In lieu of opining on the economy, Brad DeLong continues his vigilant campaign for a quality media. He lambastes the Washington Post for publishing an editorial by Sarah Palin and warns Ezra Klein not to criticize her too harshly, lest he be sent packing like former columnist Dan Froomkin.

Paul Krugman jumps on the uber-wonk bandwagon for the day and offers his take on the two economic models analyzing fiscal policy that Brad DeLong compared yesterday. The main differences between the two systems are their treatments of the liquidity trap, says Krugman, but both have theoretical aporias beyond their takes on monetary policy, he adds.

Felix Salmon agrees with Nassim Taleb that borrowers and lenders alike need to kick their addictions to debt but disagrees on how everyone should get clean. Taleb takes the hard-line stance, arguing that "forcible and systematic conversion of debt to equity" is the only option. Salmon wants to take a more measured approach: We should do away with the moral hazard and eliminate tax incentives for business to take on more debt, says Salmon, crediting Steve Waldman.

Barry Ritholtz naysays a "better-than-expected 0.6%" bump in retail sales, arguing that the aggregate data doesn't really paint an accurate picture. Why not? Because that number includes the inflated cost of gasoline and "an auto sales bounce from record low levels," Ritholtz points out. Subtract those exceptions from the sum and retail numbers in June continued their downward trend by 0.2 percent, calculates Ritholz.