Richard Beck

Photo links here, here, and here.

Chart of the day: Baby Boomers kill me not only with their entitlement programs

but also their musical preferences:

Source here.

Cartoon of the day: What happens in Vega

Source here.

Congress: Do they do anything? No!

But because of them, no one else can either. They're like Hotel California; my legislation checks in, but it can never leave.  ... how many of you out there have a Fantasy Congress league?--Fred Armisen as President Obama, on the question 'Who really has power?'

Quotes of the day

Ironically, the topic of [my Harvard economics] lecture that the protesters chose to boycott was economic inequality, including a discussion of recent trends and their causes.

...

like most economists, I don’t view the study of economics as laden with ideology. Most of us agree with Keynes, who said: “The theory of economics does not furnish a body of settled conclusions immediately applicable to policy. It is a method rather than a doctrine, an apparatus of the mind, a technique for thinking, which helps the possessor to draw correct conclusions.”

...

That is not to say that economists understand everything. The recent financial crisis, economic downturn and meager recovery are vivid reminders that we still have much to learn. Widening economic inequality is a real and troubling phenomenon, albeit one without an obvious explanation or easy solution. A prerequisite for being a good economist is an ample dose of humility.

...

My fervent hope is that any students who are still protesting the class will return — and that, while recognizing our limitations, they will learn from us what they can. A few might choose to become economic researchers themselves. Their contributions will surely be welcome. They might even improve the next generation of textbooks.--Greg Mankiw

"Veritas Christo et Ecclesiae" which translated from Latin means "Truth for Christ and the Church."--Harvard motto, adopted in 1692

If there’s any strong ideological undercurrent in Mankiw’s teaching, I would say that it’s Nerdism: the belief that people should listen to, and learn from, nerds…. Because believe me—and I say this with genuine respect and affection—Mankiw is a nerd’s nerd.--Connel Fullenkamp

Down-on-her-luck protester Tracy Postert spent 15 days washing sidewalks and making sandwiches at Zuccotti Park — then landed a dream job at a Financial District investment firm thanks to a high-powered passer-by who offered her work.--CYNTHIA R. FAGEN

I'm in the sort of sustainability space around kind of bringing synergistic value-add to other people's work around this kind of space.--Dan Palotta's Valley Girl 2.0

You should meet this guy with the SIO. He's sort of this kind of social entrepreneur thinking outside of the box in the sustainability space and working on these ideas around sort of web-based social media, and he's in a round two capital raise in the VP space with the people at SVNP.--Dan Palotta, again

It was fifeteen years ago today that Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan gave his famous "irrational exurberance" speech, suggesting that U.S. equities were overvalued.

...

Between then and now, on an annualized basis,
the return on the U.S. stock market has been 5.55 percent.
the return on the U.S. bond market has been 5.98 percent.
Score that as one point for Alan.--Greg Mankiw

America looks like Mexico of the 70’s – 90’s. The last election cycle brought us the biggest economic crisis in 70 years. The next election will be no different. Dozens of landmines have been planted. They are timed to go off in 2013. Some may be fixed, others kicked further down the road. However the odds of the country addressing all of the things that have been programmed to explode is, in my opinion, close to zero. One or more of these things is going to trip us up. There are too many big issues to confront. When history looks at this period it will point to the incredible mismanagement of the economy that has taken place. A crisis is being programmed. It will go off like clockwork; it is now set on autopilot. I blame the partisan politics in D.C. for setting the country up for a big fall. But the reality is that the politicians are deeply divided because the voters are equally divided.--Bruce Krasting

Why are men less willing to work with a woman who attempts to negotiate?--John Carney

1) Does imprisonment reduce crime? Yes.
2) Do many crimes cause considerable harm and hardships to victims? Yes.
3) Does America imprison too many people?  In light of my answers to 1) and 2) you might expect my answer to this question to be “no”, but it is a strong “yes”.--Gary Becker

Hang up some stained glass windows. Where? I don’t know. I’m not in charge of logistics. My job is awesome ideas. And nothing says old school like a 3,000 pound stained glass window.--Jon Acuff

Image links here, here, here and here.

