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

Today’s Obama Speech: Nearly as deceitful as it was dull

blog.heartland.org

“Heartland’s Steve Stanek found President Obama’s speech less than inspiring.”

Understanding the President’s New Budget Proposal

KeithHennessey.com

Keith Hennessey breaks it all down for us!

Freakonomics » Clearing Out the “Rubber Rooms”

www.freakonomics.com

“Steven Brill’s excellent 2009 article on New York City’s “Rubber Rooms,” classrooms filled with teachers accused of misconduct or incompetence, provoked understandable outrage at New York’s beat-up school system. Now, two years later, it seems many of these teachers are being returned to the classroom…”

Little Girl Frisked By TSA

thedailybeast.com

“Thought those pesky TSA pat-downs were old news? This video of a six-year-old girl getting frisked has been making waves, rekindling the debate over airport security.”

Back to the Future

professional.wsj.com

“In his first floor speech, Senator Ron Johnson reviews more than a century of bigger government.”

Chicago School Bans Homemade Lunch

thedailybeast.com

“Nobody likes being the kid whose mom packs the worst lunch, but isn’t this taking things a little too far?”

Perry ally pushed reforms at A&M, records show

statesman.com

“The architect of some of Gov. Rick Perry’s higher education reforms has worked closely with Texas A&M University System officials on implementing the controversial recommendations, records obtained under the Texas Public Information Act show.”

The Lessons of Fort Sumter

professional.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Global View columnist Bret Stephens writes that there is no substitute for principled leadership in war.”

There Is No Male-Female Wage Gap

professional.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Carrie Lukas of the Independent Women’s Forum writes that a study of single, childless urban workers between the ages of 22 and 30 found that women earned 8% more than men.”

The Constitution Doesn’t Mention Czars

professional.wsj.com

“George Shultz writes in The Wall Street Journal that unaccountable White House aides are a product of a broken cabinet-nomination process. This is not the form of government the Founders intended.”

We’re in a Bubble and It’s Not the Internet. It’s Higher Education.

techcrunch.com

“Fair warning: This article will piss off a lot of you. I can say that with confidence because it’s about Peter Thiel. And Thiel – the PayPal co-founder, hedge fund manager and venture capitalist – not only has a special talent for making money, he has a special talent for making people furious.”

Obama Is Missing

nytimes.com

“Where’s the Democratic vision on the budget?”  Even Paul Krugman of all people is unhappy about what’s going on these days with the POTUS!

The Fed’s Interest Rate Risk

frbsf.org

“To make financial conditions more supportive of economic growth, the Federal Reserve has purchased large amounts of longer-term securities in recent years. The Fed’s resulting securities portfolio has generated substantial income but may incur financial losses when market interest rates rise.”

April 11: The Most Boring Day in History

freakonomics.com

“Last year, the computer program True Knowledge concluded that the most boring day in human history occurred, 57 years ago today. Using algorithms that used weighted values for more than three million facts including historical events, birthdays of significant people, etc., it determined that April 11, 1954, was really, really uneventful.”

Drivers start to cut back on gas as prices rise

msnbc.com

See http://blog.garven.com/2008/07/10/cross-price-elasticity-of-demand for an interesting assortment of anecdotal evidence concerning the effect of high energy prices on all sorts of different transactions, all noted by Harvard’s Greg Mankiw the last time that we had an oil price shock (in July 2008)…

Fort Sumter: Undermanned, Outgunned, Low on Supplies

online.wsj.com

“When the election in 1860 of Abraham Lincoln, a Republican whose party advocated slavery’s abolition, sparked slave-holding states in the Deep South to secede from the union, many took the forts on their territories with them. By early 1861, rebel forces had seized almost all but two major federal installations: Fort Sumter in Charleston, S.C., harbor and Fort Pickens outside Pensacola, Fla.”

PIMCO Officially Goes SHORT The US Treasury Market

businessinsider.com

PIMCO is betting that prices of US Treasuries will likely fall substantially, and yields rise…

The Auto Bailout and the Rule of Law

www.nationalaffairs.com

GMU Law Professor Todd Zywicki explains how the auto bailout undermined the rule of law and promoted crony capitalism…

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

A New Path

www.american.com

From an American Enterprise Institute speech given by Representative Paul Ryan (R, Wisconsin): “Here’s a budget that affirms our cherished ideals of individual liberty, equal opportunity, entrepreneurship, and self-reliance. These are the ideals that have cultivated the exceptional American character.:

Jenkins, Jr.: The Inflation Solution?

