-
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
PJD on Turning Points PJD on Turning Points Clinton McMurray on Turning Points ChrisPer on Turning Points Daniel Waldenström on Turning Points Archives
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
- December 2004
- November 2004
- October 2004
- September 2004
- August 2004
- July 2004
Categories
- Australian issues
- Australian Politics
- Behavioural Economics
- Blogging
- Book launch stuff
- Books
- Coming Events
- Current Affairs
- Development Economics
- Eclectic Observations
- Econometrics
- Economics & Public Policy Course
- Economics for Government Course
- Economics Generally
- Economics of Education
- Economics of Elections
- Economics of National Security
- Economics of the Family
- Election
- Environmental Economics
- Film
- Finance
- Food and Drink
- From the Frontiers
- Games
- Global issues
- Health economics
- Indigenous Policy
- Inequality
- Interesting stuff
- Iraq
- Jobs
- Labour Economics
- Law
- Low Wage Work
- Macroeconomics
- Media
- Prediction Markets
- Randomisation
- Religion
- Social Capital
- Sport
- Sports
- Tax
- Television
- Thinktanks
- Trade & Development
- Travel
- Uncategorized
- Universities
- Urban Economics
- US Politics
- Web/Tech
- Weblogs
- What I'm Reading
Meta
Category Archives: US Politics
War Against Poverty II
The NYT magazine has a great profile of John Edwards, titled ‘The Poverty Platform’. A few snippets: About a month after the 2004 election, Edwards met with his most loyal advisers at his cluttered home on P Street in Georgetown. … Continue reading
Posted in US Politics
1 Comment
No HECS, thanks – we're Americans
Two prominent Democrats – Evan Bayh and Rahm Emmanuel – have introduced legislation to reform higher education student subsidies. So far as I can tell, their proposal offers some administrative simplicity, but not much in the way of real reform. … Continue reading
Posted in Economics of Education, US Politics
11 Comments
A stitch in time
Andrew Rotherham and Richard Whitmire offer a 9-point education plan to aspiring US Presidential candidates. Here it is: Don’t just attack No Child Left Behind. It has done a lot of good. For poor and minority kids, it’s their best … Continue reading
Posted in Economics of Education, US Politics
Comments Off on A stitch in time
Elections and the Ecological Fallacy, Part II
Every now and then, people try to learn something about individual voting patterns by looking at regional voting patterns. Given that we have post-election surveys, this approach has always puzzled me. More worryingly, it’s plagued by the ‘ecological fallacy’: aggregating things … Continue reading
Posted in Australian Politics, US Politics
4 Comments
Mr Ed Opens the Gates
Eli Broad and Bill Gates plan to spend $60 million on moving schools up the US political agenda. Here’s what the NYT has to say about it. Under the slogan “Ed in ’08,†the project, called Strong American Schools, will … Continue reading
Posted in Economics of Education, US Politics
2 Comments
Can a US Prez be born in Oz?
My mother-in-law has alerted me to the fact that if I’m feeling especially ambitious for my son, I should be campaigning for John McCain to win the presidency. There’s presently some uncertainty over whether a ‘natural born citizen’ encompasses someone … Continue reading
Posted in US Politics
2 Comments
You can bet on it
If you’ve been following the literature on the predictive power of election betting markets, you may have seen this graph, from a paper based on data from the first 12 years of the Iowa Electronic Markets. The horizontal axis shows … Continue reading
Posted in Australian Politics, US Politics
4 Comments
Obama's In
Senator Barack Obama officially announced today that he’s running for President. My favourite paras from his speech. It was here, in Springfield, where I saw all that is America converge – farmers and teachers, businessmen and laborers, all of them … Continue reading
Posted in US Politics
8 Comments
Obama's Odds
US Senator Barack Obama has created an exploratory committee for his presidential bid. While this has been billed as big news by some local journos, the betting markets seem to have regarded it as being as predictable as the next act … Continue reading
Posted in US Politics
9 Comments
The Audacity of Hope
In yesterday’s Sydney Morning Herald, I had a review of Barack Obama’s new book, The Audacity of Hope. They cut it down a bit, so the full version is over the fold. Shorter AL: Obama for Prez.