Video of the day: Spouses arguing via Siri

here.  Warning:  colorful PG-13 language.

Via Joshua Gans.

Quotes of the day

Ben, those silver bullets that you and Mike are looking for are fine and good, but our web server is five times slower. There is no silver bullet that’s going to fix that. No, we are going to have to use a lot of lead bullets.--Bill Turpin

JoePa said that with the benefit of hindsight, he wished he had done more, which begged the question: What words, what regrets, what sorrows and devastations are left to Victims 1-8, who must wonder how life might have been different if JoePa had acted in accordance with his lovingly bestowed nickname?--Jane Leavy

... I will say that I am sickened, absolutely sickened, that some of those people whose lives were fundamentally inspired and galvanized by Joe Paterno have not stepped forward to stand up for him this week, have stood back and allowed him to be painted as an inhuman monster who was only interested in his legacy, even at the cost of the most heinous crimes against children imaginable.
...
Shame on them. And why? I’ll tell you my opinion: Because they were afraid. And I understand that. A kind word for Joe Paterno in this storm is taken by many as a pro vote for a child molester. A quick, “Wait a minute, Joe Paterno is a good man. Let’s see what happened here” is translated as an attempt to minimize the horror of what Jerry Sandusky is charged with doing. It takes courage to stand behind someone you believe in when it’s this bad outside. It takes courage to stand up for a man in peril, even if he stood up for you. And that’s shameful. I have not wanted to speak because it’s not my place to speak. I’m Joe Paterno’s biographer. I’m here to write about the man. I’m not here to write a fairy tale, and I’m not here to write a hit job, and I hope to be nowhere near either extreme. I’m here to write a whole story. I’ve had people ask me: “Will you include all this in the book?” Well, OF COURSE I will — this is the tragic ending of a legendary career. I’m going to wait for evidence, and if it turns out that Joe Paterno knowingly covered this up, then I will write that with all the power and fury I have in me.--Joe Posnanski

As defenses get more complex, the answer isn't always to get more complex on offense; sometimes, it's the opposite. By making the game easier, Harbaugh has turned Smith into one of the league leaders in interceptions per pass attempt. Football is a game of intelligent compromises under constraints such as time, ability, and the raw physics of the game. And right now, at 7-1, Harbaugh's 49ers seem to have found the right mix.--Chris Brown

Can't we just call Andy Dalton "Shawshank"? It's right in front of us: Red and Andy.--Joe

Furious that I didn't think of that first.--Bill Simmons

America's monetary problem however is that they are in a liquidity trap. Six or seven years of 6 percent inflation, 2 percent interest rates and to stick the losses to the Chinese who (in their mercantilist fashion) own the debt would be a wonderful way out of America's malaise. And you would think you could induce 5 percent inflation by printing money. You would think the option is open. Indeed you would swear given how much money the Fed has printed that it would have happened. But it has not happened. Sure the Fed has printed money. And when it finished that it printed some more. Soon we will get to QE4 and yet another round of "quantitative easing" and we will still not manage to induce 5-7 percent inflation, 2 percent interest rates and to stick the losses to the Chinese.
...
If you had - without any understanding of monetary theory - been told that the Fed could increase money stock from say $800 billion to $3 trillion and not result in an inflationary torrent you would not have believed it. It would have sounded like nonsense. But you better believe it because it happened. And that requires an explanation.
...
The explanation is simple enough. The Federal Reserve has too much credibility. Each time it increases the money supply it buys some asset (say a government bond or even a foreign security) and issues cash. And people hold the cash because it is a reasonable store of value. And it is a reasonable store of value because they trust - at the end of this cycle - that the Federal Reserve will eventually take its vault full of assets, sell the assets for hard cash (which it will destroy) and will thus suck the excess liquidity out of the system.
...
If people really believed the cash was trash they would all try to get rid of it (ie buy something) but collectively they could not get rid of it (every time they buy something it would have a new owner) and the result would be inflation. Inflation would then reduce the real value of the money stock to a level where people were comfortable holding it.--John Hempton

