Assorted Links (6/21/2011)

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

Adam Smith: An Overview of His Ethical Vision

vimeo.com

“Daniel Klein offers an overview of Adam Smith’s ethical vision. Focusing on Theory of Moral Sentiments, Klein highlights key ideas favoring the equal-equal relationship and minimizing the superior-inferior relationship. Klein highlights Smith’s liberalism, the presumption of liberty. An extension of Theory of Moral Sentiments, Wealth of Nations is Smith’s instruction at the wide “fourth source” of moral approval.”

Is weather becoming more extreme?

www.boston.com

Interesting photo essay about climate change from the Boston Globe’s “Big Picture” website…

Five Lessons for Deficit Busters

professional.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Michael J. Boskin of Stanford University writes that a recent study of successful deficit reductions found they averaged more than $5 in spending cuts for every $1 in tax hikes.

Stephens: A Republican Foreign Policy – WSJ.com

professional.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Global View columnist Bret Stephens writes that credibility—not consensus—should be the GOP’s watchword.

Blue State Schools: The Shame of a Nation

blogs.the-american-interest.com

“When it come to excellence in education, red states rule — at least according to a panel of experts assembled by Tina Brown’s Newsweek. Using a set of indicators ranging from graduation rate to college admissions and SAT scores, the panel reviewed data from high schools all over the country… Three of the nation’s ten best public high schools are in Texas – the no-income tax, right-to-work state that blue model defenders like to characterize as America at its worst.”

Japan: three months after the quake

www.boston.com

Amazing photo essay about the aftermath of the March 2011 Japan earthquakes from the Boston Globe’s “Big Picture” website…

Paul Krugman: The Prophet of Socialism

www.nationalreview.com

Interesting (conservative) assessment of the punditry of Nobel Economics laureate and Princeton economist Paul Krugman – I particularly appreciate Mr. Luskin’s 94 column, 5 year effort called the Krugman Truth Squad (cf. http://www.luskin.net/krugmantruthsquad.pdf)…

Uncertainty Is Not the Problem

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Clifford S. Asness writes that it’s not the policies we don’t know about that are retarding the economy—it’s the bad policies we have.”

Rivkin and Casey: Why ObamaCare Is Losing in the Courts

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey write that the government’s lawyers keep changing their arguments as each one is exposed as constitutionally suspect.”

The Lone Star Jobs Surge

online.wsj.com

“The Wall Street Journal says the Texas model added 37% of all net U.S. jobs since the recovery began.”

Comparing 2011 with 1937

www.advancingafreesociety.org

“In today’s article in Bloomberg View I explore reasons for the current weak recovery, and in particular whether there is an analogy with what happened in the recession of 1937-38 which interrupted the recovery from the Great Depression.”

A Short History of Political Suicide

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, John Steele Gordon writes that Anthony Weiner’s Twitter disaster may well cost him his seat in Congress, but Washington has seen many other sordid meltdowns.”

More Calls for a Drug War Cease-Fire

professional.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Americas columnist Mary Anastasia O’Grady notes that an increasing increasing number of world leaders believe that laws against drug consumption do more harm than good.”

Dr. Kevorkian’s Victims

nytimes.com

Ross Douthat’s article on the so-called “right to die” quite clearly identifies the moral and ethical slippery slope that this concept entails…

Feds to Biotech Firms: Shut Up

professional.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Scott Gottlieb writes that medicine will suffer if Washington controls the flow of scientific information.”

The Real Cost of the Auto Bailouts

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, University of Pennsylvania law professor and bankruptcy expert David Skeel says that the government’s unnecessary disruption of the bankruptcy laws in the reorganization of GM and Chrysler will do long-term damage to the economy.”

The Age of Obama

theblaze.com

“Recessions come and go. Typically we emerge with strong sustained growth. Not this time. Today we learned that employers added the fewest jobs in 8 months. Unemployment jumped back to 9.1 percent – and really, the level is 15.8 percent.”

What Paul Ryan’s Critics Don’t Know About Health Economics

professional.wsj.com

“Stanford University’s Alain Enthoven writes in The Wall Street Journal that a premium-support system would create the right incentives for cost cutting without putting undue burdens on seniors.”

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