How much government is good government?

An interesting debate occurred yesterday at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) featuring congressman Paul Ryan and New York Times columnist David Brooks.  Prior to viewing this video, I highly recommend reading the Ryan-Arthur Brooks (no relation to David Brooks) 9/13/2010 Wall Street Journal essay entitled “The Size of Government and the Choice This Fall”, and David Brooks’ response to the Ryan/Arthur Brooks essay entitled “The Day After Tomorrow”, as these essays provide context for the debate.


Assorted Links (12/3/2010)

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

Charles Krauthammer – WikiLeaks founder Assange ought to be hiding from America

washingtonpost.com

“Let the world see a man who fears the long arm of American justice.”

Presbyterians Against Israel

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Rabbi Marvin Hier and Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center write that liberal Protestants are engaging in historical revisionism concerning Jews and the Holy Land.”

The White House’s Tax Blink

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal’s Potomac Watch column, Kimberly A. Strassel writes that the president may be getting serious about striking a deal with Republicans.”

How to Shrink the Deficit

online.wsj.com

“The Wall Street Journal writes that President Obama’s deficit commission lands with a predictable political thud.”

Time to Shut Down the FCC

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Andy Kessler writes that more transistors exist today than ever and there is plenty of capacity inside fiber-optic cables and out in the air. What’s missing is competition for consumers.”

Why Do We Have a Central Bank?

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Gerald P. O’Driscoll Jr., a former Federal Reserve Bank vice chairman, writes that ordinary citizens will increasingly ask that question if the Fed keeps acting as an unelected fiscal authority.”

8th Grade Exam

moreheadstate.edu

“This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 from Salina, KS. USA. It was taken from the original document on file at the Smoky Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina, KS and reprinted by the Salina Journal.”

Fed Aid in Financial Crisis Went Beyond U.S. Banks to Industry, Foreign Firms

TheFiscalTimes.com

“The financial crisis stretched even farther across the economy than many had realized, as new disclosures show the Federal Reserve rushed trillions of dollars in emergency aid not just to Wall Street but also to motorcycle makers, telecom firms and foreign-owned banks in 2008 and 2009.”

HEARD ON THE STREET: Moral Hazard, Thy Price Is $3.3 Trillion

online.wsj.com

“Sunshine doesn’t hurt after all. Bank shares leapt Wednesday despite the Federal Reserve’s detailed disclosure of who got $3.3 trillion of emergency lending during the crisis.”

Refocus The Fed On Price Stability Instead Of Bailing Out Fiscal Policy

investors.com

“The Federal Reserve’s recent announcement that it will purchase $600 billion in Treasury securities has ignited a firestorm of criticism, opening a much-needed debate over the central bank’s proper role in economic policy decisions.”

‘Contagion’ and Other Euro Myths

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, University of Chicago Professor John C. Cochrane writes that restructuring short-term debt as long-term debt—which is what default really means—would hardly be the end of the world.”

WikiLeaks R Us

online.wsj.com

“Daniel Henninger writes in The Wall Street Journal that we can’t put the Internet genie back in the bottle.”

The Politics and Economics Of a U.S. Debt Default

realclearmarkets.com

“With federal spending in the United States rising to record levels in nominal terms, not to mention as a percentage of GDP, there’s a growing amount of commentary suggesting that the U.S. government is bankrupt, and that it will eventually default on its growing debt.”

The Rational War on Fat

freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com

“Is it likely that we’ll follow the perfectly rational incentives designed by benevolent governmental guardians to reduce obesity? Fat chance.”

Tax Increases and Behavioral Responses

economics21.org

“Both sides have largely dodged the issue of how high-income households would respond to these tax hikes. If there is a strong connection between taxes and behavior, then there may be a high price in failing to extend the Bush tax cuts for high-income taxpayers. A body of academic evidence suggests this is in fact the case.”