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Business World columnist Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. wonders if the government will actually honor its promises to holders of Treasury inflation-protected securities.”

Paul Ryan: How he used his budget plan to become the most courageous man in Washington.

www.slate.com

“Two products made their debuts in Congress on Tuesday. The first was ” The Path to Prosperity,” House Republicans’ budget resolution for the next fiscal year. The second was the budget’s author: Honest Paul.”

Rembrandt’s Face of Jesus in Philadelphia – artnet Magazine

www.artnet.com

“Rembrandt van Rijn “FACE OF JESUS” IN PHILADELPHIA. Apr. 5, 2011. Portraits of Jesus by Rembrandt van Rijn at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.”

Number of the Week: PCs Make Americans $500 Billion Richer

blogs.wsj.com

“Despite all the wrenching change the computer age has brought, humanity is probably better off than it would have been if the PC had never been invented. Now, economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta have taken a stab at figuring out exactly how much better off we are.”

Intrade – Muammar al-Gaddafi to no longer be leader of Libya before midnight ET 31 Dec 2011 is 77.4%

www.intrade.com

Intrade is “THE Leading Prediction Market. Trade political futures and tap into the wisdom of crowds.”

Fed’s Kocherlakota: Housing’s Reliance on Government Isn’t Sound Strategy

blogs.wsj.com

“A resurgence of private capital is needed to extricate the U.S. housing market from its reliance on government guarantees, a top Fed official said.”

10 Questions for 9/11 Truthers

townhall.com

“You can’t reason someone out of something that he didn’t get into by using reason in the first place. That’s why it’s so difficult to refute conspiracy theories with logic. Take the 9/11 Truthers conspiracy.”

Stanley McChrystal: Listen, learn … then lead | Video on TED.com

www.ted.com

“Four-star general Stanley McChrystal shares what he learned about leadership over his decades in the military. How can you build a sense of shared purpose among people of many ages and skill sets? By listening and learning — and addressing the possibility of failure.”

Paul Ryan: The GOP Path to Prosperity

online.wsj.com

“Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, writes in The Wall Street Journal that the House Republican’s proposed budget cuts $6.2 trillion in spending from the president’s budget over the next 10 years and puts the nation on track to pay off our national debt.”

McGurn: After the Welfare State

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Main Street columnist William McGurn says that Paul Ryan’s new proposals for entitlement reform are a step towards ending middle-class dependence on government programs.”

End It, Don’t Mend It

www.american.com

“Evidence against the Dodd-Frank Act continues to pile up. Now 18 Republican Senators have introduced legislation to repeal the act.”

Moment of Truth

www.nytimes.com

“Paul Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman, has his budget. Where’s yours?”

Why Sit on All that Cash? Firms Uncertain on Cost of Capital (Harvard Business Review Blog)

blogs.hbr.org

Facebook Is the Largest News Organization Ever (Harvard Business Review Blog)

blogs.hbr.org

The G.O.P.’s Empty Stage

www.nytimes.com

“The party’s biggest names are mainly competing to offer excuses for why they aren’t running in 2012.”

Supreme Court Makes a Math Case

online.wsj.com

“The Supreme Court said companies can’t only rely on statistical significance when deciding what they need to disclose to investors, helping a group of mathematicians make their long-held case.”

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

Public Unions–Is California Next?

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal’s Wonder Land column, Daniel Henninger writes that serious Californians, on the right and the left, know how much fiscal trouble they’re in.”

We’ve Become a Nation of Takers, Not Makers

online.wsj.com

“Stephen Moore writes in The Wall Street Journal that more Americans work for the government than in manufacturing, farming, fishing, forestry, mining and utilities combined.”

A Requiem for Detroit

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Main Street columnist Williams McGurn writes that Detroit, a once-great American city, today repels people of talent and ambition.”

Medical Progress, Please

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Business World columnist Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. writes that if the FDA gets out of the way, devices like MelaFind will save many lives.”

What Happened to the American Declaration of War?

www.stratfor.com

“War is a serious matter, and presidents and particularly Congresses should be inconvenienced on the road to war.”

Princeton Professor Gains Cult Status With 3,200 Essays on Facebook

chronicle.com

“Elephant hunters head to Africa. Salmon fishers head to Alaska. Jeff Nunokawa, a professor of English at Princeton University, heads to Facebook.”

In Today’s Market, the Wisdom of Standing Pat

www.businessweek.com

“The market’s drop then gain after Japan’s triple crises shows the stock rally’s resilience and the futility of timing market hiccups.”

