Assorted Links (8/10/2010)

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

William McGurn: Are Americans Bigots? – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Main Street columnist William McGurn says elites have become far too ready to attack the motives of those who disagree with them.”

Henry Olsen: Unemployment: What Would Reagan Do? – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Henry Olsen of the American Enterprise Institute says no other recession in the last 60 years saw such rapid job destruction.”

Student-Loan Debt Surpasses Credit Cards – Real Time Economics – WSJ

blogs.wsj.com

“Consumers now owe more on their student loans than their credit cards. Americans owe some $826.5 billion in revolving credit, while student loans outstanding today total some $829.785 billion.”

From Gutenberg to Zoobert – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Information Age columnist Gordon Crovitz discusses the fate of the printed book in the age of the Kindle and the iPad.” Imagine this: the market capitalization of “Barnes & Noble, whose more than 700 stores make it the largest bricks-and-mortar book chain, … is less than $1 billion, compared with Amazon’s $55 billion.”

In silhouette – The Big Picture – Boston.com

www.boston.com

Fairness and the Capital Tax Fetish – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Columbia University’s business school dean Glenn Hubbard says the Bush dividend, capital gains and marginal income tax rates should be preserved. These tax cuts spurred economic growth, and letting them expire would have a dampening effect on the economy.”

When Congress Is Away, the Market Will Play – Freakonomics Blog – NYTimes.com

freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com

“Anxious investors can take heart: Congress’s August recess begins at the end of this week, which has historically been a good thing for the markets. Michael Ferguson and Hugh Douglas Witte found that “about 90% of the capital gains over the life of the Dow Jones Industrial Average have come on days when Congress is out of session.”