memeorandum: Sticky Wages, Sticky Prices, Sticky Debt (Karl Smith/Modeled Behavior)

11:55 PM ET, August 15, 2011

Top Items:

Bachmann skipped family reunion she cited — On her victory lap of Iowa yesterday, Straw Poll winner Rep. Michele Bachmann paid repeated tribute to her local roots, and repeatedly mentioned her family reunion that day, citing it as an excuse for her late arrival at a local party event in Waterloo.

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Daily Kos, Hot Air, The Impolitic and Iowa Caucuses

Roger Simon / The Politico:

Ron Paul remains media poison — I admit I do not fully understand Ron Paul and his beliefs. But I do understand when a guy gets shafted, and Ron Paul just got shafted. — On Saturday, the Ames Straw Poll was conducted in Iowa amid huge media interest and scrutiny.

Discussion: Mediaite, Booman Tribune, The Note, The Raw Story, CNN, Truthdig, Swampland, New York Times, Washington Monthly and Outside the Beltway

Michelle Goldberg / The Daily Beast:

A Christian Plot for Domination? — Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry aren't just devout—both have deep ties to a fringe fundamentalist movement known as Dominionism, which says Christians should rule the world. — With Tim Pawlenty out of the presidential race, it is now fairly clear …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, his vorpal sword, NewsBusters.org blogs, Sister Toldjah, Weasel Zippers, Wonkette, Crooks and Liars, Off the Kuff, Suburban Guerrilla, Pirate's Cove, Hullabaloo, ThinkProgress, The Daily Dish, Let Freedom Ring Blog, Firedoglake and CNN

Christian Heinze / GOP 12:

Rove warns GOP about electability — First, the Wall Street Journal was spooked about the Michele Bachmann/Rick Perry surge, and just now, Karl Rove issued a similar warning. … Earlier today, the WSJ wrote an op-ed that seemed to suggest that neither Michele Bachmann nor Rick Perry were particularly electable.

Discussion: The Mahablog, Gawker, Taylor Marsh, Washington Monthly, Washington Post, Daily Kos and No More Mister Nice Blog

Timothy P. Carney / Washington Examiner:

Will no one rid the GOP of this troublesome congressman? — With Tim Pawlenty out of the race, only two active Presidential candidates scored more than 10 percent in Saturday's Iowa straw poll. Following the media coverage Sunday, you would never guess Congressman Ron Paul was one of them.

Discussion: Campaign 2012, Eunomia, Outside the Beltway, National Review, LewRockwell.com Blog and AmSpecBlog

Wall Street Journal:

Bachmann-Perry Overdrive — GOP voters are still searching for a unifying candidate. — The fight for the Republican Presidential nomination is finally getting underway in earnest, with Texas Governor Rick Perry bull-riding his way into the race and Michele Bachmann winning Saturday's straw poll in Iowa.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Washington Post, Salon, The Moderate Voice, Talking Points Memo, No More Mister Nice Blog, Balloon Juice, Online NewsHour, Booman Tribune, GOP 12, Don Surber and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Byron York / Campaign 2012:
Behind the Michele Bachmann ‘submissive’ question

Discussion: Salon, CNN, The Daily Caller, Right Wing Watch, Outside the Beltway and CBS News

Ross Douthat / New York Times:
Chris Christie's Cue

Discussion: msnbc.com, Eunomia, The Political Carnival and The New Republic

Azi Paybarah / PolitickerNY:

Bill Clinton: Rick Perry is a ‘Good-Looking Rascal,’ But His Platform ‘Is Crazy’ — Bill Clinton at the IAFF conference in Manahttan on August 15, 2011. (photo credit: azi paybarah / observer) — Bill Clinton said newly announced presidential candidate, Republican Governor Rick of Texas was a …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Mediaite, TPMDC, The Hill, GOP 12, CNN, Pajamas Media, Gothamist, Althouse and Columbian

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:

Was Perry packing? — Texas Gov. Rick Perry is a leading advocate of gun rights who likes to boast of having dispatched a coyote on a recent jog, so I asked him during today's walking press conference at the Iowa State Fair whether he was armed. — “I never comment on whether I'm carrying a handgun or not,” he said.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Gawker, The Note, New York Magazine and Althouse