The Greek debt crisis that has roiled world markets for weeks was resolved today when Greece agreed to marry TV reality star Kim Kardashian for 72 days. The marriage, believed to be the first ever between a sovereign nation and a television personality, is expected to net billions of dollars for Greece’s debt-strapped economy. The wedding between Ms. Kardashian and Greece will generate cash via a People magazine pictorial, an E! Entertainment reality series, and a bond offering backed by the International Monetary Fund.--Borowitz Report

Showing the resiliency that has frustrated foes throughout his storied career, Silvio Berlusconi today stepped down as Italian Prime Minister and assumed the helm of the National Restaurant Association. “This is a dream job for me,” Mr. Berlusconi told reporters as he settled into his new offices in Washington. “I love working with people and I intend to be very hands-on.”
...
Mr. Berlusconi won the coveted position after beating out several rivals, including former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn. “I must admit I am envious of Silvio,” Mr. Strauss-Kahn said. “There isn’t a red-blooded man alive who wouldn’t want to run the National Restaurant Association.”--Borowitz Report

The companies want to retain their favorite loopholes. For the heck of it I include the wish list below this piece. It’s endless. It’s a joke. It proves that American industry’s interests are not at all aligned with the American citizens. This list will insure that the likes of GE never pay their share of US taxes.  I don’t have a problem when US industry lobbies congress for what they want. That’s the system we signed up for. But I do have a problem when the company that has the most to gain from the tax code is also advising the Administration on economic policy.   Obama has made a bunch of dumb mistakes. His getting into bed with Jeff Immelt is high on the list.--Bruce Krasting

In a competitive, low-margin, high-hustle retail business, Ed wanted to project Bloomingdales with a Wal-Mart budget. The showroom had to be beautiful, spotless—just perfect to look the part. Customer service was paramount. In order to be successful, every employee had to have this mentality. Although we didn’t call it that then, I’ve come to believe that Ed was creating a company culture. We often get wrapped up in Silicon Valley with the “new-new” way that we can forget many times we’re simply rediscovering well worn lessons that date back to the beginnings of commerce.--Scott Weiss

Top 10 Debate Brain Freeze Excuses

I need to memorize these when I get home late, and need to give my wife a full report:

10. Actually, there were three reasons I messed up last night: 1) was the nerves and 2) was the headache and 3) um…uh…oops.

9. I don’t know what you’re taking about - I think things went well.

8. I was up late last night watching “Dancing with the Stars.”

7. I thought the debate was tonight.

6. You try concentrating with Mitt Romney smiling at you. That is one handsome dude!

5. Uh, El Nino?

4. I had a five-hour energy drink six hours before the debate.

3. I really hoped it would get me on my favorite talk show, but instead, I ended up here.

2. I wanted to help take the heat off my buddy Herman Cain.

1. I just learned Justin Bieber is my father.

Cartoon of the day: there can only be one king

Source here.

Second-order xenophilia, for the soul

here, via Tyler Cowen.  Some of my favorites:

Cigarettes behind the counter in drug stores.

I was startled to find out that "God Save the Queen" has alternate lyrics.

People without passports.

Riding a bike is dangerous and an enterprise, not a mindless means of transport.

Sales tax not being included in the marked price on retail items. Gaah!

The warning at the end of the drug ads is a trip, i.e. may cause incontence, madness, vampirism, zombification, loss of libido, suicidal thoughts, annoyance at flowers etc.

The sheer amount of SPACE there is, outside major cities.

The surfeit of choice is something I find more and more astounding with every trip back. Not only in supermarkets and restaurants, but in bars, expresso bars, bagel and breakfast places.

The price of books. Oh good Lord, the price of books. I cry a little when I remember the low, low, low cost of books.

The volume at which Americans talk.

I really notice the largeness of American bodies ...

Giving credit cards to people with no income.

Man hugs. Woah.

Buy a coffee, have it endlessly refilled for no money.

Cartoon of the day: internet culture

Source here.

Best brain teaser I've seen in awhile

Via Greg Mankiw.