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

Moody’s warns Penn State’s bond rating could be downgraded because of sex abuse scandal

www.washingtonpost.com

“A major credit agency warns that Penn State University’s bond rating could be downgraded because of risks to its reputation and finances from a child sex abuse scandal.”

The Bystander Effect at Penn State: Why Some Witnesses to Crime Do Nothing

www.farnamstreetblog.com

“From an interesting article in Time magazine: The grand jury investigation that resulted in 40 counts of child abuse against Penn State’s former defensive coordinator, Jerry Sandusky, has raised profoundly unsettling psychological and moral questions about the actions — or lack thereof — of others involved in the case.”

Generation Jobless: What Hedge Funds Can Teach College Students

professional.wsj.com

“Investors who analyze the student loan market have surprising insights into college graduates’ employment prospects. Tip No. 1: Don’t go to law school.” Quoting further from this article, “Historically, investors have assumed 25% to 30% of student loans bundled into their bonds will default. But today they are baking in between 30% and 40% default rates among the current crop of graduates …Even those assumptions are a best guess and defaults could ultimately go higher if unemployment rises.” On a related note, see http://www.finaid.org/loans/studentloandebtclock.phtml for the “Student Loan Debt Clock” (which is closing in on $1 trillion)…

No Business for Old Men

professional.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Business World columnist Holman Jenkins writes that the downside of longevity gets a workout at Penn State and Olympus.” Comparing governance (non)practices at places like Penn State and Olympus with most of the rest of the “real” world, Mr. Jenkins makes a compelling argument in favor of “…relying more upon impersonal mechanisms of accountability that actually reinforce the desired behavior, rather than simply demanding it from a pulpit.”

Happy Valley Now the Heart of Darkness

www.commentarymagazine.com

“A firestorm has engulfed what was once a great university — and in the process it has destroyed the reputation of a great coach.”

Pipeline decision signals U.S. not open for business

www.calgaryherald.com

“So much for the U.S. being the bastion of free enterprise and respecting due process.”

The Government and the Guitar Man

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Nancy deWolf Smith interviews Henry Juszkiewicz, as the guitar maker for the stars talks about making instruments, why audio equipment isn’t dead, and watching federal agents storm his office.”

The unions are the worst thing that ever happened to education

www.farnamstreetblog.com

According to Steve Jobs, “I’d like the people teaching my kids to be good enough that they could get a job at the company I work for, making a hundred thousand dollars a year. Why should they work at a school for thirty-five to forty thousand dollars if they could get a job here at a hundred thousand dollars a year?”

The Undeserving One Percent? – Raghuram Rajan

www.project-syndicate.org

“Reading some economists, it might seem that the answer to all current problems is to tax the richest 1% and redistribute to everyone else. But if governments tax their rich more, they should do it with the aim of improving access and opportunity for all, rather than as a punitive measure to rectify an imagined wrong.”

The 2011 elections: A split decision

www.washingtonpost.com

“Between now and 2012, things can go either way.”

Social Order? There’s No App for That – Forbes

www.forbes.com

“There is, however, the market process.”

Taxing Stock Trades Will Hurt Main Street

professional.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Yakov Amihud and Haim Mendelson say that a securities transaction tax will drive down stock and bond prices and hurt investment.” Professors Amihud and Mendelson are bona fide experts on “market microstructure” (cf. http://bit.ly/txDXoM), having worked for the past quarter century writing seminal journal articles in this area, so their opinion actually does matter…

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

Students Pick Easier Majors Despite Less Pay

online.wsj.com

“College students continue to gravitate toward liberal-arts majors despite better pay prospects for those who study engineering, science and math—disciplines deemed too rigorous for many.”

Toll on Parents When Kids Return Home

online.wsj.com

“Many young adults find themselves still tethered to the Bank of Mom and Dad and living at home, and that dependence is taking a toll.”

Intrade – Rick Perry to be Republican Presidential Nominee in 2012 is 5.0% probable

www.intrade.com

Last night’s GOP debate apparently has resulted in a major sell-off of Perry for president futures contracts, which now indicate only a 5% chance of winning the GOP presidential nomination…

Want to Make a Banker s Day? Yank Your Deposits

www.americanbanker.com

“There’s bad news for those who withdrew funds on Bank Transfer Day to punish the targets of their ire. Most banks don t really need their money — at least not right now.” Tip of the hat to my Baylor colleague David VanHoose for pointing this article out to me – this is quite ironic indeed!

