Jazz and Links

My taste for jazz seems to be developing. I'd always loved pieces like Brubeck's "Take Five" and "Blue Rondo," also some stuff off Miles Davis' "Birth of Cool"--"Move," for one, is affecting. They, the jazz critics, say that Thelonius Monk is difficult to appreciate, but I haven't found him difficult at all. Excellent accompaniment to the writing I have to do for school.

Links:

• Josh Hendrickson of Ole Miss summarizes a paper from St. Louis Fed president James Bullard which discusses changing views on the roles of, and relationships between, monetary and fiscal policy. (Via Scott Sumner)
• How deep is this liquidity trap? Greg Mankiw says we're almost out; Paul Krugman begs to differ.
• Tim Duy of the University of Oregon says that the Fed is acting on the inflation side of its mandate in the medium term at the expense of the "full employment" part. (Via Mark Thoma)
• The WSJ's Holman Jenkins comes to the eloquent defense of Mitt Romney's tenure at Bain Capital. Look for the discussion of the Davis-Haitwanger findings.
• In the case Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin (its request for cert is pending), three members of the US Comission on Civil Rights author an amicus brief which, summarizing a wide body of social science literature, finds that affirmative action is hurting its intended beneficiaries.