Are You, Or Is Someone You Know,

[i]n America, At Least, We Have A Pretty Good Record For Behaving In A Fiscally Responsible Fashion, With One Exception - Namely, The Fiscal Irresponsibility That Prevails When, And Only When, Hard-line Conservatives Are In Power.

So What Are The Effects Of Increasing Minimum Wages? Any Econ 101 Student Can Tell You The Answer: The Higher Wage Reduces The Quantity Of Labor Demanded, And Hence Leads To Unemployment.

The Trouble With Poverty, As An Issue, Is That It Has Basically Exhausted The Patience Of The General Public.

Obama Is Very Much An Establishment Sort Of Guy. The Whole Image Of Him As A Transcendent Figure Was Based On Style Rather Than Substance. If You Actually Looked At What He Said, Not How He Said It, He Said Very Establishment Things. He's A Moderate, Cautious, Ameliorative Guy. He Tends To Gravitate Toward Beltway Conventional Wisdom.

As An Economics Professor I Am By Nature Inclined To The View That The Truth Isn't Out There, It's In Here - That Usually You Learn A Lot More By Thinking Really Hard About The Data Than You Do By Sniffing Around For Supposedly Inside Information.