I Was Wrong, and So Are You

www.theatlantic.com

“A libertarian economist retracts a swipe at the left—after discovering that our political leanings leave us more biased than we think.” Dan Klein on the importance of avoiding confirmation bias and groupthink…

Three Cheers for Income Inequality

www.hoover.org

Excellent essay by NYU law professor Richard Epstein; see http://wp.me/pBo4U-sq for a proof in support of professor Epstein’s thesis…

Higher Education Tip-Toes Toward Real Reform?

blogs.the-american-interest.com

“Could the growing crisis in American academia be eliciting some smart thinking from the inside? Maybe so.”

Ditching the Ivy League

blogs.the-american-interest.com

“According to the Wall Street Journal, the rising cost of a college education and the impact of the recession is causing even wealthy, affluent students to consider state and local schools over their more prestigious and expensive competition.”

The Public-Union Albatross

professional.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Philip K. Howard examines what it means when 90% of an agency’s workers retire with disability benefits.”

The Realtor Subsidy – WSJ.com

professional.wsj.com

“The Wall Street Journal highlights crony capitalism on parade, featuring the National Association of Realtors lobbying for higher limits on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loan guarantees.”

132 American Economists Say GOP Jobs Strategy Better Than “Stimulus” for Job Creation in Both Short-

www.speaker.gov

131 of my closest American economist friends and I agree on this!…

Mario Vargas Llosa: Literature and the Search for Liberty – WSJ.com

professional.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa writes that what is lost on collectivists is the prime importance of individual freedom for societies to flourish and economies to thrive.”

Student Body Left

professional.wsj.com

“The Wall Street Journal writes that the President wants everyone in college on Uncle Sam’s dime.”

Bloomberg’s Broken Windows

professional.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Main Street columnist William McGurn revisits the broken windows theory and writes that progressive mayors who tolerate lawlessness by Occupy Wall Street protesters are ruining their cities.”

Public School Teachers Aren’t Underpaid

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Andrew Biggs of the American Enterprise Institute and Jason Richwine of Heritage Foundation present research suggesting that overall public school teacher compensation is about 52% higher than teachers could earn in private business.”

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

Cadillac Pay in the Land of Lincoln

www.american.com

“Illinois public employees likely receive a significant pay premium over similar private sector workers.”

Occupy Wall Street Faces a Winter of Discontent

www.american.com

“When a vehicle parked at Wall and Broad Streets exploded, it was a deliberate attempt at mass murder. The year was 1920. Historian John Steele Gordon looks at anti-capitalist sentiment through the ages.”

Best College Majors for a Career

graphicsweb.wsj.com

“Choosing the right college major can make a big difference in students’ career prospects, in terms of employment and pay. Here’s a look at how various college majors fare in the job market, based on 2010 Census data.”

The Infrastructure Death Rattle

thinkmarkets.wordpress.com

“The incessant discussion and demand for job-creating infrastructure spending on the part of the news media, Democratic politicians, and some unreconstructed Keynesian economists is both frustrating and pathetic. It is frustrating because how many times can people repeat the same thing without listening to the objections? It is pathetic because the level of understanding is akin to pre-Newtonian physics.”

The top 1% on EconTalk

cafehayek.com

“This week’s EconTalk guest is Steven Kaplan talking about the top 1%. He and c0-author Joshua Rauh gathered as much data as they could about the composition of the top 1%. They get all of the CEO’s of publicly-traded companies, the richest hedge fund managers, Wall Street execs, athletes, celebrities and some lawyers. They miss some lawyers, some celebs, execs and owners of privately-held companies. Kaplan argues that the richest Americans today are richer than the richest Americans of the past is because of globalization (scale to use one’s talents) and technology.”

Not From The Onion

marginalrevolution.com

“Here’s an astounding illustration of my argument that “American students are not studying the fields with the greatest economic potential.””  According to this article, the financial returns to graduate school puppetry studies just aren’t there…

Conservatives and Social Justice

www.thepublicdiscourse.com

Market economies, free enterprise, and private property are important, and so their defense is also important. But as important as these ideas and institutions are, they aren’t enough for a complete account of the rights and duties in the economic sphere of our lives. Nevertheless, many conservative…

After student complaints, Utah professor denied job | Inside Higher Ed

www.insidehighered.com

“Some students didn’t take well to Steven Maranville’s teaching style at Utah Valley University. They complained that in the professor’s “capstone” business course, he asked them questions in class even when they didn’t raise their hands. They also didn’t like it when he made them work in teams.”

