The Wu retort

Man, this is killing me, but I have to say it: Wu is right again.
(This is inside baseball economics so feel free to skip to the bottom of this post.)
Greg Mankiw is a conservative economist. Like the vast majority of other conservative economists he made fun of the supply siders. Contrary to popular belief supply side economics (read: tax cuts for the rich raise tax revenue) is not endorsed by prominent conservative economists. See writings by Gary Becker, Milton Friedman, or pre-2002 Mankiw for details.
Mankiw has the most popular selling economics textbook of all time. In the first edition he made fun of supply siders calling them "charlatons and cranks". He accepted the position as Bush's advisor after the 2001 supply side tax cut. After he realized the administration had no interest in listening to economic advice he quit. Wu points out that he lost his integrity when he agreed to sign on to the Bush team and helped them justify another round of supply side cuts in 2003.
Mankiw removed the "charlatons and cranks" reference in his later editions. It would have been a terrible thing to say about himself.
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Spellman once had this to say about debating Wu:
"Never say Wu is right. If Wu is right say it was your idea all along."
Somewhere Spellman is shaking his head at me.

Pissing contest

The Bush Administration sends up "emergency" legislation. The Republican presidential candidate "suspends" his campaign to push for a bipartisan compromise. 2/3 of the Republican House members vote against it.

The Democratic Speaker and Presidential candidate favor the bill. 40% of the Democrats in the House vote against it.

In terms of bad, the Republicans should come off worse in this debate, but not by much.

I am reminded of one of my favorite Spellman quotes: "Pissing contests are no fun; both sides get wet."

Arrival in UAE

I made it in safely. Thanks to the University, upon arrival in Dubai I was able to bypass very long (and not very pleasant smelling) lines.
Ann and I went shopping this morning and I really couldn't think of anything I couldn't find. In other words from really cheap red onions to stew meat I found every non-pork product I was looking for...
Ann said cabs were cheap. Imagine a 15 minute cab ride for $1. Roundabouts will take some getting used to but the traffic is not that bad.
Anyhow, I'm in and alive. Everything went smoother than I could have expected.