Monthly Archives: June 2010

Assorted Links

Assorted Links (6/5/2010)

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Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading lately:

 
Hard Times, Bright Futures — The American, A Magazine of Ideas
www.american.com
“Robert Reich and others think the latest crop of America’s entrepreneurs is teeming with the out-of-work and desperate. We’re not so sure.”
 
Self-Reported Economic-Impact Estimates Deserve Scrutiny – The Numbers Guy – WSJ
blogs.wsj.com
“Reports from Google and from Super Bowl host cities’ bid committees that they provide big economic boosts appear to be overstated.”
 
Arthur Brooks: Slouching Towards Athens – WSJ.com
online.wsj.com
“In The Wall Street Journal, American Enterprise Institute President Arthur Brooks says the Obama agenda will make America look more like Greece, and turn tea partiers into the kind of public sector workers who strike and riot in Athens for higher pay.”
 
Employers on Strike – WSJ.com
online.wsj.com
“The Wall Street Journal writes on the May jobs report and notes that most of the jobs added were from temporary census workers.”
 
Quotes Uncovered: The Marx Brothers and Proverbs – Freakonomics Blog – NYTimes.com
freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com
“Fred Shapiro traces the origins of popular quotes.”
 
Capitalism: Hollywood’s Miscast Villain – WSJ.com
online.wsj.com
“Why the film industry is so good at getting business wrong.”
 
Quote of the Day: The Shack | Mother Jones
motherjones.com
“Does “The Shack” offer answers to Christianity’s most vexing question?”
 
Athens on the Potomac — The American, A Magazine of Ideas
www.american.com
“Paul Krugman is right: America isn’t Greece. That doesn’t mean we aren’t in worrisome shape. And by one measure, we are in worse shape than Greece.”
 
Book review: The Shallows – WSJ.com
online.wsj.com
“John Horgan reviews Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains.”
 
Mitch Daniels: Hoosiers vs. Crony Capitalism – WSJ.com
online.wsj.com
“Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels writing in The Wall Street Journal on how creditors in his state took on the federal government in the Supreme Court and helped restored the rule of law after last year’s Chrysler bailout.”
 
Kim Strassel: Washington Rebels Against Chicago – WSJ.com
online.wsj.com
“In The Wall Street Journal, Potomac Watch columnist Kimberley Strassel wonders if the White House dealings with Joe Sestak and Andrew Romanoff violates the Hatch Act.”
 
Why We Can’t Just Keep Raising Taxes on the Rich – Business – The Atlantic

www.theatlantic.com

“One thing about taxes that most people don’t find intuitive is that the higher they are, the harder…”
 
Burton G. Malkiel: Entitlement Reform and the Global Budget Crisis – WSJ.com
online.wsj.com
“Burton G. Malkiel writes in The Wall Street Journal that putting Social Security on a sustainable path isn’t nearly enough to end our entitlement shortfall. But it would do a lot to convince markets that Washington can be serious.”
 
Daniel Henninger: Beating Up on Israel – WSJ.com
online.wsj.com
“Daniel Henninger writes in The Wall Street Journal that preferring to be blowhards than statesmen, the world’s powers find it easier to denounce small nations like Israel than take on large and difficult problems like Iran or North Korea.”
Assorted Links

Assorted Links (6/3/2010)

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Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading lately:

Burton G. Malkiel: Entitlement Reform and the Global Budget Crisis – WSJ.com
Source: online.wsj.com
“Burton G. Malkiel writes in The Wall Street Journal that putting Social Security on a sustainable path isn’t nearly enough to end our entitlement shortfall. But it would do a lot to convince markets that Washington can be serious.”

Daniel Henninger: Beating Up on Israel – WSJ.com
Source: online.wsj.com
“Daniel Henninger writes in The Wall Street Journal that preferring to be blowhards than statesmen, the world’s powers find it easier to denounce small nations like Israel than take on large and difficult problems like Iran or North Korea.”
 
A Gulf Spill Reality Check – Forbes.com
Source: blogs.forbes.com
“Debate over the disaster is vital, but it must recognize four important points.”
 
How Washington Just Worsened the Gulf Oil Spill
Source: www.american.com
“President Obama made BP’s problem worse, and in so doing has worsened the problems facing not only the administration but also the unfortunate residents of the Gulf of Mexico.”
 
Curtis C. Ebbesmeyer: How Far Will the Gulf Gusher Spread? – WSJ.com
Source: online.wsj.com
“In The Wall Street Journal, Curtis Ebbesmeyer writes that the oil from Deepwater Horizon will ride the Gulf Stream across the Atlantic.And in years to come, some will even wash up on European shores.”
 
A rough week for Guatemala – The Big Picture – Boston.com
Source: www.boston.com
“In just the past seven days, residents of Guatemala and parts of neighboring Honduras and El Salvador have had to cope with a volcanic eruption and ash fall, a powerful tropical storm, the resulting floods …”
 
Paul Ingrassia: The Lessons of the GM Bankruptcy – WSJ.com
Source: online.wsj.com
“In The Wall Street Journal, automotive writer Paul Ingrassia says that the slow drift to insolvency by the auto company needs to be kept in mind as the national government’s profligate spending continues to increase unchecked.”
 
The Oil Plume – NYTimes.com
Source: www.nytimes.com
“The continuing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will likely come to serve as a metaphor for the ineffectiveness of governing institutions.”
 
The BP Oil Spill’s Lessons for Regulation – Project Syndicate
Source: www.project-syndicate.org
“As the damaged BP oil well continues to spew millions of gallons of crude from the depths of the floor of the Gulf of Mexico, the immediate challenge is how to mitigate an ever-magnifying environmental catastrophe. But the disaster poses a much deeper challenge to how modern societies deal with regulation.”
 
The Gulf Spill and Alaska – WSJ.com
Source: online.wsj.com
“Alaska Governor Sean Parnell warns in The Wall Street Journal that he see signs that the Obama administration wants to use the disaster to shut down oil production even in the safest areas.”
 
Risk is Risk, On or Off Balance Sheet – Regulating Wall Street
Source: w4.stern.nyu.edu
“The derivatives rules in the Senate financial reform bill pose a serious threat to the financial system because they leave critical institutions – including but not limited to derivatives clearinghouses – without a lender of last resort. A major feature of the legislation prohibits any “swaps entity” from receiving federal assistance such as deposit insurance or access to the Federal Reserve’s lending facilities. The bill will force banks to spin off their derivatives activities into separate corporate entities. Yet, sweeping the risks inherent in derivatives trading off bank balance sheets does not make them disappear.”    
 
The Visible Hand – Freakonomics Blog – NYTimes.com
Source: freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com
“Who would you rather buy from on Craigslist?”
 
Have We Crossed the Point of No Return? – Philipp Bagus – Mises Daily
Source: mises.org
“A specter is haunting the world, and especially Europe: the specter of a sovereign insolvency. The acute sovereign-debt crisis is largely the result of government interventions in response to the financial crisis.”
 
Google says Google TV coming this fall – Computerworld
Source: www.computerworld.com
“Google today joined partners Intel, Sony and Logitech to formally introduce the long awaited Google TV platform.”