Capitalism can’t just be about money

timharford.com

Tim Harford takes on OWS…

The riddle of experience vs. memory

www.farnamstreetblog.com

“Using examples from vacations to colonoscopies, Nobel laureate and founder of behavioral economics Daniel Kahneman reveals how our “experiencing selves” and our “remembering selves” perceive happiness differently. This new insight has profound implications for economics, public policy — and our own and our own self-awareness.”

Money Made Simple

www.youtube.com

This is a series of excellent, very short videos that clearly explain basic economics and finance concepts!

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

You Want More Equality? Support More Capitalism

townhall.com

“A person can’t go but a few clicks on the Internet these days without tripping over some shocking item about the “explosion” of income inequality that has, like the dark smog of capitalistic excess, been choking the life out of this unjust nation.”

Hooray, a Financial Firm Fails!

professional.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Business World columnist Holman Jenkins writes about the failure of Jon Corzine’s MF Global company.”

Who Lost Iraq?

www.nationalreview.com

“Charles Krauthammer writes on NRO: Barack Obama was a principled opponent of the Iraq War from its beginning. But when he became president in January 2009, he was handed a war that was won …Obama was left with but a single task: Negotiate a new status-of-forces agreement (SOFA) to reinforce these gains and create a strategic partnership with the Arab world’s only democracy. He blew it. Negotiations, such as they were, finally collapsed last month. There is no agreement, no partnership. As of December 31, the American military presence in Iraq will be liquidated.”

Freakonomics » The Academic Origins of China’s One Child Policy

www.freakonomics.com

“In our latest Freakonomics Radio podcast, “Misadventures in Baby-Making,” we describe an academic paper by a Dutch mathematics professor that might have been one of the inspirations of the controversial One Child Policy in China.” This is very tragic indeed… The podcast that accompanies this article also explains, among other things, how China’s so-called “one child policy” has given rise to severe gender imbalances in some parts of China (note: this is basically a euphemism for wide-scale sex-selection abortion)…

Occupy, the Tea Party and Media Bias

www.commentarymagazine.com

Media bias: coverage of the Tea Party Movement versus the coverage of OWS

What’s the Matter With Oakland?

www.theatlantic.com

The ever insightful Meghan McArdle hits the nail on the head about the whole OWS “movement”…

Iniquity, Irresponsibility, and/or Incentives?

www.forbes.com

“What’s behind the recession and slow recovery?”

The Shale Gas Revolution

www.nytimes.com

“The United States seems to possess a 100-year supply of natural gas, a cleaner, cheaper energy source than other fossil fuels. Will America blow this blessing?”

The GOP Candidates Square Off on Taxes

professional.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Stanford economist Michael J. Boskin writes that Republican tax proposals range from modest to bold. All include lower rates, which will stimulate growth.” Here are some interesting facts from this article: “the U.S. already has the most progressive tax system in the 34-member Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The top 1% of taxpayers, with 20% of income, pay 38% of income taxes, whereas 51% of Americans pay none. The U.S. has the second-highest corporate income tax rate (35% federal plus 4% average state) of any advanced economy.”

Obama’s Perplexing Populism

professional.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, George Melloan writes that inflation hits lower-income people especially hard. So why is the president ignoring rising food prices?”

The Churches of Cain and Obama

professional.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal’s Houses of Worship column, Bishop Harry Jackson writes that theological differences between the two yield different understandings of the path to economic advancement.”

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

What to Do with Super-Achievers?

www.american.com

“Society is better off when super-achievers do their striving within the private sector rather than in government.”

No Lehman on the Aegean

www.american.com

“Can we be spared a Lehman-style crisis when Greece’s hard default occurs?”

Student Loans for Dummies

www.american.com

“Accumulated student loan debt now totals $1 trillion. The Super Committee should fix the student loan program by requiring evidence of ability to repay guaranteed loans.”

Obama’s Weakness in Historical Context

www.american.com

“On a variety of indicators, President Obama has far more in common with incumbent presidents who lost their bid for reelection than with those who won.”

