By Steve Clemons

The Institute for New Economic Thinking conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire this weekend is a star-studded affair if you follow economic wonkery.

(Steve Clemons and Joseph Stiglitz sitting in the private apartments of John Maynard Keynes, Kings College, Cambridge University; April 2010; photo credit: Leif Pagrotsky) Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz and I attended last year one of those conferences that decades from now historical societies will note with a marker on the wall.

Senator Ben Nelson frustrates the political left more than President Obama — which is a lot (lately). That said, Senator Nelson is doing exactly the right thing and refusing his pay during the likely government shut down.

As more of a Hamiltonian, I always feel a bit of a rankle when something Madisonian arises, but writer and libertarian blogger Doug Bandow emailed me his thoughts on Libya, the email footer of which was this important James Madison comment: Of all the enemies of true liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be…

It’s a pdf — and it’s really wonky — but the tenacious numbers cruncher Dean Baker, has written up a serious study of the economic impact of House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s plans for Medicare. The CEPR paper, titled “The Ryan Medicare Plan: Winners and Losers” was co-written by Dean Baker and David Rosnick….

(The White Mountains on a Snowy Day Taken From a room in the Omni Mt. Washington Resort; photo credit: Steve Clemons; click image above for very large version) I’m up communing with the spirit of John Maynard Keynes at the Mt. Washington Resort where he and others established the framework for the International Monetary Fund….

This is a guest note by Daniel R. DePetris, a graduate student studying security issues at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University. DePetris is also an associate editor of the Journal on Terrorism and Security Analysis.

Media Matters CEO David Brock just released a statement on news that Fox and Glenn Beck would begin a new consulting relationship focused on other forms of content with Beck suspending in the not too distant future his daily Fox News show.

One of the lines working around the Middle East and South Asia is that “Iraq has oil, and Afghanistan has the U.S.