Matt Yglesias

Jan 16th, 2009 at 11:20 am

Requests Thread

What are folks interested in as we head toward the long weekend?






104 Responses to “Requests Thread”

  1. David Says:

    Matt, I have a request for the next several years. You should really read deeply into political economy and make it your niche. I think your background in philosophy would be wonderful for it.

  2. Galen Says:

    Can you talk about the undercurrent of sexism in the insistence that Bill Clinton needs to disclose the foreign connections of his foundation because his wife is going to be part of the Obama administration? Admittedly this is a somewhat unique situation, but I’ve never heard of the wife of a male political figure being asked to disclose her international connections. I think part of the underlying presumption in the current situation is that because Hillary is a woman she will naturally be partially under the control of her husband, so influences on her husband need to be known and factored in. I’m not saying it’s the only dynamic at work, but I think it’s one factor and it’s pretty ugly.

  3. kid bitzer Says:

    drone geese. that’s what we should be discussing.

    flocks of unpiloted drone geese.

    clearly the future in anti-aircraft armaments.

    are the canadians already ahead of us?

  4. richard Says:

    Public Spectrum Auctions, Securities Transaction Taxes, Consumption Taxes.

  5. Craig Says:

    What do you think of Credit Unions. They seem to have a totally different set of regulations than regular banks, but to the consumer they are just banks. Sometimes they have better interest rates, but they are just banks.

  6. Jesse Says:

    How about how Obama’s aggressive centrism and bipartisanship square with your previous writing on how polarization and partisanship is good because it allows people to know whom to vote for?

  7. Don Williams Says:

    Any truth to the rumor that Obama’s new Secret Service Caddy will be appearing on “Pimp This Ride”?

    http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Secret-Service-Shows-Off-Obamas-New-Limo.html

  8. PWC Says:

    Has ballooning military spending under the Bush administration functioned as an economic stimulus? I can’t find one of those nifty defense spending as GDP charts at moment. Discuss.

  9. Randy Chase Says:

    I recently, subscribed to your feed and have been impressed with your insight into a variety of issues. I would like to hear your take on the marijuana issue. As I am sure your aware, Marijuana and other Drug Policy issues rank high in the questions posed to the Obama Transition. What can we as citizen activists do to encourage our politicians to address the issue in a progressive manner ?

  10. MBinNC Says:

    I’d be interested in some analysis on the extent to which the 18 point Volker plan restores the elements of Glass-Steagal (1933) that were repealed by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (1999).

    Cross posting from Volcker: Keep Banks Small Enough to Fail

  11. Daniel Says:

    What do you think of hte parking meter situation in Chicago? They’re privatizing the meters and Chicagoans are less than thrilled.

    http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/autocorner/chi-getting-around-12jan12,0,1042010.column

  12. Trig or Treat Says:

    Football commercials and Tivos/DVRs. Aren’t these damn things getting more annoying and repetitive as the capability to ignore them is growing? If so, why?

  13. Spike Says:

    What about a federal tax on billboards located within 500 feet of an Interstate highway? The highway is providing the eyeballs, they should get some of the ad revenue, yes?

  14. spokeytown Says:

    DC seems to have a preponderance of hot public officials (at least in comparison to most public officials). Chief Lanier is hot, Superintendent Rhee is hot, and my girlfriend thinks that Mayor Fenty is hot. Not to mention the Obamas, plus Sarah Palin if you like the republican kewpie-doll look. This seems pretty unusual. (Seriously, when was the last time you saw a hot chief of police?) What are we to make of this? Do hot public officials boost employee performance and citizen confidence? Is this a tyranny of the good-looking? What’s going on?

  15. allbetsareoff Says:

    Has anybody done the math on how many state/local infrastructure projects are “shovel ready,” the cost of these projects (i.e., what proportion of stimulus funds they might consume), and potential employment numbers? And since this is Matt’s house, what proportion of the projects AREN’T new highway construction?

  16. Trig or Treat Says:

    I vote for Spokeytown’s query re hotness. Talk about that.

  17. John Bedell Says:

    I work in downtown DC but live in the Baltimore suburbs and ride down on the MARC train. Whenever I read you waxing on about the joys of urban living, I think, “but big buildings are ugly.” I could live in a townhouse neighborhood, provided there was adequate parking, but I just couldn’t live in a big building surrounded by other big buildings. The atmosphere is grim and oppressive. So I wonder, do you like it, do you not care, or do you miss having space and greenery around you?

  18. joejoejoe Says:

    What’s the story on the consulting firm Knickerbocker SKD? Does the powerful firm (which represents Michael Bloomberg, Chuck Schumer, Joe Lieberman, and now Caroline Kennedy) have a negative effect on the progressive agenda by pushing the message of liberal NY to the right?

