Economics, Public Policy, and Whatever Else Interests Me
Another static page to keep track of categories. My apologies for the inelegance.
History
War on Terror
Economics
Social Security
Conservatism
Brad DeLong reminds us (again) to periodically do our part to identify blogs where the measure of reputation (links, traffic) may understate the quality of the content. Here's my first attempt, in no particular order, and including some blogs with a better reputation than my own:
Joe's Dartblog: A fellow member of the Dartmouth community, well on his way to becoming the Instapundit of his generation.
Hispanic Pundit: Thoughtful, steady, conservative.
Stumbling and Mumbling: Smart commentary on economics and current affairs from across the pond.
A Red Mind in a Blue State: Interesting perspective, Teddy Roosevelt quotes, and a wide range of issues.
Financial Rounds: A new kid on the block, posting on academic finance.
EagleSpeak: Where I go to keep up to date on the Global War on Terror.
Bradford Plumer: Smart, liberal commentary. Reminds me why I shouldn't read only blogs that are right of center.
... I could post things as intelligently and succinctly as Alex Tabarrok of Marginal Revolution:
The Bush budget looks pretty good but lets keep things in perspective. My prediction is that it will be easier to add $540 billion in Medicare spending than it will be to cut $5 billion in farm subsidies.
Re-posting, links and all, must be the sincerest form of flattery. For more on farm subsidies, see my earlier post and a nice follow up at Macroblog.
This was the question posed by a commenter on my last post. He or she makes some suggestions for what I could do, and so I figured I would post them and provide some further comments.
1. You could contribute to moderate Republicans who would increase taxes (I don't believe in such a thing, but you apparently do).
Yes, this is true, but how would an anonymous commenter on the blog know which candidates I contribute to and which ones I don't? In general, I don't give money to politicians, but neither do I hang up the phone when they or their staffs occasionally call. I would lend support to any elected official, of any party, who set a more ambitious deficit reduction target than cutting the unified budget deficit in half by 2009. We are in the healthy part of a cyclical recovery--the on-budget deficit (i.e. excluding the level and growth of the Social Security surplus) should be in surplus. To get back into surplus, I believe that we should take as much as we can out of spending (including the General Fund's contribution to Medicare and the part of the Defense budget that represents corporate welfare) before raising taxes. But if the spending cuts are inadequate, broad-based taxes should go up to get the budget in balance over the business cycle.
2. You could organize Republican economists for sanity who could propose increasing taxes.
I suppose this is another possibility, but I don't have the time. Between teaching and research and other administrative responsibilities, I barely have time to blog these days. But if there is a coalition forming on the center-right around fiscal restraint on spending, I would be happy to lend my voice. I certainly don't support making the remaining 2001 and 2003 tax cuts permanent before the budget is brought into balance (which, in the current environment, means that I don't support making them permanent).
3. You could testify before Congress in opposition to this administration's tax policies.
History suggests that my testifying is bad for the President. I was asked to testify twice before. The first occasion coincided with the delivery of the Starr Report. The second occasion coincided with the impeachment hearings. I don't think I had the Senators' full attention either time. But more importantly, one has to be asked to testify, and no one has been asking. I would go if asked.
4. You could write an op-ed supporting higher taxes and restoring a more progressive tax structure.
I've had virtually no success in getting op-eds published over the years. (Here is an exception that I like.) Part of the reason I started blogging was because I think that a well done blog, or even an insightful post, is going to be almost as good and with much lower hassle. I think that I have been mindful of budget balance and progressivity on this blog. See this Econoblog in the Wall Street Journal, this post on how I would reform Social Security, and this post on how I would change the tax treatment of health insurance premiums.
I appreciate the comments, even those that begin with "Hack!" The irony of this exchange, to me at least, is that the last post expressed disappointment that, for no good reason, the baseline budget got $300 billion worse over 10 years due to legislation passed since last September.
I'm getting my first experience with airport blogging this evening. I've been sitting through delays and cancellations (on Southwest no less) for almost 5 hours, with another one to go. To add insult to injury, there was an earlier flight I could have taken on US Air. Talk about bad kharma--what goes around comes around, I suppose. Looking on the bright side, it could be worse, and the wireless connection is pretty sound. Focusing on work can almost completely drown out the mindless cell phone conversations going on around me.
UPDATE: 09:17 p.m. Another hour delay, again due to Philadelphia's air traffic control system. At least the nice people from Southwest are giving us snacks and drinks while we wait. Hard to imagine I could have driven to Philly by now.
John Irons and I are featured in the latest Econoblog at The Wall Street Journal, "The Economic Crystal Ball: Cloudy, or Clearing?" The teaser:
When clocks around the world tick over to midnight early Saturday morning, economists will reset their mental clocks and pull out a fresh sheet of graph paper, ready to tackle new challenges, and the old ones, afresh.
But what does the year bring? Oil prices, foreign exchange rates, the jobs market and the government's budget deficit are only a few of the question marks dotting the economic calendar.
By way of answering some of these questions, WSJ.com has asked economist bloggers John Irons and Andrew Samwick to look into the crystal ball and discuss their expectations for 2005. You can add your own thoughts on the 2005 economy on our discussion board.
In honor of winter, and being on vacation in a place where the opportunity cost of blogging is pretty darn high, Vox Baby will take a break for a few more days. Enjoy the holidays.
The voting for the 2004 Weblog Awards has finished. Thanks to everyone who voted for VoxBaby and congratulations to all of the blogs that won their categories. I could tell via the blog's sitemeter that I got many referrals from the contest, and so I am glad that I participated.
A special thanks to the folks at Wizbang for hosting the contest.
Brought to us again by Wizbang, it is time for the 2004 Weblog Awards. On occasions such as this, I recall the three questions of Rabbi Hillel:
Vox Baby is a contestant in the "Top 2500-3500" category. I am grateful for any votes that come my way, as I am for readers, comments, trackbacks, and links.
More importantly, this is a great opportunity to find some additional blogs to add to your regular or occasional reading. It was nice to find some new blogs that I haven't yet read, listed in a host of categories by topic and by size.
And remember that the voting period ends on December 12, so by all means, start now.
Enjoy!