Cellphones Track Your Every Move, and You May Not Even Know

www.nytimes.com

“A German Green party politician went to court and found that his cellphone company had recorded and saved his longitude and latitude more than 35,000 times.”

Mike Munger Archives | EconTalk

www.econtalk.org

I highly recommend a series of “conversations” featuring Russ Roberts (economics professor at George Mason University) and Mike Munger (economics professor at Duke); see http://www.econtalk.org/archives/_featuring/mike_munger/. These guys are remarkably skilled at explaining how to “think” like an economist on a wide array of very interesting topics, most of which have important policy implications.

Progressive Gets Leg Up With On-Board Driving Monitor

online.wsj.com

“Progressive has introduced a new type of car insurance that offers a discount to policyholders based on real-time information about how and when they drive.”

Missing: Public Companies

www.cfo.com

“Why is the number of publicly traded companies in the U.S. declining?”

The Problem With Partners

www.nytimes.com

“As we enter Libya’s unknown, we should not react so strongly against unilateralism’s risks that we ignore multilateralism’s weaknesses.”

Reagan’s Legacy and the Current Malaise

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Steve Forbes writes that lower taxes and a strong dollar could spur growth once again.”

Whatever Happened to IPOs?

online.wsj.com

“The Wall Street Journal says you don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure this one out.”

Michigan’s War on the Middle Class

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Main Street columnist William McGurn writes that high taxes and regulation have strangled Michigan’s economy and led to an exodus from the state.”

Uncle Sam and the Hostile Takeover

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Jonathan Macey of Yale Law School says that activist investors should have time to acquire significant stakes in companies they may want to take over and shouldn’t be blocked by incumbent managements.”

Raise Rates to Boost the Economy

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Andy Kessler says the Federal Reserve should raise short-term interest rates to reduce the escalating prices in food, gas and other commodities. This will constitute a de facto price cut for consumers.”

Charles Krauthammer – Et tu, Jack Lew?

www.washingtonpost.com

“The OMB director knows the Social Security trust fund is a fiction.”

Confronting Gadhafi Is Not Enough

online.wsj.com

“Former Prime Minister Tony Blair on a framework for shaping the democratic revolution in Libya and the Middle East.”

Mega-Banks and the Next Financial Crisis

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, James Freeman interviews Paul Singer, the hedge-fund manager who recognized the risks of subprime mortgages and bet against them—and now warns that monetary policy could cripple American banks again.”

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

Evaluating TARP

advancingafreesociety.org

“TARP is not popular with most Americans. Economic evaluations now rolling in support their view, but rather than pointing fingers, it is time to absorb the lessons and take actions to remove the legacy costs and try to end government bailouts as we know them.”

Is the Press Causing More Damage than the Japanese Nuclear Accident Itself?

advancingafreesociety.org

“I have no scientific expertise on nuclear power plants. I followed closely at the time the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 and listened to accounts of a Russian nuclear scientist-friend who worked on the damaged roof of the Chernobyl plant the day after the explosion. He suffered no known health consequences.”

Social Science Palooza II

nytimes.com

“A sampling of recent research tries to understand the ties that bind.”

You Can’t Go Home Again

online.wsj.com

“Peggy Noonan’s lesson from the front: It’s easier to start a war than to finish one.”

John Wilson: What Happened to Heaven and Is Gandhi There?

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, John Wilson writes about a new book stirring debate about the afterlife.”

Progressive Government Is Obsolete

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, New York City Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith says that today’s bureaucratic rules and regulations stifle government workers’ creativity and prevent efficient city government.”

President ‘Present’

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Potomac Watch columnist Kimberley Strassel says Obama is dodging the big decisions to keep his approval ratings up until the 2012 election campaign begins in earnest.”

Millions saved in Japan by good engineering and government building codes

iii.org

“As the devastation in Japan achingly unfolds, it’s easy to learn about the thousands of deaths, the piles of debris, the washed-away homes and think, “Nothing could be worse.””

Why Official Bailouts Tend Not To Work: An Example Motivated by Greece

bepress.com

“Christophe Chamley of Boston University and Brian Pinto of the World Bank use recent events in Greece to illustrate that official bailouts tend not to work when countries have fundamental fiscal (‘insolvency’) problems and construct a two-period numerical example to explain why this should not come as a surprise.”

Deflation Dread Disorder “The CPI is Falling!””

bepress.com

“We’re suffering an epidemic of deflation dread disorder, according to Edward Leamer of UCLA who takes on the New York Times and leading talking heads. Leamer’s contention is that deflation is not so bad and maybe not coming.”

