The Slack Wire

" Storm surge barriers , the huge sea gates that some scientists say would be the best protection against floods, could cost as much as...

I'd like to promise a more regular posting schedule here. On the other hand, seeing as I'm on the academic job market this fall (any...

Don't you love the  Romney video ? I'm not going to deny it, right now I am with Team Dem. It's true, we usually say "the b...

From Keynes (1937) , "The General Theory of Employment": We have, as a rule, only the vaguest idea of any but the most direct...

I have a new post up at the Jacobin , responding to Mike Beggs' critical review of David Graeber's Debt . It's a much longer, an...

From Eric Foner's A Short History of Reconstruction : Even more outrageous than Tweed ... was Massachusetts Congressman Benjamin F. Bu...

by Will Boisvert Last summer I posted an essay here arguing that nuclear power is a lot safer than people think—about a hundred times saf...

Casey Mulligan goes to the New York Times to say that monetary policy doesn't work. This  annoys Brad DeLong : THE NEW YORK TIMES PUB...

[This, by Marianne Moore, is one of my favorite poems.] The Pangolin Another armored animal–scale lapping scale with spruce-cone regul...

Hello readers! Knowing what a brilliant and well-informed bunch you all are, I'm hoping you can help with something. Is there somewher...