Must Read/Listen
- Robert Kuttner, The Libertarian Delusion [Ed.: See also Brad DeLong’s “Wisdom and Liberty” for a complementary commentary on their political delusions.]
- William Rivers Pitt, Twenty Pounds of BS in a Ten-Pound Bag [Ed.: A review of Pres. Obama’s SOTU address.]
- Josh Bivens, Trade Agreements or Boosting Wages? We Can’t Do Both.
- Open Source with Christopher Lydon, Hacking ‘Affordable Care’
Should Read/Watch
- Joel Achenbach, Scientists: Human activity has pushed Earth beyond four of nine ‘planetary boundaries’ [Ed.: ‘Planetary boundaries’ defined here.]
- Eli Rabett, Andy Dessler Smokes Richard Lindzen [Ed.: Climate scientists Dessler and Lindzen debate interpretation of data and implications for long-term climate predictions.]
- Eric Prentis, Evidence on U.S. Electricity Prices: Regulated Utility vs. Restructured States.
- Joe Stiglitz, The Politics of Economic Stupidity
- Robert Kuttner, The Politics of Gesture
‘Free Trade’ Agreements
- Russell Berman, Will Democrats Spoil Obama’s Trade Initiatives?
- Josh Bivens, Trade Agreements or Boosting Wages? We Can’t Do Both.
- Clyde Prestowitz, Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade pact
- Dave Johnston, Environmental Groups Denounce Fast Track Trade Process
Economics: Reality Check Edition
- Chuck Marr, Chye-Ching Huang, and Arloc Sherman, Earned Income Tax Credit Promotes Work, Encourages Children’s Success at School, Research Finds
- Mike Konczal, The 2003 Dividend Tax Cut Did Nothing to Help the Real Economy
- Eric Prentis, Evidence on U.S. Electricity Prices: Regulated Utility vs. Restructured States.
- Jared Bernstein, Blast from Past: The Capital Gains Tax Rate Doesn’t Correlate With Investment
- Carter Price, Patterns of Economic Mobility in the United States
Politics: State of the Union Address
- Robert Kuttner, The Politics of Gesture
- William Rivers Pitt, Twenty Pounds of BS in a Ten-Pound Bag
Politics
- Adam Nagourney and Shaila Diwan (NYT), Republican Governors Buck Party Line on Raising Taxes
- Matthew Yglesias, America just got its first glimpse at Hillarynomics — here’s what it looks like
- Ben Smith, The Most Dangerous Man in American Politics [Ed.: That would be U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara. He’s great.]
- Eric Prentis (via Yves Smith), How Research Journal Publishing is Being Subverted to Support Ideology — Rather Than the Truth
- Robert Kuttner, The Libertarian Delusion
- Progressive Change Committee, Big Ideas polling results
Energy and Environment
- Diane Cardwell (NYT), Green-Energy Inspiration Off the Coast of Denmark
- Leigh Belanger, 50 X 60: A New England Food Vision
- Joel Achenbach, Scientists: Human activity has pushed Earth beyond four of nine ‘planetary boundaries’
- Joe Romm, ‘Hottest Year’ Story Obscures Bigger News: Ocean Warming Now Off The Charts
- Eli Rabett, Andy Dessler Smokes Richard Lindzen
- Mitch Smith (NYT), Defenders of Tradition in Keystone Pipeline Fight
Health and Healthcare
- Open Source with Christopher Lydon, Hacking ‘Affordable Care’
- Sarah Kliff, The scariest fact about the Disneyland measles outbreak
Math and Science
- Cleve Moler, Variants of the QR Algorithm
Culture and Miscellany
- The Onion, Unsold Google Glass Units To Be Donated To Assholes In Africa
- Michael Daly, Basic Physics May Defeat DeflateGate
- Matt Taibbi, Thomas Friedman Said Something Awesome at Davos: T-Shirt Contest!
- Elisabetta Povoledo (NYT), Pope Amuses and Insults With Remark on Parenting
- Amanda Taub, Queen Elizabeth II once terrorized King Abdullah — by driving him around
- Paul Smalera, When McDonald’s was America and America was McDonald’s
- Amy Carleton, Remembering A Very Good Neighbor