By Dave Anderson:
In a non-cooperative, multi-iteration game, the best strategy to ensure cooperation or at least non-douchebag behavior is tit for tat. This means make a choice that punishes the opposition for being a douchebag when they previously made a choice to be douchebags, and make a choice that rewards [...]
The Obama Administration pinched several excellent bloggers for mid-level staff positions earlier this year. I approved of those decisions as I had read Phil Carter and the Balkinization crew for years and I trusted both their judgment and their integrity, especially on the matter of realigning our policies [...]
By Dave Anderson
Counter-cyclical spending by the government for needed infrastructure does two things. The first is that it fills the gap in demand that the recession caused. This is the basic argument for most stimulus spending --- it puts people to work who otherwise would not be working.
The [...]
By Dave Anderson:
Militias in the modern context are a state-weakening and decentralizing force as they are armed formations that are not completely controlled or recruited by the state. Militias can be allies of the state; a prominent example is the the Colombian right wing militias that have been battling FARC [...]
By Dave Anderson:
Democrats don't want to be in the majority. They don't want Republicans in the majority either, but the Democratic elected elite has minimal interest in being part of an effective governing majority. The healthcare bill is the best example. They have managed to shed their left flank, Ron [...]
By Dave Anderson:
Another edition of what Ian Welsh said:If you’ve been right down the line, then you are precisely the sort of person who isn’t “serious” and shouldn’t be listened to when it comes to what it takes to fix the problem.
Why? Because everyone knows that fixing the problem will end [...]Schradenfreude may strike Texas, as a plain reading of their anti-gay marriage laws and amendments that passed in 2005 implies the possibility of all marriages not being legal in Texas. [h/t James Joyner]
From McClatchey:By Dave Anderson:
Accidental systems disruption happened in New York earlier this week. Fox has the local story:By Dave Anderson:
Just a few quick hits on institutional and governmental capture and failure. I would write more, but I have to change diapers and get to a play-date in a few minutes (I have my priorities.)
Brad Delong on institutional failure and a Depression:In my [...]
By Dave Anderson:
Chris Briem has an accurate and scary paragraph at Null Space for anyone interested in municipal finance in the State of Pennsylvania:
And connected to everything are the finances at the casino. Revenues down there have clearly settled into a range. No joke how everything comes back [...]
By Dave Anderson:
Listen, transcribe, submit is the Stephan Colbert indictment of the press corps during the Bush era.
There were minimal "serious people" who actually had the gall to look at what they wrote three months ago from the same source, or three years ago, and comparing it to the [...]
By Dave Anderson:
What happens when the money that that Iraqi government has been spreading around runs out? The New York Times Op-ed page raises this question:
As much as 51 percent of the Iraqi labor force is either unemployed or underemployed; the number is even higher for young workers...
Iraq’s private [...]
By Dave Anderson:
I wrote in August 2008 that defensive legalization of at least marijuana would become part of the national political debate because it is the most direct attack on cartel cash flow that is fueling the hollowing out of Mexico amidst massive political violence:
Quite a few people are willing [...]
By Dave Anderson:
Pakistan supports the Quetta Shura Taliban and other anti-government insurgent groups/networks in Afghanistan because Pakistan wants strategic depth against India. The warlords of the Northern Alliance and the Karzai government have a long history of having good working ties with India. Crushing Pashtun nationalism and strength in the [...]
By Dave Anderson:
Pennsylvania has a tradition of electing governors from the same party for two terms and then giving the other party two terms. That has gone back since 1968 when the governorship was term limited to two terms. So just based on a historical pattern, it would not be [...]
By Dave Anderson:
What was the Dean campaign critique of the Democratic pro-Iraq invasion position --- If you offer people Republican and Republican lite, they'll take the Republicans as they know they believe their crazy instead of mealy mouthing it.
Ian Welsh notes the Democratic Party elite has not' [...]
By Dave Anderson
By Dave Anderson:
Allegheny County's politics have been thrown into a tizzy this afternoon. Judge Wettick has ordered a four year rolling reassessment for the entire county as the base year system produces highly inequitable results. Re-assessments are the local political career killer and everyone in the regional political system' [...]
By Dave Anderson:
This is a casino post, while the next post will be a broader political-economy and municipal finance post. The Post-Gazette reports that Allegheny County will assess the Rivers Casino in the near future instead of putting the problem off by hiring consultants to conduct the assessment. [...]
By Dave Anderson:
Something that I wrote in December 2007 that I saw while looking for another post, but is very relevant today: (I did not get all of this right, I forgot about the agenda setting power of not scheduling floor votes on horrendous bills, but Stupak-Pitts is the [...]