Clifford Krauss / New York Times:
In Texas Jobs Boom, Crediting a Leader, or Luck

Discussion: AlterNet and Pajamas Media

Scott Keyes / ThinkProgress:

Perry on Bernanke: 'I dunno what y'all would do to him in Iowa but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas' — Texas Governor Rick Perry, who entered the presidential campaign on Saturday, appeared to suggest a violent response would be warranted should Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke …

Discussion: Gawker, RedState, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Clusterstock

Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:
Fact checking Rick Perry's announcement speech

Discussion: Indecision Forever, Daily Kos, Campaign 2012, Erica Grieder, Swampland and The Nation

The Note:
Rick Perry On Ben Bernanke: It Would Be ‘Almost Treasonous’ To Print More Money Between Now And The Election

Discussion: Hot Air and Washington Wire

Matthew Yglesias / ThinkProgress:

The Ten Weirdest Ideas In Rick Perry's Fed Up — Rick Perry's November 2010 book Fed Up!: Our Fight to Save America from Washington is not a typical “campaign book” from a political candidate. For starters, its forward is written by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, nominally one of Perry's rivals for the nomination.

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Reality-Based Community, National Review, The Caucus, And So it Goes in Shreveport, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Gawker, Paul Krugman, Connecting.the.Dots, Questions and Observations, Balloon Juice, Shakesville and The Huffington Post

Matthew Yglesias / ThinkProgress:

Conservatives Whine About Unfairness Of Quoting Rick Perry Accurately — Rick Perry holds a lot of extreme views about American public policy and constitutional law. I know that because I've read Rick Perry's book, Fed Up, which about his extreme views about American public policy and constitutional law.

Paul Krugman / New York Times:
The Texas Unmiracle — As expected, Rick Perry, the governor …

Discussion: Washington Post, Campaign 2012, The TrogloPundit, Felix Salmon, Outside the Beltway, Paul Krugman, dallasmorningviewsblog …, Salon, Washington Monthly, The Reality-Based Community, The Mahablog, ThinkProgress, Prairie Weather, National Review and Daily Kos

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:

What a president ‘looks like’ — In advance of the 2008 presidential campaign, many high-profile figures in the media described Mitt Romney as someone who “looks like a president.” It was as if news outlets were thinking of central casting, and imagining who looked the part.

Discussion: Washington Post, The Atlantic Online, No More Mister Nice Blog and Paul Krugman

Glenn Thrush / The Politico:
President Obama blasts Republican presidential field

Discussion: The Note, Weasel Zippers, CNN and And So it Goes in Shreveport

Amanda Terkel / The Huffington Post:
Mitt Romney Mistakes New Hampshire For Iowa (VIDEO)

Discussion: Crooks and Liars and Daily Kos

New York Post:
Romney mocks Obama ‘Magical Misery Tour’

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Washington Times, Michelle Malkin and The Lonely Conservative

Byron York / Campaign 2012:

Obama: I reversed recession until ‘bad luck’ hit — At a town hall meeting on his campaign-style tour of the Midwest, President Obama claimed that his economic program “reversed the recession” until recovery was frustrated by events overseas. And then, Obama said, with the economy …

Discussion: Power Line, RedState, Wizbang, The POH Diaries, Weasel Zippers and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

Warren E. Buffett / New York Times:

Stop Coddling the Super-Rich — OUR leaders have asked for “shared sacrifice.” But when they did the asking, they spared me. I checked with my mega-rich friends to learn what pain they were expecting. They, too, were left untouched. — While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan …

Discussion: International Liberty, Hot Air, Hit & Run, Campaign 2012, ThinkProgress, iOwnTheWorld.com, The Reaction, The Wealth Report, National Review, Lynn Sweet, The Atlantic Online, Rebuild the Dream, The Heritage Foundation, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Outside the Beltway, Newshoggers.com, No More Mister Nice Blog, ABCNEWS, Crooks and Liars, American Glob, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, The Lonely Conservative, War in Context, The Democratic Daily, Rhymes With Right, CBS New York, Modeled Behavior, Questions and Observations, AMERICAN FUTURE, The Politico, dallasmorningviewsblog …, NewsBusters.org blogs, Firedoglake, AmSpecBlog, Clusterstock, Forbes.com, Felix Salmon, Guardian, The Moderate Voice, EconLog, The Impolitic, Blue Mass Group, The Raw Story, Donklephant, Taylor Marsh, AFL-CIO NOW BLOG, Pajamas Media, TPMDC, The Hill, emptywheel, Mediaite, Liberal Conspiracy, Booman Tribune, New York Magazine, Washington Monthly, TalkLeft, Connecting.the.Dots, Daily Kos, Balloon Juice, Althouse and PointOfLaw Forum

