I usually try to avoid political hot takes, bc what do I know? But I'm feeling both terrified and philosophical about the Barrett confirmation. Her chance to do immense harm will basically come *next week*. After that, she will be a GOP liability 1/
Right now, everything is pointing to a Dem tsunami. If you look at the median of state polls — which excludes dodgy outfits — it suggests something like a 9-point D swing since 2016, which would be a blowout 2/ nytimes.com/live/2020/pres…
Dave Wasserman, who is looking at a mass of district-level polls — and warned correctly about 2016 — is saying the same thing 3/
So the big question seems to be whether Republicans will be able to steal the election by preventing many votes from being counted — which is where the Supremes come in 4/
If they do, American democracy is over. If they don't, a Democratic majority won't allow an illegitimate court, effectively packed by a party that can't win popular support, to rule the nation 5/
So it's really all about next week. How far will an extremist GOP go to hold power? 6/

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More from @paulkrugman

28 Oct
Lots of good explainers on why the big GDP number we're likely to see tomorrow doesn't actually mean we're doing OK. I thought I'd add a schematic graph 1/
What we know from lots of evidence is that we're having a "reverse square root recovery" — huge plunge, rapid partial snapback, much slower growth since: 2/ Image
"3rd quarter growth" will actually be growth from the average of the 2nd q to the average of the 3rd — which means that it will mostly be telling us that there was rapid growth earlier this year, not that we're growing now: 3/ Image
Read 4 tweets
25 Oct
Many people have probably heard about the Great Barrington Declaration, denouncing social distancing and calling for "herd immunity." It's popular with the White House, and it's the product of a Koch-linked think tank 1/ nytimes.com/2020/10/19/hea…
So I've been going through articles from the American Institute for Economic Research, and found one from five weeks ago lauding South Dakota as "a fortress of liberty and hope protected from the grasps of overbearing politicians." 2/
Here's the article: 3/ aier.org/article/south-…
Read 4 tweets
23 Oct
Greg argues that Trump is finally paying a price for his nonstop lying. I guess; but I still don't think the media have fully learned how to deal with this 1/ washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
A trip down memory lane: I started writing for The Times during the 2000 campaign, in which GW Bush was obviously lying about taxes, Social Security, and more. But I was told that it wasn't OK to use the word "lie" 2/
Obviously we've gotten past that point. But you still have a lot of reports that normalize what's happening ("Candidates show sharp differences"). 3/
Read 5 tweets
18 Oct
Good report, but I'm not sure that it does enough to inform readers about the background of the "economists" claiming that the Biden tax plan would be a disaster 1/ nytimes.com/2020/10/18/bus…
They're the same people who made extravagant claims about what the Trump tax cut would accomplish — claims supported by almost no reputable economists. The IGM poll: 2/ igmchicago.org/surveys/tax-re…
In the event, the promised huge surge in business investment completely failed to materialize 3/ calculatedriskblog.com/2020/08/the-fa…
Read 5 tweets
14 Oct
What should economists work on? What kind of work should be honored? Branko has some intriguing thoughts, some — but not all of which — I agree with 1/
He's right that economics should be trying to answer the big questions. On the other hand, research should focus on questions it can actually answer. Raymond Chandler in "The simple art of murder": 2/
PS, "other things being equal" — Chandler sounding like an economist! Anyway, something to be said for not biting off more than anyone knows how to chew 3/
Read 7 tweets
14 Oct
This analysis got somewhat lost in the shuffle, but Charles Koch is going big for Barrett — not bc he hopes she'll destroy Roe or the ACA, but because he hopes she'll destroy the planet 1/nytimes.com/2020/10/12/opi…
That is, the most consequential effects of a stolen R court majority may not be on health care or right to choose — important as they are — but on gutting environmental policy. And the survival of civilization seems to me more important than imaginary norms 2/
A further thought. My guess is that if Ds take both the WH and the Senate, the stolen court won't overturn Roe or the ACA, which it knows would lead to quick court expansion. Instead, it will save its ammunition so it can engage in sustained sabotage of environmental policy 3/
Read 4 tweets

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