Japan Earthquake: before and after

abc.net.au

“Aerial photos taken over Japan have revealed the scale of devastation across dozens of suburbs and tens of thousands of homes and businesses. Hover over each satellite photo to view the devastation caused by the earthquake and tsunami.”

Spent Fuel Rods at Plant Pose Big Risk

online.wsj.com

“Japan’s nuclear crisis now hangs largely on whether it can get control over the radioactive waste held in pools of water at the troubled Fukushima Daiichi power plant.”

The Collapse of Internationalism

online.wsj.com

“Daniel Henninger writes in The Wall Street Journal that the Obama foreign-policy team is following precisely the agenda it laid out years ago—and is utterly failing its first real-world test in Libya.”

TARP Was No Win for the Taxpayers

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Paul Atkins, Mark McWatters and Kenneth Troske rebut the Treasury Department’s claim that the bank bailouts will return a profit to the taxpayers. Treasury is ignoring the fact that other more costly government programs are enabling the banks to repay their TARP funds.”

Our Anemic Recovery Continues

online.wsj.com

“Mortimer Zuckerman writes in The Wall Street Journal that who can blame consumers for holding back when 50 million Americans depend on taxpayer-supported programs? The modern-day soup line is a check in the mail.”

Freakonomics » Taking a Course From Gary Becker

freakonomics.com

I am DEFINITELY going to “sit in” on Gary Becker’s Econ 343 course on the theory of human capital, “…for which he won the Nobel Prize” (in 1992)…

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

The New Humanism

query.nytimes.com

“We have a prevailing view in our society — not only in the policy world, but in many spheres — that we are divided creatures. Reason, which is trustworthy, is separate from the emotions, which are suspect. Society progresses to the extent that reason can suppress the passions.”

A Red Dixiecrat Dawn?

blogs.the-american-interest.com

“The controversy over the blue social model keeps heating up.  With the controversy over Wisconsin’s restrictions on public employee unions metastasizing from the Madison protests to what increasingly looks like a national political battle, the blue state and red state models of social development and economic governance seem to be at daggers drawn.”

Japan and the Broken Window Fallacy

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, George Melloan writes that, as the French economist Frederic Bastiat once observed, reconstruction activity yields no net gain in a society’s wealth.”

Why North Dakota Is Booming

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Joel Kotkin notes that North Dakota’s energy-based economy is one of the healthiest in the nation, with 3.8% unemployment.”

In Japan, the public bears most of the risk of earthquakes

www.iii.org

“The devastation unfolding in Japan will likely generate the largest insured losses for any earthquake, but by far the biggest part of the tab will fall on the Japanese people.”

Book Review: Peddling Protectionism

online.wsj.com

“James Grant reviews Douglas A. Irwin’s Peddling Protectionism: Smoot-Hawley and the Great Depression.”

Notable & Quotable

online.wsj.com

“Juan Williams on the latest scandal at NPR, his former employer.”

Review & Outlook: President Warren’s Empire

online.wsj.com

“The Wall Street Journal says the consumer finance czar answers to no one and sets her own budget.”

The Future of Nukes, and of Japan

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Business World columnist Holman Jenkins wonders if the world will abandon nuclear energy, the only feasible alternative to fossil fuels.”

Make the Bush Tax Cuts Permanent

online.wsj.com

“…this year the House Republican majority should pass a permanent extension of the Bush tax cuts. Even that is just a beginning. To touch off a boom—and secure a prosperous future for all Americans—what’s really needed are additional, sweeping rate cuts on both individual and corporate income.”

Fukushima a triumph for nuke power: Build more reactors now!

www.theregister.co.uk

“Japan’s nuclear powerplants have performed magnificently in the face of a disaster hugely greater than they were designed to withstand, remaining entirely safe throughout and sustaining only minor damage. The unfolding Fukushima story has enormously strengthened the case for advanced nation – including Japan – to build more nuclear powerplants, in the knowledge that no imaginable disaster can result in serious problems.”

Derivatives, as Accused by Buffett

dealbook.nytimes.com

“Warren Buffett’s comments to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission have been whizzing around e-mail inboxes.”

The Ike Phase

www.nytimes.com

“At a time when urgent action calls, President Obama is choosing prudence. Is this wisdom or passivity?”

Japan Does Not Face Another Chernobyl

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, William Tucker says that the containment structures of Japan’s nuclear reactors appear to be working, and that the latest reactor designs aren’t vulnerable to the coolant problem at issue in Japan.”