Obama’s Biggest Problem: Europe, Not GOP

blogs.the-american-interest.com

“The more one sees of the Republican field, the more it seems clear that President Obama’s biggest problems do not come from his domestic opponents.  The more voters, even Republican voters, learn about the candidates jostling for the party’s nod, the less they like them. The more the President’s opponents campaign, the stronger the White House becomes. The primaries and caucuses that really worry the White House are happening in Europe.  Elections in Greece and caucuses in Brussels at this point will do more to determine the President’s fate in 2012 than anything that happens in Iowa or New Hampshire.”

Why We Can’t Escape the Eurocrisis

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Gerald P. O’Driscoll Jr. writes that the overwhelming debt problems on either side of the Atlantic are interlinked through the banking system.”

Cooking the Books on Grandma’s Health Care

professional.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Betsy McCaughey writes that Medicare patients who get less care have a higher risk of dying—so don’t believe the hype that implies otherwise.”

A Slow-Growth America Can’t Lead the World

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Stanford University economist John B. Taylor writes that after World War II, the U.S. promoted international economic growth through reliance on the market and the incentives it provides. Times have changed.”

JoePa gets record in 10-7 win against Illinois

www.deseretnews.com

“Joe Paterno broke Eddie Robinson’s record for victories by a Division I coach with No. 409 in Penn State’s sloppy 10-7 win against Illinois.” Joe Paterno is a class act – when asked how he felt about eclipsing (Grambling coach) Eddie Robinson’s record previous NCAA Division 1 lifetime record of 408 wins (the win over Illinois this weekend is his 409th), here’s what JoePa said: “It really is something I’ve very proud of, to be associated with Eddie Robinson.”

Luck Is Just the Spark for Business Giants

www.nytimes.com

“Bill Gates and other hugely successful entrepreneurs may have had good fortune in their lives, but they knew how to turn those lucky breaks into life-changing events.”

Euro Crisis — Doubting the ‘Domino’ Effect

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Stanford University’s Edward P. Lazear writes that preventing a Greek default will not reverse the lackluster growth that has plagued the other vulnerable euro-zone countries for many years now.”

What Business Wants from Washington

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Boeing CEO Jim McNerney discusses the super committee’s deliberations and the need to restore confidence in the business community that Washington can lead.”

Steve Jobs’s Advice for Obama

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Information Age columnist Gordon Crovitz notes that Steve Jobs’s ideas on how to bring manufacturing jobs to America were ignored by President Obama.”

What Tax Dollars Can’t Buy

www.nytimes.com

“Soaking the rich can’t fix a broken government.”

The Divider vs. the Thinker

online.wsj.com

“While Obama readies an ugly campaign, Paul Ryan gives a serious account of what ails America, Peggy Noonan writes.”

The Inversion of America’s Dominant Ideology

blog.independent.org

“According to an ABC News report last week, At a million-dollar San Francisco fundraiser, …President Obama warned his recession-battered supporters that if he loses the 2012 election it could herald a new, painful era of self-reliance in America.” Sounds good to me!

Economist Kevin Murphy Talks NBA Lockout Negotiations

www.freakonomics.com

“We’ve written a lot about University of Chicago economist Kevin Murphy. He teaches at the Becker Center on Chicago Price Theory, where Steve Levitt is the director. Murphy was a MacArthur Genius Fellow back in 2005, and Levitt readily admits that Murphy is the smartest person he knows.”

Can you be a little less specific?

timharford.com

“Can you be a little less specific? …Game theorists are beginning to produce rational models of deliberate vagueness.”

How the Death Tax Hurts the Poor

professional.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, economist Steven E. Landsburg says the death tax encourages the rich to pick extra fruit, leaving the trees a little barer for the rest of us.”

