Ryan Cooper

That’s the thesis of Karl Smith, who makes a very convincing case for a slightly different idea. He says that bubbles are driven by too much savings sloshing around the world: Large inflows of savings create – necessarily I would argue – bubbles…Usually when people buy a product the price goes up. It then becomes […]

Be afraid. Image via Today in pointless-but-horrifying speculation comes from Ezra Klein, who predicts that President Obama is going to kick the left right in the solar plexus should he get re-elected: One of Washington’s favorite guessing games — behind Mitt Romney’s veepstakes, but way ahead of who will run the Commerce Department — is […]

Reading the Times the other day I found probably the most explicit example I’ve ever seen of the old cannibalizing the young through deflation and a strong currency: Increasingly, however, business leaders point to a problem that is at least partly within the government’s power to control: a high yen that has made Japanese products, […]

Here are some tidbits while I catch a quick bite to eat: 1. July was the hottest month ever recorded in the lower 48 states. Speaking of which… 2. Corn yields have fallen to a 17-year low due to drought. 3. When will we forget? 4. Thank God, hair braiding freedom has been liberally doused […]

Big thanks to everyone who participated in our survey the other day, we got a lot of good responses. Our website team made a few adjustments yesterday, and it seems on my computer at least that the site is loading quite a bit faster. (Let us know if you’re still having problems.) Over the course […]

We at the Monthly have been paying close attention to the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Our former editor John Gravois wrote a big piece in our current issue on how the new agency is rolling out: Polls show that, though few Americans are yet aware of the CFPB, an overwhelming majority support it once […]

Ta-Nehisi Coates has a masterful column today exploring one of his common themes, culture, and how it reflects on Romney’s ignorant slander of the Palestinian people. Having grown up, then made his career, in two dramatically different cultures, he is well-placed to compare and contrast: When people invoke culture in the Romney manner, what they […]

When welfare reform was implemented back in the nineties, the idea was that if people on welfare are incentivized to work, they can be slowly moved into the workforce and off the government rolls. Liberals liked it because it seemed like a technocratic, free-markety way to get people out of poverty, and conservatives liked it […]

Whoa: Via 80 beats. Each one of those little specks of fluff is an entire galaxy. Also, don’t miss the first full-color panorama from the Curiosity rover on Mars. And the thing’s HD cameras aren’t even switched on yet! Follow Ryan on Twitter and his website; follow the magazine @washmonthly.

That’s it for today, folks. As always, thanks for reading and commenting. Here are some links from around the web: 1. So that’s why DC escalators are always so crappy. Sigh… 2. RIP R. Peter Straus, a radio pioneer and father of our world-class publisher Diane Straus Tucker. Send some positive karmic vibrations her way. […]