Writing in The New York Times today, Martin Feldstein, who was the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Reagan, argued for “permanently reducing the mortgage debt hanging over America.” Failure to do so, he writes, “ means that further declines in home prices will continue, preventing the rise in consumer spending needed …
Al Davis, the legendary owner of the Oakland Raiders who died today at 82, was famous for saying something that ought to chiseled onto every lintel in the Pentagon, needle-pointed into a Whitman sampler and hung in a frame on the wall of every member of Congress, and tattooed onto the knuckles of every general …
The morning after Steve Jobs died, I watched a usual Morning Joe panel step far outside its sweet spot and try to eulogize Jobs’ impact. Joe Nocera was pretty effective, mostly because he had paid close attention to Jobs and Apple, and Willie Geist was at least in touch with the culture. But Joe, Mika, …
For a long time now I’ve been saying that the readers of the world have to step up and defend the value of the written word. Don’t be didactic, but by all means, be a little bit elitist. When your friends start talking about Dancing with the Stars, talk about a book or magazine article …
In The Atlantic, Jared Keller has assembled a rather brainy slide show–a collection of literary references in The Simpsons. Many of my favorites are here, including Jonathan Franzen and Michael Chambon, George Plimpton, Gore Vidal, Robert Caro, The New Yorker, Tom Wolfe, The Economist, and William L. Shirer.Somehow Keller missed the episde in which Lisa …
In The Washington Post today, Matt Miller argues for the need for a third party. “There’s a staggering void in the debate,” he writes. “The parties act this way because their core constituencies have a stake in a failed status quo. But where does that leave the majority of us who are not in the …
Occasioned by the premiere of The Playboy Club on NBC and Pan Am on ABC, the folks at the Canadian Broadcasting Company thought they wanted to talk about the sudden burst of nostalgia for the sixties, and invited me to appear on their prime time talk show Connect with Mark Kelly, to, ah, connect my …
Preach it, Sister Elizabeth Warren, preach it!