Posted in US Politics
6 Comments
A degree of difference
In the 2000 election campaign, George Bush’s education team coined the phrase “the soft bigotry of low expectations”. It was a cutesy phrase, but whenever you hear the US president talking about education, you do get a strong sense he … Continue reading
'Move on' is good advice
Ed Kilgore mentions something that hadn’t occurred to me. The junior senator from Connecticut is an Independent. The other irony, of course, is that Democratic control of the Senate now depends on Joe Lieberman. Nobody has any reason to think … Continue reading
Posted in US Politics
8 Comments
"I'm not racist, except towards Americans…"
In his new Blogocracy blog, Tim Dunlop has a chuckle at the notion that the Democratic victory has driven Andrew Bolt, Tim Blair and Mark Steyn to anti-Americanism. I’m more interested in the unspoken flipside of Tim’s posting: the prospect that this … Continue reading
Posted in Media, US Politics
15 Comments
Thanks for coming, Mac
So the Dems have won the House, and maybe the Senate. If George Allen loses the Virginia Senate race (by what would be the slimmed of margins), surely YouTube deserves partial credit for handing control of the Senate to the Democrats. … Continue reading
Posted in US Politics
7 Comments
But what the heck, let's look at the exit polls anyway
CNN’s early exit polls have been leaked to ThinkProgress (assuming they’re not lying to us, that is). If they’re accurate, the Dems have won the House, and may have won the Senate. Tradesports now (6.20pm US EST) have the GOP … Continue reading
Posted in US Politics
11 Comments
Exunt
After the exit poll debacle of 2004, it doesn’t look like anyone’s relying on exit polls this time around. Above is the trade price and volume on the Tradesports contract for GOP House control (current estimate: 17%).
Posted in US Politics
2 Comments
In pursuit of happy little vegemites
Many of the great delights in the world are cross-cultural. One is the splendid discovery that the best way to eat vegemite is on proper fresh-cooked American bagel. But now, it seems that may have all come to an end. … Continue reading
Posted in US Politics
12 Comments
Obama
According to the NYT, Barack Obama is now countenancing a run for President in 2008. If it turned out to be Obama vs McCain, that would be a race worth moving to the US to watch.
Posted in US Politics
4 Comments
A place called Hope
In a book* written a few years ago, I argued that negative political ads hurt left-wing parties more than right-wing parties. If you’re a classic small-government conservative, rising distrust of politicians is consistent with the Reaganesque ‘government isn’t the solution, it’s the problem’ message. … Continue reading
Posted in Australian Politics, US Politics
7 Comments
Will Joe Go?
Lieberman’s not looking good to stay a Senator – with 25% of booths reporting, the NYT has him trailing 45/55. Update: Lieberman has lost the primary, but says he’ll run as an Independent. My understanding is that he’d romp it … Continue reading
Posted in US Politics
4 Comments
Legislating two-digit hourly wages
In a move that will make Barbara Ehrenreich happier than Jason Furman, Chicago has passed a new ordinance: After months of fevered lobbying and bitter debate, the Chicago City Council passed a ground-breaking ordinance yesterday requiring “big box†stores, like … Continue reading
Posted in Low Wage Work, US Politics
5 Comments
Facts vs fear
One of the great things about being in the US is being able to watch the C-SPAN channel. Last night, it carried Bill Clinton’s July 24 speech supporting Joe Lieberman in the Connecticut primary. It’s a terrific speech, and if a … Continue reading
Posted in US Politics
2 Comments
DC gossip
A friend who follows US politics very closely gave me his best guess as to how 2008 will play out. Gore beats Hilary (and Kerry, Edwards, Bayh, Warner, etc) to win the Democratic primary. McCain easily wins the Republican primary. McCain elected president. … Continue reading
Posted in US Politics
20 Comments
One for the huddled masses
The Californian-based Independent Institute has put out an open letter on immigration, signed by 500+ US scholars. About 40 foreigners (of which I’m one) also signed on, though I’m not quite sure how persuaded GWB will be by non-US citizens signing … Continue reading
Posted in Economics Generally, Inequality, Low Wage Work, US Politics
2 Comments
Crack and pack didn't get them back
A commonly held view is that the extraordinarily high incumbent re-election rate in the US is due to gerrymandering (colloquially known to political operatives as “crack and pack”). My friends John Friedman (a Harvard PhD student) and Richard Holden (an Aussie … Continue reading
Posted in From the Frontiers, US Politics
12 Comments
Praying mantis politics
The Democratic Leadership Council presents an impassioned defence of Senator Joe Lieberman (full text over the fold). Ironically, he’s currently under challenge by Move On, who should.
Posted in US Politics
17 Comments
Unspun
Eddie Lazear is a brilliant economist, and one of the best communicators in academia. But apparently even the best find it hard to avoid the spin zone when they get to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Jared Bernstein unpicks his latest WSJ op-ed.
Posted in Economics Generally, US Politics
Comments Off on Unspun
The new populists?
Those following the “Where should the Democrats go now?” debate in the NYT may be interested in a new paper by labour economist Stephen Rose, put out by the Progressive Policy Institute. The paper argues against Thomas Frank’s argument that … Continue reading
Posted in US Politics
14 Comments
Arm the "laser"
I’m all for research into weapons that have minimal collateral damage. But after Austin Powers, I find it very hard to read stories like this with a straight face.
Posted in US Politics
3 Comments
JKG
John Kenneth Galbraith’s NYT obituary is definitely worth reading. Like most progressive economists, I enjoyed his books, but I’ve never found anything to cite in them. Even by the 1970s, economics was moving in a much more formal direction. But he … Continue reading
Posted in Economics Generally, US Politics
13 Comments