Flannel Shirt

When economics bend to politics and personal pride

Here.

Am I (and others on my side of the issue) that much smarter than everyone else? No. The key to understanding this is that the anti-Keynesian position is, in essence, political. It’s driven by hostility to active government policy and, in many cases, hostility to any intellectual approach that might make room for government policy. Too many influential people just don’t want to believe that we’re facing the kind of economic crisis we are actually facing.

And so you have the spectacle of famous economists retreading 80-year-old fallacies, or misunderstanding basic concepts like Ricardian equivalence; of powerful officials instantly canonizing research papers that turn out to be garbage in, garbage out; and so on down the line.

It's a small world after all

One problem with conspiracy theories is that when there really is a conspiracy the people who are conspiring don't want the general public to know. And if it's an organization that has its tendrils into the media, it will do its best to discourage pursuit of the truth, sometimes by floating other conspiracy theories.

The whole idea of our government doing something as dreadful as somehow being behind the Boston Marathon massacre is pretty hard to swallow. I realize that when politics is involved people on different sides of the fences are willing to believe the worst about the characters on the other side. And that's encouraged by the principals.

As long as people spend their days hating on Obama, or (as I have) the Bushes, you never see the big picture, and the big picture is much different than what people generally see.

 So let's scroll back to right back after the brothers were identified. There was the mother who doesn't believe her sons would do such a thing, although it turns out that she's got an indictment for shoplifting hanging over her head. Then there's the uncle who seems to be the only sane one in the family. 

I mention this because sometimes the most obvious stories that float around immediately after a crime like this bombing is that the story that we got may just be what we were intended to get. After 9/11 there were all sorts of conspiracy theories. There was one that suggested that the Israelis did it, which is very believable for anti-Semites. There was also plenty of evidence pointing to Saudi Arabia. 

What "the tell" about 9/11 was for me was Huffman Aviation. While Mohammed Atta and a friend there were matriculating in how to fly airliners into buildings one of Huffman's jets, the size a businessman would fly, was busted in Orlando with 43 pounds of heroin. But no one was prosecuted. Not the pilot, not the owner. No one. 

Who can get caught moving 43 pounds of heroin into the US and not even get a lousy indictment over it? Well, if you've lived in the US through the last half century and you can't point your finger towards Langley, Virginia, then you aren't trying. So if the drug smugglers have friends in high places, what were the two terrorists doing there?

The tell for the Boston Marathon bombing is Uncle Ruslan, you know, the only good one in that Chechen family. Ruslan, who so vehemently called his nephews losers, I think the term was, is apparently a winner in this game. 

Flim Flam Man still on the job

It's still "trickle down" but now we're near the endgame. But he lifts weights.

I took Paul Ryan’s measure two and a half years ago. All the Very Serious People were very angry with me — Ryan was the Serious, Honest Conservative, the guy centrists demonstrated their centrism by praising. But he was an obvious phony. His “plan” was all smoke (I couldn’t even find any mirrors), with all the alleged deficit reduction coming from closing tax loopholes he refused to specify plus projected reductions in discretionary spending that he also refused to specify. Meanwhile, he was pursuing radical redistribution away from the needy to the wealthy.

Nothing has changed, except that the plan has gotten even crueler.

So while I may do some analysis later today, the only really interesting question is how the VSPs will react. Have they had enough of the Flimflam Man? Or does hype spring eternal?

Chutzpah

This guy.

An Eagan lawyer is suspended indefinitely after having an affair with a client whom he represented in a divorce, then billing her for time they spent having sex.

Thomas P. Lowe, 58, won't have a chance for reinstatement for at least a year and three months after the decision, filed Thursday, Jan. 10, by the Minnesota Supreme Court.

Lowe, an attorney since 1985, had known the client for many years. Both are from Valley City, N.D. The woman met with Lowe in August 2011 to discuss pursuing a divorce from her husband.

He agreed to represent her. During a phone call days later, Lowe asked about her sexual relationship with her husband, commented on her appearance and asked if she was interested in sex with him.

The following month, they began an affair that lasted until March. At various points, Lowe billed the woman for legal services on the dates of their sexual encounters, coding the time as meetings or drafting memos.

In March, after several arguments with the woman about the affair and his own marriage, Lowe said he was breaking things off. Two days later, he said he was withdrawing as her attorney.

That day, the woman, who was considered vulnerable because of past abuse and mental health treatment, tried to kill herself. While hospitalized, she disclosed the affair.

The Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility brought the petition against Lowe in July. He initially denied much of it, but now "unconditionally admits the allegations," according to court filings. A man who answered the phone at Lowe's office Monday said Lowe was unavailable.

In addition to a few previous citations for issues of decorum, Lowe was placed on probation in 1997 for using cocaine and being involved in purchasing the drug from a client.

Scott Brown keeps lying.

Just saying.