Krugman on Greece Today

Easier to read than explain.

The truly disastrous effect of the Greek crisis was the way it distorted economic policy, as supposedly serious people around the world rushed to learn the wrong lessons.

Now Greece appears to be in crisis again. Will we learn the right lessons this time?

Maddie & Tae - Girl In A Country Song

Apparently this song has annoyed some fans. So it goes.

Shakespeare and Original Pronunciation

The Bonzo Dog Band - I'm The Urban Spaceman

Happy seventieth birthday to Neil Innes, writer and singer of this song, colleague of Vivian Stanshall (the mustachioed gentleman in this clip) and the unofficial six-and-a-halfth member of Monty Python (as seen in Monty Python at the Hollywood Bowl).

Krugman on the Recovery (Such as It Is)

Yes, things look better. No, they don't look good. Krugman explains.

There are recessions and then there are recessions. Some recessions are deliberately engineered to cool off an overheated, inflating economy. For example, the Fed caused the 1981-82 recession with tight-money policies that temporarily sent interest rates to almost 20 percent. And ending that recession was easy: Once the Fed decided that we had suffered enough, it relented, interest rates tumbled, and it was morning in America.

But “postmodern” recessions, like the downturns of 2001 and 2007-9, reflect bursting bubbles rather than tight money, and they’re hard to end; even if the Fed cuts interest rates all the way to zero, it may find itself pushing on a string, unable to have much of a positive effect. As a result, you don’t expect to see V-shaped recoveries like 1982-84 — and sure enough, we didn’t.

Emmylou Harris with Waylon Jennings - Spanish Johnny

I came to this song through the David Bromberg version, but Emmylou as usual does a nice job. Here she's aided by WJ on harmony vocals.

The Fleetwoods - Come Softly To Me

Ah, the fifties.