Jennifer Epstein / The Politico:
Obama: Warren Buffett is right on the money

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, CNN and JammieWearingFool

John Hinderaker / Power Line:

Obama: I'm Just Like Lincoln! — Byron York is chronicling the outrages committed by President Obama on his taxpayer-funded campaign swing through Iowa and the Midwest. I was in the midst of a post on Obama's whine that he is the victim of “bad luck,” as reported by Byron …

Discussion: Pajamas Media

Byron York / Campaign 2012:
Obama compares woes to Lincoln

Discussion: Hot Air and Weasel Zippers

Andrew Restuccia / The Hill:

Obama to automakers: 'You can't just make money on SUVs and trucks' — The country's automakers should ditch their focus on SUVs and trucks in favor of smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles, President Obama said Monday. — “You can't just make money on SUVs and trucks,” …

Discussion: The Sundries Shack, Weasel Zippers, Pajamas Media and The Lonely Conservative

Nouriel Roubini / Project Syndicate:

ROUBINI: Is Capitalism Doomed? Karl Marx was right, it seems, in arguing that globalization, financial intermediation run amok, and redistribution of income and wealth from labor to capital could lead capitalism to self-destruct. So what can be done to prevent that outcome?

Discussion: American Power and Truthdig

Karl Smith / Modeled Behavior:

Sticky Wages, Sticky Prices, Sticky Debt — Tyler Cowen calls sticky wages a weak and embarrassing paradigm … So growing up in the New Keynesian paradigm I learned that sticky wages don't make sense because the real wage is pro-cyclical. That is, in contrast to Keynes's suggestion labor …

Discussion: TheMoneyIllusion and Marginal Revolution

Tyler Cowen / Marginal Revolution:
How are nominal wages sticky for the *unemployed*?

Discussion: Angry Bear, TheMoneyIllusion, Grasping Reality …, ThinkProgress and EconLog

David Dayen / Firedoglake:

New Health Care Regulations Close Exchanges to Many Offered Unaffordable Employer Coverage — Not so simple that a child could understand it. (photo by Robert Huffstutter) — One of the major problems with the Affordable Care Act will come with the determination of what set of plans recipients can become eligible for.

Discussion: ThinkProgress and Washington Post

Mark Knoller / CBS News:

U.S. Secret Service gets 2 new buses ahead of Obama tour — The U.S. Secret Service has two new buses in its fleet for President Obama to use on his three-day, three-state Midwestern bus trip that kicked off Monday. — CBS News has learned the buses were purchased in recent months at a cost …

Discussion: FishbowlDC, Weasel Zippers and White House Dossier

Reid J. Epstein / The Politico:

Ed Rendell: Hillary Clinton can't resist White House run — Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell said on Monday he doesn't believe Hillary Clinton is ready to retire from public life and the possibility of someday becoming the first female president “would probably be too much for her to resist.”

Discussion: New York Post, Taylor Marsh, Race 4 2012, Weasel Zippers, The Raw Story and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:

‘Iron my shirt’ — When Texas Gov. Rick Perry took his jacket off for a question-and-answer session in Waterloo last night, he joked about his attire. — “This shirt has a few wrinkles in it; it's not my wife's fault,” he said. — The line seemed very Texas, and a bit less directed …

Discussion: The Daily Dish and Slate Magazine

Miriam Jordan / Wall Street Journal:

Immigration Audits Drive Illegal Workers Underground — MINNEAPOLIS—In 2009, Alba and Eugenio were making almost twice the federal minimum wage, plus benefits, cleaning a skyscraper for a national janitorial company. With two toddlers, the Mexican couple enjoyed relative prosperity in a tidy …

Discussion: National Review and PoliPundit.com