Disconnecting the Heart Monitor In my post last week titled, “Approaching the Zero Bound,” I characterized the Fed’s plan to buy hundreds of billions ($600 billion, it turns out) in U.S. debt as a “hypodermic needle to the economy’s heart.” Actually, that analogy is not quite complete. The Fed’s money-injection plan, also known as quantitative...Read More
The (Lawn Sign) Tide Recedes First, a bit of explanation: thanks to the miracle of recorded TV and zipping/zapping, I watched virtually NO TV political commercials this election season. Second, I get almost all my news online, and have for years; so, I’ve become very good at tuning out all the commercial noise on the...Read More
“You Go. Then I Go. You Go,” etc.OK, so Jon Stewart delivered his version in front of more people, at last weekend’s “March to Restore Sanity” in Washington, D.C. But I served up my metaphor first: It would sure seem that traffic lights are one of the quintessential government functions. When they’re in the right...Read More
“The Balancing Barn” For the benefit of anyone under 40, “Is it live or . . . is it Memorex?,” was a famous TV commercial from the 1970’s, featuring singer Ella Fitzgerald selling audio tapes (remember those??) by asking whether the glass-shattering notes were hers live — or from a recording. Today, of course, there’s...Read More