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

World on Wi-Fire – Niall Ferguson

www.niallferguson.com

Hat tip to my friend Ken Coffel for pointing out this excellent article written by Harvard historian Niall Ferguson…

My challenge to Paul Krugman

cafehayek.com

Wonderful essay by George Mason University economist Russ Roberts on the differences between being a truth-seeker and an ideologue. The primary application pertains to economics, but Professor Roberts’ ideas are applicable to a wide range of topics which encompass our worldviews…

Does U.S. Economic Inequality Have a Good Side?

video.pbs.org

This PBS interview of NYU law professor Richard Epstein on the economics of income inequality is superb and well worth the 9 minutes you’ll spend watching it…

Are Firms Responsible for Creating Jobs?

online.wsj.com

This is an intriguing essay which addresses the concept of “corporate social responsibility” through a number of different lenses. The referenced Friedman 1970 New York Times Magazine article is available at http://bit.ly/112BM, and the 2005 Reason Magazine debate between Friedman and Whole Foods CEO John Mackey is available at http://bit.ly/bruk9T.

Review & Outlook

professional.wsj.com

“European deal has something for everyone, except the real problem, The Wall Street Journal writes in an editorial.”

Allan H. Meltzer: Four Reasons Keynesians Keep Getting It Wrong

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Allan Meltzer writes that concern over future tax rates is one of the main reasons for reduced investor confidence.”

Facebook Popularity Tied to Brain Size – Video

www.bloomberg.com

“Bloomberg’s Shannon Pettypiece reports on the effect the amount of Facebook friends has on the brain.” Really??? I can’t help but wonder how much grant money this academic research received, and what the sources of funding are…

Does Government Spending Stimulate Private Activity

weber.ucsd.edu

In her working paper entitled “Does Government Spending Stimulate Private Activity” (see http://bit.ly/uHS9m6), UCSD economist Valerie Ramey finds that “…in most cases private spending falls significantly in response to an increase in government spending …increases in government spending do lower unemployment …virtually all of the effect is through an increase in government employment, not private employment. See http://bit.ly/owGd8C for an hourlong interview of this and other related research.

Charles Calomiris: The Mortgage Crisis—Some Inside Views

professional.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Charles Calomiris writes that insider emails show that risk managers at Freddie Mac warned about lower underwriting standards—in vain, and with lessons for today.”

Henninger: Our Un-Presidential Debates

professional.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Wonder Land columnist Daniel Henninger writes that Michael Vick went to prison for staging dogfights, but for presidential debates, it’s legal.”

Crony Capitalism Comes Homes

www.nytimes.com

I don’t often agree with New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, but I think he may be onto something here…

Robert A. Sirico: The Vatican’s Monetary Wisdom

professional.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Father Robert A. Sirico writes that the Vatican understands that more than just ‘greed,’ fiat money and central-bank policies caused the financial crisis.” Excellent critique of the Vatican’s recently released report entitled “Toward Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of a Global Public Authority”…

Wendy Huanjie Wang: Employment and the Captaincy of Your Soul

professional.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Wendy Huanjie Wang writes that it’s a dog’s life for job seekers these days.”

Review & Outlook: Remedial Economics

professional.wsj.com

“The Wall Street Journal says the ‘Occupy’ folks learn the limits of wealth redistribution.”

Malcolm Gladwell: The strange tale of the Norden bombsight

www.ted.com

“TED Talks Master storyteller Malcolm Gladwell tells the tale of the Norden bombsight, a groundbreaking piece of World War II technology with a deeply unexpected result.”

Why we need more capitalism, not less

globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com

“The economist Milton Friedman liked to point out that capitalism is a profit-and-loss system. Profits encourage risk-taking. Losses encourage prudence, which is just as important. Over the last 25 years, however, government policy has been laissez-faire when it comes to profits, and socialist when it comes to creditor losses. That is a very destructive cocktail. It has encouraged imprudent risk-taking financed with large amounts of borrowed money. When you subsidize recklessness, you unsurprisingly get a lot more of it.”

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

Democracy is SO inconvenient

www.advancingafreesociety.org

“Democracy is so inconvenient when your party controls the Presidency and the opposition can block your legislative agenda.”

David Malpass: How the Euro Zone Can Restore Confidence – WSJ.com

professional.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, David Malpass writes that investors are looking for a home for trillions in idle Federal Reserve-generated dollars, and a little reform in Europe might attract them.”

Vatican Calls for Global Oversight of the Economy

www.nytimes.com

“Citing the need for democratic and ethical principles in the marketplace, Roman Catholic Church officials suggestion the creation of a supranational economic authority.”

