Bad ideas flourish because they are in the interest of powerful groups.

...instead it seems that business - like weight loss - is a subject wherein hope and fear inspire limitless gullibility.

Republican candidates had to appeal to their base, which is by and large elderly white people arguing with empty chairs.

People respond to incentives. If unemployment becomes more attractive because of the unemployment benefit, some unemployed workers may no longer try to find a job or may not try to find one as quickly as they would without the benefit.

The raw fact is that every successful example of economic development this past century ... has taken place via globalization.

I've always believed in expansionary monetary policy and if necessary fiscal policy when the economy is depressed.

[T]he next time you hear serious-sounding people explaining the need for fiscal austerity, try to parse their argument. Almost surely, you'll discover that what sounds like hardheaded realism actually rests on a foundation of fantasy, on the belief that invisible vigilantes will punish us if we're bad and the confidence fairy will reward us if we're good. And real-world policy - policy that will blight the lives of millions of working families - is being built on that foundation.