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

Charles Krauthammer – Massacre, followed by libel

washingtonpost.com

“Don’t link the Tucson tragedy to a ‘climate of hate’; Loughner has a clinical disorder.”

The Market Flashes ‘Caution’ on U.S. Treasurys

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Neel Kashkari and Steve Rodosky write that the forward five-year annual inflation rate has increased 94 basis points to 2.90%, which is now above policy makers’ unofficial target of 2%.”

Obama Rises to the Challenge

online.wsj.com

“He sounded like the president, not a denizen of the faculty lounge, writes Peggy Noonan.”

Wisconsin 1, Illinois 0

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Potomac Watch columnist Kimberley A. Strassel writes that with Springfield raising taxes amidst its fiscal disaster, the new Republican governor of the Badger State is telling Illinoisans, Escape to Wisconsin.”

The Jared Loughner Problem

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Business World columnist Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. says that remedies exist short of locking up troubled people based on their personalities.”

A Price for Raising the Debt Ceiling

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Arthur B. Laffer writes that Republicans should attach provisions repealing the worst aspects of ObamaCare and financial reform to spending that the president absolutely needs.”

Why the Left Lost It

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Wonder Land columnist Daniel Henninger writes that the accusation that the tea parties were linked to the Tucson murders is the product of calculation and genuine belief.”

Illinois’s Tax Increase Has Business Fuming, Neighbors Courting

online.wsj.com

Sadly, the land of Lincoln (my home state) has become the US equivalent of Greece in terms of its current fiscal situation! “As Illinois raised its corporate-tax rate to 7% from 4.8%, governors of some nearby states said they would woo the state’s businesses.”

S&P, Moody’s Warn On U.S. Credit Rating

online.wsj.com

Apparently money doesn’t grown on trees after all!  “Two leading credit rating agencies cautioned the U.S. on its credit rating, expressing concern over a deteriorating fiscal situation that they say needs correction.”

The U.S. Loses Ground on Economic Freedom

online.wsj.com

“The world is resuming its trend toward more freedom, but those who fear the U.S. is falling behind the dynamic economies of Asia have cause for concern, Terry Miller writes in The Wall Street Journal.”

The Jared Loughner Problem

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Business World columnist Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. says that remedies exist short of locking up troubled people based on their personalities.”

A Predictable Tragedy in Arizona

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Dr. E. Fuller Torrey writes that starting in the 1960s, we emptied state mental hospitals without providing adequate treatment alternatives.”

George F. Will – The charlatans’ response to the Tucson tragedy

washingtonpost.com

“Half-baked sociology ties conservatism to violence.”

Obamacare Deficit Debate is a Red Herring

blogs.forbes.com

“The law is only deficit neutral because of the inclusion of the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports program.”

Jockeying for Position: Strategic High School Choice Under Texas’ Top Ten Percent Plan

papers.nber.org

Unintended Consequences: This new NBER paper documents that high school students have responded, gaming the system by choosing high schools with lower performing peers as a way to get into the top 10%. The authors note, “The net effect of strategic behavior is to slightly decrease minority students’ representation in the pool.”

Junk Science Isn’t a Victimless Crime

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Dr. Paul A. Offit of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia writes that vaccines don’t cause autism—and there was never any proof that they do. Too bad kids had to die while we figured that out.”

In Budget Crises, an Opening for School Reform

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Michelle Rhee, former chancellor of the Washington, D.C., school system and the founder of StudentsFirst, writes that school systems can put students first by making sure any layoffs account for teacher quality, not seniority.”

The Politicized Mind

nytimes.com

“The political opportunism occasioned by the Tucson massacre has ranged from the irrelevant to the irresponsible, all while we ignore the most productive questions.”

If You Can’t Stand the Heat . . .

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, John Steele Gordon offers a short history of heated political rhetoric in the U.S. He writes that Harry Truman would have had little patience for the notion that caustic political rhetoric causes murder—an argument pundits are currently making about the murders in Tucson.”

Traditional Bookstores are Doomed

advancingafreesociety.org

“The traditional bookstore is doomed by e-readers and online sales of hard copy books.”

Economic Principals

economicprincipals.com

“Perhaps this year the event acquired a name that at last will stick. The World Financial Crisis? The Great Recession? Why not call it The Long Slump, said Robert Hall, of Stanford University, in his presidential address at the meeting here of the American Economic Association… This slump, which began in the autumn of 2007, is expected to last most of a decade… before the unemployment rate returns to its post-World War II trend.”

Is Groupon Good for Retailers? — HBS Working Knowledge

hbs.edu

“For retailers offering deals through the wildly popular online start-up Groupon, does the one-day publicity compensate for the deep hit to profit margins? A new working paper, To Groupon or Not to Groupon, sets out to help small businesses decide.”

The Hateful Left

city-journal.org

“Where incendiary political rhetoric truly resides in America.”

United in Horror

nytimes.com

“Violence in American politics tends to bubble up from a world that’s far stranger than any Glenn Beck monologue.”

AAMC Releases New Physician Shortage Estimates Post-Reform

aamc.org

“The AAMC Center for Workforce Studies has released new physician shortage estimates that, beginning in 2015, are 50 percent worse than originally anticipated prior to health care reform.”

Capitalism’s comeback

opinion.financialpost.com

“It’s up to free markets and the private sector to bail us out of the mess The spirit of capitalism, supposedly killed off in the wake of the financial crisis, is sweeping the world’s economies. From Obama’s new White House to the Las Vegas computer show to the international auto industry and beyond, business is making a comeback and the essence of free markets — competition — is ripping through the global economic system.”