By rescuing the financial system without reforming it, Washington has done nothing to protect us from a new crisis, and, in fact, has made another crisis more likely.
We should try to create the society each of us would want if we didn’t know in advance who we’d be.
Something terrible has happened to the soul of the Republican Party. We’ve gone from bad economic doctrine. We’ve even gone beyond selfishness and special interests. At this point we’re talking about a state of mind that takes positive glee in inflicting further suffering upon the already miserable.
Simple doesn’t mean stupid. Thinking that it does, does.
Coming up with a good idea, with an insight into the way the world works that is really new and that you really believe in, is a deeply satisfying experience.
Politics determines who has the power, not who has the truth.
Bad ideas flourish because they are in the interest of powerful groups.
A message to progressives: By all means, hang Senator Joe Lieberman in effigy.
Are you, or is someone you know, a gadget freak? If so, you doubtless know that Wednesday was iPhone 5 day, the day Apple unveiled its latest way for people to avoid actually speaking to or even looking at whoever they’re with.
The science fiction world has a lot of people doing seriously imaginative thinking.
Political figures who talk a lot about liberty and freedom invariably turn out to mean the freedom to not pay taxes and discriminate based on race; freedom to hold different ideas and express them, not so much.
The trouble with poverty, as an issue, is that it has basically exhausted the patience of the general public.
In short, it’s a great economy if you’re a high-level corporate executive or someone who owns a lot of stock. For most other Americans, economic growth is a spectator sport.
Every once in a while I feel despair over the fate of the planet. If you’ve been following climate science, you know what I mean: the sense that we’re hurtling toward catastrophe but nobody wants to hear about it or do anything to avert it.
We know that advanced economies with stable governments that borrow in their own currency are capable of running up very high levels of debt without crisis.
The public has no idea that the deficit has been falling like a stone.
I admit it: I had fun watching right-wingers go wild as health reform finally became law.
But where will the Fed find another bubble?
Sometimes economists in official positions give bad advice; sometimes they give very, very bad advice; and sometimes they work at the OECD.
If you can create even the illusion of high profitability for a few years, then when the thing collapses you can walk out of the wreckage a very rich man.