Brad DeLong

I know and admire Diane Lim Rogers.  She's a friend, colleague, and frequent co- conspirator when it comes to budget.  But Brad DeLong has her number with this post: No Diane, having any budget commission is not necessarily better than not having one.

I truly wish this wasn't the case.  But when, as Brad points out, a commission is really just an excuse to do less now and a subterfuge for what's really happening, I don't see the value.  Given all the failed budget commissions and summits of the past and the fact that the moon and stars don't seem to be in proper alignment for one to succeed now, I'd much rather have members of Congress take their lumps at the next election for not using the power they already have to deal with the deficit than to promise for no apparent reason that somehow a commission is going to be different this time.

On the one hand, forgetting that I ordered Brad's new book, The End Of Influence, a month or so ago and having it show up magically on my Kindle this morning is a little scary.

On the other hand, forgetting that I ordered Brad's new book, The End of Influence, a month or so ago and having it show up magically on my Kindle this morning is wonderful.

I almost want to say "Thank you, Thing," like they did in the Adams Family when Thing got the mail each day.

Over at his own blog, Brad DeLong argues that my post on The Washington Post was wrong.  He doesn't disagree with my basic point that the Post didn't need to apologize for its plan to monetarize its assets by charging lobbyists and others a fee to attend dinners at its publisher's home, he just doesn't want to enable the Post by creating a new source of revenue for a newspaper whose reporting and analysis he finds dismal.

Someone please remind me not ever to get on Brad's bad side.

With firm tongue in cheek, Matthew Yglesias took me to task a week or so ago because I blogged about pizza instead of the world's problems.  If you remember, he then used my post as an excuse to shamelessly blog about pizza himself.

Yesterday, economics professor, blogger extraordinaire, and friend Brad DeLong did Collender and Yglesias one better by posting about high-end restaurants in Berkeley and asking for recommendations.  He lamented the fact that the person he is trying to recruit from the University of Michigan took him to Cafe Chez Pannisse and that there really wasn't much that was better.  (Note to Brad...CCP was where you and Susan Rasky took me to lunch almost three years ago.  The pizza was great.)

Brad DeLong has one his best posts EVER this past Friday.  Don't miss it.