Chicago Boyz – Page 2559 – Some Chicago Boyz know each other from student days at the University of Chicago. Others are Chicago boys in spirit. The blog name is also intended as a good-humored gesture of admiration for distinguished Chicago School economists and fellow travelers.

Too Much for Just One Man

May 11, 2004 by Chicago Boyz Archive

No new ideas here, but if I can’t think out loud on my own damn blog, where can I?

It is an interesting coincidence that just as the Boyz are recruiting our splendid new personnel, the mighty Glenn Reynolds finds himself reaching a physical limit on what one guy can do. In his post he notes that both Lileks and Sullivan are similarly hitting a wall. Iain Murray, busy with work and family, has recruited assistance. And, the creation of blog-collectives, beyond even a “group blog” is epitomized by The Command Post.

The EU Constitution, the Chunnel — Two Bad Ideas From France

May 10, 2004 by Chicago Boyz Archive

The military historian Anthony Beevor (author of this and this) has a good op-ed in today’s New York Times. Beevor notes that Blair is facing the biggest political challenge of his life with a referendum on the EU Constitution, with 70% of the electorate opposed to it:

The decision over the Constitution is probably the most important Britain has faced since World War II. I will vote against it for several reasons. Most important, a genuinely democratic constitution, like that of the United States, defines the limits of power of the state over the individual. Yet the draft European Constitution is almost entirely about amassing power for a superstate. It is antidemocratic, dangerous and throughly out of date.

Beevor also has strong and sensible criticism of the Brussels regime:

From Chicago’s East Side — Blogging the Democratic Convention

May 10, 2004 by Mitch Townsend

One nice thing about receiving home delivery of the Boston Globe is that our carrier inserts it into a handy plastic bag which can be used to pick up dog poop. Too often, the packaging is far better than the contents, and the comparison is not much better after I’ve walked the dog. Today the newspaper featured an article on how the authorities at the Democratic convention are grappling with the issue of weblogs as legitimate press. It looks like they will be issuing some press credentials to some bloggers.

Spam As Entertainment

May 10, 2004 by Jonathan

Sure, why not? Everyone dislikes it, but some of the senders and subject lines that get through the filters these days are not unamusing. For instance, I just received a urgent missive from “Ahmad Mcneill.” Maybe I should create a new folder and start saving the best examples.

Cui Bono

May 9, 2004 by Jonathan

Stable price levels in the real-money betting markets at Intrade.com and Iowa Electronic Markets suggest that the Abu Ghraib revelations haven’t hurt Bush’s reelection chances, which have been >50% at Iowa and around 60% at Intrade for the past several weeks. These markets aren’t crystal balls, and Bush’s reelection odds aren’t a perfect proxy for public support for the war, but I think the markets are pretty good indicators that the POW-mistreatment scandal isn’t the confidence-shaking earthquake that some of the press and Democrats make it out to be. Glenn Reynolds is absolutely right that public demoralization is the goal here. People should take notice of who benefits politically from it.

UPDATE: As of May 11 the midpoint of the bid/ask spread on Bush’s reelection odds has dropped by a couple of points. I don’t know if this is a significant shift but it suggests some weakening in the Administration’s public standing.

UPDATE 2: EconoPundit compares Intrade’s odds estimates to those derived from conventional opinion-polling.