The Fraudulence of “Waste, Fraud and Abuse”

History repeats itself, the first time as farce, the second as clown show

First things first: welcome to readers new and old. Now that I have written my last column for the New York Times, this newsletter is coming out of dormancy. It will be mostly economics-related, and I’ll try to stay away from pure political punditry, although everything — including this post — is political these days. This newsletter will be a lot wonkier than my Times column, and usually wonkier than my old Times newsletter. Definitely snarkier than either. I’ll try to stay fairly accessible, but may at times revert to academic-economist mode. All posts will be free for a while, although…

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