Failure due to logrolling

If we've learned anything from the news of Aetna's retaliatory withdrawal from the healthcare markets, it's that allowing these firms to remain in business in 2010 was a huge mistake.

http://www.vox.com/2016/8/18/12520820/public-option-health-care-obamacare

Links of the Week - 19 August 2016

A weekly collection of links from the Conscience Warrior Newsfeed

How are Milton Friedman's ideas holding up? Part 1
Noah Smith

It’s much safer to back into parking spaces. Why don’t we do it?
Ben Yagoda

The Lessons of the DNC Hack
Fred Kaplan

The Unbundled City
Paul Krugman

If President Trump decided to use nukes, he could do it easily
Zach Beauchamp

A likely GOP Electoral College member threatens to withhold his vote from Trump
Andrew Prokop

I'm a pro-life Christian. Here's why I'm voting for Hillary Clinton.
Rachel Held Evans

Superblocks: how Barcelona is taking city streets back from cars
David Roberts

China built a giant traffic-straddling bus. We have questions.
David Roberts

A former CIA chief is calling Trump a foreign agent. This is how absurd the election is.
Zach Beauchamp

Links of the Week - 12 August 2016

A weekly collection of links from the Conscience Warrior Newsfeed

The DNC Hack Is Watergate, but Worse
Franklin Foer

The basic reason why there just isn’t enough decent housing for the poor
Emily Badger

Trump is very worried about Chicago gun violence. His running mate’s lax gun laws don’t help.
German Lopez

Secrets and agents
The Economist

Three-fourths of evangelicals support Donald Trump. Blame the "prosperity gospel."
Chris Lehmann

Foreign Governments Have Been Tampering With U.S. Elections for Decades
Josh Zeitz

Answering the Hardest Question in Economics
Noah Smith

The ‘smoking gun’ proving North Carolina Republicans tried to disenfranchise black voters
Christopher Ingraham

Minsky’s moment
The Economist

Donald Trump’s slander of Captain Humayun Khan’s family is horrifying, even for Trump
Ezra Klein

Links of the Week - 5 August 2016

A weekly collection of links from the Conscience Warrior Newsfeed

Donald Trump has no idea how to make America safe again
Matthew Yglesias

Melania Trump's plagiarism matters because it exposes Donald Trump's profound laziness
Matthew Yglesias

Donald Trump doesn’t want to make America great. He wants to make it afraid.
Ezra Klein

Why getting stuck without a job is mostly a matter of bad luck
Matt O'Brien

The case for making Donald Trump America's first king
Timothy B. Lee

The Vaccination Double Standard
Phoebe Day Danziger

A Republican intellectual explains why the Republican Party is going to die
Zach Beauchamp

Economists Give Up on Milton Friedman's Biggest Idea
Noah Smith

A popular conspiracy theory is spreading in the Trump family. It’s totally false.
Matt O'Brien

Donald Trump Wants to Politicize the Pulpit
Adam Chodorow

Links of the Week - 29 July 2016

A weekly collection of links from the Conscience Warrior Newsfeed

The Profit Motive Behind Financial Complexity
Noah Smith

Something’s Odd About the Political Betting Markets
Andrew Gelman

The way we pick VPs is terrible. The alternatives are even worse.
Jeff Stein

Overcoming Our Inordinate Fear of Inflation
Noah Smith

Turkey coup: Try to picture Donald Trump handling this well
Matthew Yglesias

Are Clinton and Trump the Biggest Liars Ever to Run for President?
David Greenberg

The Republicans waged a 3-decade war on government. They got Trump.
Norman J. Ornstein & Thomas E. Mann

What Has Happened to Rudy Giuliani?
Fred Kaplan

“America First”: Donald Trump’s slogan has a deeply bigoted backstory
Libby Nelson

Donald Trump’s NATO comments are the scariest thing he’s said
Zach Beauchamp

Links of the Week - 22 July 2016

A weekly collection of links from the Conscience Warrior Newsfeed

Productivity mismeasurement: it goes both ways
Jared Bernstein

Some Elitist Views Are Pretty Popular
Noah Smith

The obvious reason the NRA isn’t commenting on the Philando Castile police shooting
German Lopez

The Craziest Convention Moments You’ve Never Heard Of
Jeff Greenfield

No, really, George W. Bush lied about WMDs
Dylan Matthews

Donald Trump told House Republicans he'd defend a nonexistent part of the Constitution
Dylan Matthews

The Most Trusted White Man in Black America
Larry Tye

The Year the Veepstakes Really Mattered
Jeff Greenfield

The Second Amendment Was Never Meant for Black People
Daniel Rivero

Government Holds the Promise of Faster Growth
Noah Smith

Links of the Week - 15 July 2016

A weekly collection of links from the Conscience Warrior Newsfeed

Brexit is a reminder some things just shouldn’t be decided by the people
Emily Badger

John Oliver’s glorious rant in response to Brexit

German Lopez

I worked in the CIA under Bush. Obama is right to not say "radical Islam."

Emile Nakhleh

The reluctant king of the hidden internet

Henry Farrell

Europe needs a real opposition party

Matthew Yglesias

I Triggered a State Department Leak More Serious Than Hillary Clinton’s

Stephen R. Dujack

All the Greedy Young Abigail Fishers and Me

Jia Tolentino

Why President Obama can’t bring us together

Paul Waldman

You can grieve senseless violence against police and from police. Really.

