Disqus - Latest Comments for Hobbes

Re: Don't Blame Me, I Voted for Kodos

Hobbes — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:06:47 -0000

Tell us how Canadians vote Matt!

Re: Predictions Thread

Hobbes — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 13:55:46 -0000

Feels pretty optimistic to give Indiana and Georgia to Obama. I would take Georgia,Indiana and Florida out of the Obama column - but keep Matt's predictions with the rest. Well - I might take NC out of there too.

We'll know pretty early that Obama has won Penn and Virginia though - and that should be the election right there.

Re: VOTE

Hobbes — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 13:53:48 -0000

Matt is about to explode with vote envy. heh.

Re: Biden's Gaffes

Hobbes — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 07:57:54 -0000

I'm suprised that I haven't seen that clip where Biden calls Obama 'articulate' in a long time. That feels like the kind of thing cable new should have been remembering over the past few weeks, but alas.

Re: Palin's Second Swipe at the First Amendment

Hobbes — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 07:56:09 -0000

I'm still pissed that I haven't won the lottery yet.

Re: Holy Shit

Hobbes — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 23:02:16 -0000

Exactly.

Re: Last Minute Fundraising for Obama

Hobbes — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 23:00:54 -0000

Hey Elliot, thanks for the comment. Just for clarity, here's the rest of the email:

We knew the McCain campaign was saving its resources for a last-minute blitz, and now we know just how much they'll pour into it.

No matter what, we need to match what our opponents are spending in the final stretch. We can't slow down between now and Election Day.

And if you give again today -- any amount -- you could be one of 5 previous donors who will have a front row seat for the big Election Night event in Chicago with Barack.

Can you make a donation of $25 or more right now?

Re: Bonuses and Bailouts

Hobbes — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 19:02:32 -0000

It would feel good to punish bankers for their arrogance and lack of remorse. But a spiteful response would be self defeating for governments and their new investments in the world's financial firms.

My position is that bankers should be paid what they're worth (they're marginal product of labor, if you will) - a point I doubt anyone would disagree with. You assume that bankers are grossly overpaid. I don't know if that's true - really...I have no idea!

The question is how best to surface what bankers should be paid. One way is to let the government arbitrarily decide - we can do this by banning bonuses. Another way is to let the market decide. I would prefer the market.

Sure, the market isn't perfect, but it would surely do a better job than the government of sorting out who is likely to add value in the future and who was previously grossly overpaid. And paying those likely to create actual value in the future is critical. It's not that failing to pay bonuses would increase our state of economic duress - which would be tough to do - it's that allowing the market to compensate those who will likely create value will ensure the swiftest possible rebound in our fortunes, individually and collectively.

The government needs to recognize that it is now a huge stakeholder in Wall Street and The City. Arbitrary compensation decisions will be distortionary, and self defeating. Painful though it will be to see anyone associated with firms like Lehman Brothers making a mint this year.

Re: Political Darwin Awards

Hobbes — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:05:29 -0000

Awesome. It's sleazy, but your implicit argument is that Dems wouldn't do the same crap. I think they would if they thought they needed the edge. Let's not get into the game of claiming one party has a monopoly on campaign integrity or morality.

Re: Obama's Election Night Venue

Hobbes — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 17:36:05 -0000

That's how I roll.

Re: Canadian Trade and Labor Market Flexibility

Hobbes — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:53:40 -0000

Frankly, I see immigration policy as a sub-section of trade policy. Current Immigration is a massive indictment of the Bush administration on Trade - the US claims to prefer free markets, but has critical anti-market policies in many of the most important trade markets (like labor).

I don't think an Obama administration will be much better though - they've made too many commitments to people like Joe the Plumber by pandering an anti-foriegner line against labor integration. I don't think they'll renegotiate NAFTA.

Also, this Canadian-France pact has nothing to do with NAFTA. It has everything to do with Canada and France.

Re: The Opportunity Cost of the Powell Endorsement

Hobbes — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 17:26:51 -0000

I felt the same way about the Richardson and Edwards endorsement near the end of the primary campaign. To my mind neither did much to deliver votes into the Obama column, but they were both a kick in the teeth to Clinton's hopes of grabbing the nomination.

I would contrast those endorsements to, say, Ted Kennedy's - who I think was a positive endorsement to Obama that no one would have cared about should he have supported Clinton.

Re: The Banality of Evil

Hobbes — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 16:00:37 -0000

Yeah, I don't know what to think about these videos. It feels like jerk Obama supporters are baiting these guys into saying racist stuff. I'm sure you're not hearing what the baiters are saying to get the reactions - nor do the videos give you general sense for the crowd, or even show people who might be standing up and telling the nuts to shut up.

That said, it's still pretty creepy.

Re: Obama, Reagan, FDR

Hobbes — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 15:27:11 -0000

I agree - I would hope to have better shit to say if I was rocking a column at the times. On the other hand, this commentary is a massive, massive improvement over his last Sarah Palin column:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008...

The Sarah Palin rebound? Reminds of a certain analogy about how even dead cats bounce...

Re: Supreme Court Rules Against GOP in Ohio Decision

Hobbes — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 14:28:23 -0000

This wouldn't be a problem if the US just adopted Canada's rules. As Matt explains it to me, all you have to do in Canada is show up with a piece of mail addressed to yourself and say you're a citizen. And Voila! You can vote!

Re: Still Room to Fall

Hobbes — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 14:24:35 -0000

I get a kick out of this video, but you're right - it's not an argument. The fact that prices go up does not logically imply that they must go down - as you say - maybe there is a fundamental reason for increases in house prices that can permanently increase real prices. In some greographies fundamental changes are building codes that restrict the supply of new houses or condo projects...in that case real prices will rise. Or maybe there's a straight up shortage of land - there's a fundamental reason why houses in Manhatten are worth more than houses in Omaha.

Still, in aggregate I don't see those kinds of fundamental shocks. Yet in aggregate we saw a rapid increase in houses prices - perhaps most worryingly we saw increases in house prices relative to the rents at which those same houses were let - a indicator that should remain relatively consistent if fundamental causes are increasing real prices of housing.

Krugman, the emininent economist of the moment, talks about this quite a bit. Here's a link to his price/rent analysis that he brings out when talking about the housing bubble and why he thinks we're still in for declines:

http://krugman.blogs.nytime...

That said - I hope housing prices stabilize. I don't want things to fall anymore. Falling prices suck.