James Wimberley

Last month the Rio police, supported by marines in armoured cars and a cloud of TV cameras, stormed the Rocinha favela, unopposed by the drug traffickers. Behind the media theatre, the policy of reoccupation seems to be working. Police stations are followed by social services. Tourists and banks are venturing in. Shopkeepers don´t have to […]

The Reinhart-Rogoff paper on the history of debt crises has been boiled down to a self-fulfilling bond-vigilante creed that countries with a debt-to-GDP ratio of over 100 percent (like Italy and Greece today) have entered a zone of trouble. Maybe so. But how then did Britain in 1815 manage a postwar debt-to-GDP ratio that is […]

They did things differently there. A scary chart from the US Energy Information Administration (via Ezra Klein): The problem is, it’s rubbish, at least as far as renewables are concerned. What they did was lazily take the past growth rate for all renewables (about 3 percent) and project it into the future. The past of […]

Senator McConnell gloats over the new template – debt ceiling hostage crises forever, every time there’s a GOP majority in the House or 40 senators for a filibuster, until every Republican dream is fulfilled. (via Ezra Klein): This is just the first step. This, we anticipate, will take us into 2013. Whoever the new president […]

A map in a report on the climate negotiations by the Smith Institute at Oxford University (page 3) rates countries by their commitment to reducing carbon emissions: Making all the caveats – the rating is a bit subjective, and applies to public policy stances not actual achievements – the isolation of the USA is remarkable. […]

Brad de Long asks for ideas on Geithner’s options on August 3rd, if the lunatics calling themselves Republicans are still blocking an increase in the debt limit. Be careful what you pray for, you might get it. So Here’s My Plan. The Bipartisan Policy Center estimates authorised expenditures at $302bn in August and incoming revenue […]

Why are the negotiations about raising the debt ceiling rather than abolishing it? You would think this ridiculous loaded gun lying round the House for the children to play with was a hallowed part of the US Constitution, and not a silly recent invention contrary to its clearly stated intent. [Cross-posted at The Reality-Based Community]

Dilma Rousseff, elected President of Brazil last year as Lula’s handpicked successor, has survived her first sleaze crisis (and now the second). They won’t be the last, as sleaze has apparently become the grease that prevents the Brazilian polity, emulating the USA’s veto-rich dual separation of powers on both geographical and institutional axes, from seizing […]

The National Institutes of Health explain the fundamental driver of the trend increase in health costs much better than I could: In the past 40+ years, NIH funded research has successfully reduced the mortality and morbidity of once acute and lethal diseases and conditions by finding ways to improve treatment — even in later stages. […]

This chart from the Kaiser Family Foundation, using OECD data, has been going the rounds of the blogs. You have probably seen it already:Growth in Total Health Expenditure Per Capita U.S. and Selected Countries, 1970-2008 A comment from Kevin Drum: The United States, of course, has the highest spending, but it also has the highest […]