German Lopez

Who Exactly Benefits from Too Big To Fail?
Christopher J. Waller

Links of the Week - 8 July 2016

A weekly collection of links from the Conscience Warrior Newsfeed

The True Story of the ‘Free State of Jones’
Richard Grant

How Donald Trump made millions running failed casinos in Atlantic City
Matthew Yglesias

Will Trump’s anti-Latino statements hurt the GOP? Here’s what we can learn from LBJ and Goldwater.
Eric Schickler

Donald’s Gun Gaffe
Dahlia Lithwick

Why Prisoners Deserve the Right to Vote
Corey Brettschneider

A shameless deception in Paul Ryan’s Obamacare replacement plan
Stephen Stromberg

Learning to Live With the Fed's Low Rates
Noah Smith

Home Is Where the Fraud Is
David Dayen

Here’s a Tip: Eliminate the Subminimum Wage for Tipped Workers
Heidi Shierholz and Sharon Block

How Brexit Will Change the World
Politico

Links of the Week - 1 July 2016

A weekly collection of links from the Conscience Warrior Newsfeed

The pool player analogy is silly
Noah Smith

Why free parking is a big problem
Emily Badger

With a stroke of a pen, the next president could give a huge boost to union organizing
Richard Yeselson

The men who wrote the 2nd amendment would never recognize an AR-15
Christopher Ingraham

The Second Amendment Hoax
Dahlia Lithwick

Why Obama Can’t Do Anything About Guns
Jemelle Bouie

Donald Trump’s idea of what “American” means is itself un-American
Dara Lind

The big change that will help poor people move to wealthy neighborhoods
Emily Badger

It’s easier to buy an assault weapon than open a bank account. Really.
Lawrence Summers

Here’s how game theory helps explain Donald Trump’s strategies
Steven J Brams

Links of the Week - 24 June 2016

A weekly collection of links from the Conscience Warrior Newsfeed

How an Outsider President Killed a Party
Gil Troy

Inside Charles Koch’s $200 million quest for a ‘Republic of Science’
Jim Tankersley

Trump’s Attack on Judge Curiel Is Not Only Racist
Dahlia Lithwick

When Muhammad Ali Took on America
Hampton Dellinger

Crazy Party
Jacob Weisberg

Donald Trump and the destruction of America's political norms
Ezra Klein

Republic of Science or Empire of Ideology?
Noah Smith

The Invisible Helping Hand
Ray Fisman

Leftists for Trump: What Is to Be Done About These Insufferable Nihilists?
Michelle Goldberg

It’s time to talk about gun control as a way to stop terrorism
Zach Beachamp

The shortsighted narcissism of "Never Hillary"

Over the last few weeks, as it's become increasingly clear that Bernie Sanders will not become the Democratic nominee for president this summer, progressives and social democrats (among which your correspondent is included) have split among those willing to settle for the centrist Hillary Clinton, and those who (at least for now) proclaim that they cannot or simply will not support her in the general election this fall against Donald Trump. This has, predictably, led to much more internal consternation on the Democratic side than most would have expected a year ago, when Secretary Clinton's nomination seemed both inevitable and broadly supported both by her party and by those who, while nominally unaffiliated, tend to vote Democratic. 

For those unaffiliated progressives who have chosen to settle (or, "fall in line," if you will), the intransigence of the "Never Hillary" types has been maddening. Perhaps one reason for that is embedded in the argument, often heard from those unable or unwilling to make a "lesser of two evils" compromise, that Trump will be so disastrous as president that the entire edifice will crumble, causing a political realignment at the national level that will lead to an environment more friendly to progressive policies. 

It's hard to imagine this likely. Given Mr Trump's history (and self-styled reputation) as a huckster and horse-trader, the notion of a President Trump as equally antagonistic to Congressional Republicans as he would likely be to Congressional Democrats is preposterous. If, as is likely, Republicans retain control of both the House and the Senate, Mr Trump will almost certainly engage in a series of his farcical "deals" with House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The end result of this would likely be that he governs as a mostly bog-standard Republican, with all that would mean for already marginalized groups. 

If this sits well with disillusioned progressives and frustrated social democrats, then they should surely vote for Mr Trump, or at least sit this one out, especially if they are fortunate enough to have little to lose under a Trump regime. They must remember, however, that doing the former (and perhaps even the latter) would make them ill suited to progressivism and social democracy indeed. 

Links of the Week - 17 June 2016

A weekly collection of links from the Conscience Warrior Newsfeed

An eyewitness account of the horrific attack that destroyed Black Wall Street
German Lopez

Yes, Nick Kristof, There Is a Conservative Bias in Economics
Mark Thoma

There Goes the Fed's Credibility
Narayana Kocherlakota

The western US grid is fragmented. Stitching it together is a no-brainer.
David Roberts

A gauge on the minimum wage
The FRED Blog

Conservative intransigence on the grand bargain five years ago has been a self-inflicted disaster
Matthew Yglesias

This “bad” election map? It’s not so bad.
Soo Oh

How to Teach Intermediate Macroeconomics after the Crisis?
Olivier Blanchard

The White Entitlement of Some Sanders Supporters
Barrett Holmes Pitner

The declining wage component in GDP
The FRED Blog