Review & Outlook: Nuclear Overreactions

online.wsj.com

“The Wall Street Journal says one lesson of Japan’s earhtquake and nuclear reactor crisis is that modern life requires learning from disasters, not fleeing all risk.”

David Brooks: The social animal | Video on TED.com

www.ted.com

“Tapping into the findings of his latest book, NYTimes columnist David Brooks unpacks new insights into human nature from the cognitive sciences — insights with massive implications for economics and politics as well as our own self-knowledge.”

On the N.C.A.A. Benching of Perry Jones

6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com

“The way the N.C.A.A. dispenses penalties for rules violations is wildly uneven — and this is where the case of a Baylor basketball player becomes baffling.”

Will It Be One-and-Done for Baylor’s Perry Jones?

www.nytimes.com

“When the most-gifted players, like Baylor’s phenom, stay for only one season, it’s hard not to wonder how much college basketball matters.”

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

Massive earthquake hits Japan

www.boston.com

From boston.com’s “Big Picture” website – a remarkable series of 47 photos of yesterday’s earthquake and tsunami in Japan!

The Weekend Interview with James Q. Wilson: The Man Who Defined Deviancy Up

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. interviews James Q. Wilson about why crime has dropped since he first wrote about ‘broken windows’ in 1982.”

Washington’s Dithering on Libya

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Eliot Cohen says that if the Gadhafi regime survives, the Obama administration’s response to the crisis could hurt U.S. foreign policy for years to come.”

A European’s Warning to America

online.wsj.com

“In a Wall Street Journal essay adapted from Encounter Books’ Broadside No. 19, Why America Must Not Follow Europe, Daniel Hannan writes that Americans deserve better than the European model that Barack Obama is trying to implement.”

The Modesty Manifesto

www.nytimes.com

“Americans’ tendency toward overconfidence is corroding our citizenship.”

Ready for Unionized Airport Security?

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Potomac Watch columnist Kimberley Strassel notes how the Obama administration is greasing the wheels for the largest federal union organizing effort in history.”

ObamaCare and the Truth About ‘Cost Shifting’

online.wsj.com

“Economists John Cogan, Glenn Hubbard and Daniel Kessler write in The Wall Street Journal that there’s simply no evidence to support the claim that the insured bear the costs of caring for the uninsured.”

How the market can keep streams flowing

www.ted.com

“With streams and rivers drying up because of over-usage, Rob Harmon has implemented an ingenious market mechanism to bring back the water. Farmers and beer companies find their fates intertwined in the intriguing century-old tale of Prickly Pear Creek.”  Mr. Harmon describes a market-based solution to this environmental problem which represents a very straightforward application of Coase’s Theorem (cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coase_theorem)…

The One That Got Away

online.wsj.com

Former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan disses former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s book entitled “Known and Unknown” (cf. http://amzn.to/e7sG9x). Here’s a quote “It is the great scandal of the wars of the Bush era that the U.S. government failed to get him (bin Laden) and bring him to justice. It is the shame of this book that Don Rumsfeld lacks the brains to see it, or the guts to admit it.”

New York Needs Its Best

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Michelle Rhee says New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo should back legislation to end the rule that teachers must be laid off in order of seniority.”

Why I’m Fighting in Wisconsin

online.wsj.com

“Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker writes in The Wall Street Journal that his state can avoid mass teacher layoffs and reward its best performers, but the state legislature has to act now.”

NPR’s Damning Admission

online.wsj.com

“The latest scandal to tarnish NPR’s image.”

Medicaid Is Worse Than No Coverage at All

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Dr. Scott Gottlieb writes that Medicaid patients often fare worse than those with no insurance at all. So why, he asks, does the president want to shove one in four Americans into the government plan?”

Obama a ‘Radical’? Get Real

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Michael Medved writes that the president isn’t outside the Democratic Party’s mainstream—and Republicans will find him easier to beat once they realize the problem is that mainstream.”

What Price the Cloud?

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Business World columnist Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. says that cheap powerful handheld devices tied to high-speed mobile networks will strain the bandwidth capacity of Internet service providers.”

Why the Big Deal About Consumer Spending?

economix.blogs.nytimes.com

“Keynesian assertions notwithstanding, there is no hard evidence that consumer spending is a driver of economic growth, an economist writes.”

The Euro’s Debatable Future

online.wsj.com

“Europe’s leaders convene in Brussels this week to debate the future of the euro. In The Wall Street Journal, four experts—Barry Eichengreen, Martin Feldstein, Pedro Solbes and Steve H. Hanke—weigh in on the common currency.”

EU bans gender-based insurance rates