    I think blog coverage of consultants Penn, Schoen and The Glover Park Group had a big role in limiting the influence of the kind of hyper-timid bullshit coming out of those shops but I don’t hear much about Knickerbocker SKD. What’s their story?

  19. Daniel Says:

    I want to know more about the thinking behind something you said the other day: “[Today, as opposed to the late eighteenth century,] there are lots of republics and constitutional monarchies to survey. And my view is that surveying them reveals that pure parliamentary systems (UK, Netherlands, Germany) with an essentially symbolic head of state are superior to presidential (US, Mexico) or semi-presidential (France, Russia, Afghanistan) ones.”

    As someone who comes from Australia — a pure parliamentary system with an essentially symbolic head of state, which will in the near future engage in a new debate over whether or not to dump our head of state and “go it alone” — I’m curious about the empirical side of your view. What, exactly, makes pure parliamentary systems superior to presidential or semi-presidential systems? The answer most folks give to that question is simply “PMQs,” but I’m hoping you might have something a bit more in-depth to say.

  20. joejoejoe Says:

    If you stipulate all of the newly free countries on Bush’s Parade o’ Freedom list, isn’t the net amount of freedom in the world less today than it was in 2000 because of the backsliding in Russia?

  21. ostap Says:

    How come none of you DC blogger types are married?

  22. Brent Says:

    Have you found any good advanced stats that quantify NBA players’ defensive abilities? Dave Berri, Hollinger, and others do some nice stuff but I’m frustrated to see nothing beyond blocks and steals in their analyses. +/- numbers work kinda okay, but they’re so broad that sometimes I’m not sure they mean much, especially with smallish sample sizes.

    Henry Abbott had a post lamenting the lack of things like effective screens not showing up in box scores, and it’s so much more true for things like rotating on defensive, drawing charges, containing dribble penetration, getting a hand in the face of a shooter, etc. Yet I wonder if anyone is trying to keep track of stuff like that. I’m sure many NBA teams try to.

  23. Dave Says:

    What are the roots of the phrase:

    I’m in ur “x” “y”-ing ur “z”

    ?

  24. glaxaco Says:

    Now that the Bush II era is finally coming to an end, how the hell did GWB become the Republican front runner in 2000 to begin with? Was there a cabal of old Republican men who tapped him as the one to get the early funding and endorsements? If so, did they simply think he was electable, would be a good President, someone they could control, or some combination?

    I don’t vote for Republicans much so maybe I’m biased, but even in the early days of the ‘00 campaign Bush seemed like an incompetent lightweight who seemed to duck hard answers to questions – kind of like Dan Quayle without the ethics. I’m not the smartest guy around, so what did others see in him?

  25. Sander Says:

    My sense is that when we are not in election season, the percentage of non-partisans (whatever that means) paying close attention to intricate policy issues and decisions drops dramatically. This suggest to me that politically there is not a lot of for Obama to gain from moderating decision relating to devilish details except as part of more or less explicit deals with individual members of Congress. A lot of the immoderate decisions of the Bush years can be traced to this sort of thinking. what are your thoughts? If you agree with me, what are the most significant policies implicated?

  26. Korea Beat Says:

    Obama’s plans for dealing with North Korea and the deployment of US troops in South Korea.

  27. marcus Says:

    Obama has mentioned “laying broadband lines” as part of the economic stimulus package. I assume this will be done to do what the telecoms said they would do when we gave them tax breaks (fiber optic internet cables ), help small communities and rural communities, and help create a 21st economic infrastructure. 1) Is this getting any attention in the stimulus package? 2) If so, do you think a net neutrality law must be passed to go hand in hand with this investment?

  28. Ben Says:

    It seems to me that a large part of our financial mess is the fact that many banks are over leveraged to 20:1 or 30:1. How does the stimulus package help this, or what are people suggesting policy wise to fix this?

    If you take this into account, does it really make sense to give tax cuts to the people that are going to spend it? It almost sounds to me like we need people to save so that the leverage rate goes down.

  29. Nemo_N Says:

    “Comic Book” or “Graphic Novel”?

  30. Linkmeister Says:

    If the stimulus plan as outlined in the NYT really does mean reduced FICA withholding, what about the self-employed and unemployed, who don’t get paychecks and thus don’t have FICA withheld?

