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How Best To Fix Our Broken Economy?
Firedoglake — ... By the way, Krugman has this to say about Obama's economic team: "Seriously, isn’t it amazing just how impressive the people being named to key positions in the Obama administration seem? Bye-bye hacks and cronies, hello people who actually know what they’re doing. For a bunch of people who were written off as a permanent minority four years ago, the Democrats look remarkably like the natural governing party these days, with a deep bench of talent." He seems to be quite confident that Obama can do what needs to be done. ...

Best. Cabinet. Ever?
Ross Douthat — ... "Isn't it amazing," asks Krugman, "just how impressive the people being named to key positions in the Obama administration seem? Bye-bye hacks and cronies, hello people who actually know what they're doing. For a bunch of people who were written off as a permanent minority four years ago, the Democrats look remarkably like the natural governing party these days, with a deep bench of talent." That certainly feels true. But the Bush administration started out with a fairly deep bench. Colin Powell as Secretary of State. Paul O'Neill --a former deputy director of the ...

Watching From the Sidelines
The Mahablog — ... addresses this concern, as does the BooMan. Most of what I hear about the Obama appointees is encouraging . E.J. Dionne writes, President-elect Barack Obama has now made three things clear about his plans to bring the economy back: He wants his actions to be big and bold. He sees economic recovery as intimately linked with economic and social reform. And he is bringing in a gifted brain trust to get the job done. Paul Krugman: Seriously, isn’t it amazing just how impressive the people being ...

ABC News Poll: Transition Going Well Enough To Cut Obama Slack On Economy
Daily Kos — ... before the election. That could provide him with some breathing room. More... Regardless of how long it lasts, Obama's honeymoon is underway: Sixty-seven percent in this ABC News poll approve of his work on the transition and about as many, 66 percent, favor his highest-profile move, the apparent (if as yet unannounced) selection of Hillary Clinton as secretary of state. The full poll is here (.pdf). As Paul Krugman noted, it's easy to see why there's a honeymoon: The ...

GOP Triumphant As Democrats Disintegrate Into Conflict-- In the Fevered Dreams Of Republican Propagandists
DownWithTyranny! — Bye-bye hacks and cronies, hello people who actually know what they’re doing. -Paul Krugman, NY Times I've been waiting all week to use that one-liner which so succinctly sums up the end of the Bush Regime and the dawning of a new Obama era. Propaganda agents for proto-Soviets and proto-fascists may see it differently-- differently because they really do hate everything America stands for. Everyone has a stake in Obama's team succeeding except for the agents of reaction and they intend to fight it tooth and claw. Their ...

As the Sphincter Clenches......
WTF Is It Now?!? — People, chill the fuck out, I GOT this: Seriously, isn’t it amazing just how impressive the people being named to key positions in the Obama administration seem? Bye-bye hacks and cronies, hello people who actually know what they’re doing. For a bunch of people who were written off as a permanent minority four years ago, the Democrats look remarkably like the natural governing party these days, with a deep bench of talent.It’s almost like we have a real President...... But in a drone like predictable mode known as acute Reichwingnuttius Maximus the ...

Hoocoodanode?
Calculated Risk — ... about a Krugman blog comment. My reaction was that Mankiw has some explaining to do. A key embarrassment for the economics profession in general, and Bush economists Greg Mankiw and Eddie Lazear in particular, is how they missed the biggest economic story of our times. ...

Grownups V. Hacks: Explained
Whiskey Fire — ... In a post about the Obama economic team titled The Grownups are Coming, Paul Krugman writes: Seriously, isn’t it amazing just how impressive the people being named to key positions in the Obama administration seem? Bye-bye hacks and cronies, hello people who actually know what they’re doing.Like Paul, I am impressed by the new economic team. I know best the three economists coming from academia--Larry Summers, Christy Romer, and Austan Goolsbee--and they are all first-rate. They are excellent ...

Predicting
The Glittering Eye — The eminent economists Paul Krugman and Greg Mankiw are busily occupied in comparing the size of their reproductive organs (hat tip: James Joyner). Their time might better be spent in predicting within, say, 1% how today’s “Black Friday” sales will compare with last year’s. They won’t do it, of course, and if they tried they probably both be wrong. Economics remains a science of human behavior and like all of the behavioral sciences, it remains primarily descriptive rather than predictive. If the the physical sciences ...

Lift Every Voice
I Am TRex — ... Obama” mates express that, but I don’t get around to reading everybody. Anyway, according to Brad Friedman and some others, I’m supposed to be disappointed already. Whatever. If anyone wants to believe I’m an idiot, fine. If people want to assume I believed Barack Obama was liberal Jesus and am now bitterly sorry I supported him, OK. I’m done with trying to set people straight about what I think. Heh.  Indizzle. Krugman: Seriously, isn’t it amazing just how impressive the people being ...

The Great Krugman-Mankiw Debate
The Reality-Based Community — ... Paul Krugman was in a good mood : Seriously, isn’t it amazing just how impressive the people being named to key positions in the Obama administration seem? Bye-bye hacks and cronies, hello people who actually know what they’re doing. Greg Mankiw ...

Saturday reading: Krugman and Mankiw
Ben Smith's Blog — Samantha Power is back. It's good to be named Obama. Podesta says to expect a Cabinet by Christmas. Jacob Gershman makes the case for Cuomo. Krugman disqualifies himself for the administration, but hopes the advisory board will include progressives. And gets into a spat with Greg Mankiw, and retreats a bit. Matthews denies he's staffing up for Senate. And 290,000 applications and counting.

The Best and the Brightest Meme -- Eight Years Too Late?
Angry Bear — ... Several people are referencing the late David Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest, a biography of the Kennedy Administration's well-educated pedigree and their policy missteps. Krugman used it as a cautionary phrase in the exact post about which Mankiw whimpered. As ...