  31. Sports Guy Says:

    How is it that sports unions (e.g. NBAPA, NFLPA, MLBPA, etc.) have persevered in spite of a generally anti-union climate in the US? These unions seem to garner a lot of sympathy for standing up to the team owners and getting their fair shake, but that same sentiment doesn’t extend to, say, the UAW. And this is despite the fact that owning a professional sports team is generally a terrible investment and a not particularly lucrative business (with the exception of a few teams, like the Yankees). It seems to me that the players get very positive treatment from the public, whereas blue collar unions are often portrayed as greedy. Assuming you agree with this premise, do you have any ideas why this disparity exists?

  32. 24AheadDotCom Says:

    I’d like MattY to read this with an open mind and with as much of an interest in being intellectually honest as he can muster and then admit that FactCheck et al have been lying to us. Just concentrate on answering this basic question: “is FactCheck lying or not?” The answer is clearly ‘yes’.

    Obviously, I don’t think MattY is intellectually honest enough to do that.

  33. ron Says:

    Youtube some of Byron Dorgan’s speeches from the senate floor and then tell us why he should be a favorite of libruls.

  34. jl Says:

    War on drugs, lack of debate in government or mainstream media on legalization, Obama’s stance, etc.

  35. JimboSlice Says:

    Will Obama let the cat out of the bag about what happened at area 51, or will he be like every other president and just let the cover up continue?

  36. JimboSlice Says:

    # Daniel Says:
    January 16th, 2009 at 11:42 am

    What do you think of hte parking meter situation in Chicago? They’re privatizing the meters and Chicagoans are less than thrilled.

    http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/autocorner/chi-getting-around-12jan12,0,1042010.column

    http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2008/12/parking_meters.php

  37. Drew Steen Says:

    Why do public transportation systems generally operate at a loss (alternately, why hasn’t the private sector figured out how to operate profitable bus systems)? Is it as simple as, the cost savings of mass transit don’t make up for the value people put on the freedom of driving their own cars, or is it more complicated? Are there regulatory issues involved?

  38. wahoofive Says:

    I second marcus’s suggestion to talk about broadband penetration and fiber-optic. This seems like it will do more for future economic development than bridges and railroad tracks. What can the government do which will actually unleash competition in the Internet business and get out of the telco/cable duopoly which has led us to falling behind the rest of the civilized world in Internet connectivity?

  39. Andrew S. Says:

    The big telco’s cite the major investment in infrastructure that they have to make as a reason to do away with network neutrality. Are there any plans to make broadband infrastructure part of future stimulus packages, being as we are lagging behind so many industrialized countries in broadband connectivity? It seems to me that it would have a positive effect for a long time, similar to a bridge or rail.

  40. Andrew S. Says:

    What are the roots of the phrase:

    I’m in ur “x” “y”-ing ur “z”

    ?

    http://encyclopediadramatica.com/index.php/I_am_in_your_base_killing_your_d00ds

  41. Andrew S. Says:

    I guess I should read the entire thread before putting in my thoughts…

    Consider me a third for marcus’ suggestion.

  42. Dan Cock Says:

    Space cooperation with China, and the space arms race.

  43. Jim Says:

    Re: Krugman’s column today. If Obama said, “I’m going to prosecute all the Bushies who’ve broken the law,” wouldn’t that force Bush to pardon everyone in sight?

    Whereas if Obama says, “We’ll concentrate on the future, not the past,” then maybe Bush will go easy with pardons. Once Bush is gone, then it’s safe for Obama to start prosecutions…provided that there’s enough public pressure for him to justify the change.

    Discuss.

  44. paul Says:

    i’m wondering what you make of this bizarre david brooks column: http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/16/opinion/edbrooks.1-409073.php

  45. Don Williams Says:

    Re paul’s comment “i’m wondering what you make of this bizarre david brooks column: ”
    —————-
    That’s David Brooks trying to cop an insanity plea.

  46. Tatty Says:

    I’d like to strongly second Randy Chase (comment 9) and suggest that you tackle marijuana policy in all of it’s dimensions (i.e. political, economic, criminal). If you don’t feel up to that, can you just talk about why legalization is still considered an untouchable subject by politicians when it rocked the vote Massachusetts and Michigan and is a three-time winner at http://www.change.gov?

  47. Jasper Says:

    How about an open thread on movies?

  48. saah Says:

    What do you think of the obama inaugaral seder? http://obamaseder.blogspot.com/

  49. datadave Says:

    I’d like to see what the USA is going to do about it’s growing unemployment problem. All the economists are seriously under counting it, IMO. The economy has maybe 3 months to turn around (hardly likely) or double digit unemployment (and I mean mid teens….to twenty percent) is likely by end of year. Employers aren’t going to keep people on the payroll when no money is rolling in… and demand for product is falling off the cliff.

    What contingencies are people thinking if it gets that far?

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