Time Use During Recessions

papers.nber.org

The NBER working paper “Time Use during Recessions” …” investigate(s) what activities occupy household members’ time when they are unable to find work as a result of an economic downturn …roughly 30 to 40 percent of the “extra” nonworking hours associated with unemployment go to working in the home, … 30 percent – goes to sleeping longer and to watching television …searching for another job …takes up only about 1 percent of the extra hours.”

Occupy Wall Street and Washington’s History of Financial Bailouts

www.advancingafreesociety.org

“Occupy Wall Street reminds me of a doctor who sees a patient with a broken arm, decides that both arms are broken, and proceeds to amputate them: The diagnosis is half right, and the cure may be worse than the disease.”

The Fighter Fallacy

www.nytimes.com

“President Obama’s current campaign strategy totally misreads the country.”

Martin Feldstein: The Tax Reform Evidence From 1986

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Harvard economist Martin Feldstein writes that experience implies that the combination of tax-base broadening and tax-rate reduction would raise revenue equal to about 4% of existing tax revenue.”

Notable & Quotable – WSJ.com

professional.wsj.com

“Steve Malanga writing at the Manhattan Institute’s PublicSectorInc.org, Oct. 21, on why public-sector workers report such higher level of work-place injury than their private-sector counterparts.”

How much can the 99 percent squeeze out of the 1 percent?

“Allow me to introduce some real data into a popular sound bite: the bottom 99 percent versus the top 1 percent. Everyone likes a tax paid by someone else…”

The Wild Ride of the Wealthiest 1% – WSJ.com

professional.wsj.com

“The once-stable incomes of America’s biggest earners now fluctuate dramatically from year to year. And as go the rich, so goes much of the economy. Adapted from Robert Frank’s The High-Beta Rich: How the Manic Wealthy Will Take Us to the Next Boom, Bubble and Bust.”

Andy Kessler: In San Francisco, There Are Many Ways to Occupy Wall Street

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal’s Cross Country column, Andy Kessler writes that not all Occupy Wall Street protesters are alike in the Bay Area: One guy says he’s taken the ‘best of social networking and high-frequency trading and built a system that beats those Wall Street thieves at their own game.'”

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

How Steve Jobs Saved the Music Industry

professional.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Ed Nash writes that before Apple’s iTunes, the stealing of MP3 files was rampant and seemingly unstoppable.”

The GOP Wins by Bruising

professional.wsj.com

“The debates have been an unexpected success, Peggy Noonan writes.”

No More Years

professional.wsj.com

“Obama looks increasingly likely to lose, Pete du Pont observes. What then?”

Gadhafi and the Swindle of Dictatorship

professional.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Fouad Ajami writes that we needn’t dispatch our forces to all lands of trouble, but our burden of celebrating liberty on foreign shores endures.”

Who You Are

www.nytimes.com

“As Daniel Kahneman’s next book comes out, let’s reflect on the pioneers who explored and authenticated the flawed terrain of our cognitive faculties.”

The Second Great Contraction: Kenneth Rogoff interview

www.mckinseyquarterly.com

“The economist and coauthor of This Time Is Different explains what history can teach us about the global downturn and why climbing out of it is still rife with risks.”

The GOP and RomneyCare

online.wsj.com

“The Wall Street Journal says the Republican front-runner’s principles should be tested.”

Blame the Fed for the Financial Crisis

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Ron Paul writes that the Federal Reserve prolongs the financial crisis because it fails to grasp that manipulating interest rates is as destructive as any price control.”

Stricter Regulation Driving Expected Increase In Litigation

www.iii.org

“Despite facing slightly less litigation in 2011 than in 2010, businesses in the United States and United Kingdom are seeing more regulatory actions and internal investigations, according to the Eighth Annual Litigation Trends Survey from international law firm Fulbright & Jaworski.”

EU Leak Shows Wind, Solar Energy to Double Power Bills

blogs.the-american-interest.com

“According to a leaked European Commission report on the future of energy in Europe, the slow switch to greener sources of energy is going to push the cost of electricity through the roof.”

Are Employers Requiring People to Work Longer Hours?

economix.blogs.nytimes.com

“With fewer people working and those employed working fewer hours, it’s not surprising at all that the nation’s total hours worked dropped significantly, an economist writes.”

Those Cheating Teachers! A New Freakonomics Marketplace Podcast

www.freakonomics.com

“This year alone has seen teacher-cheating scandals in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Atlanta, and elsewhere; in this week’s Times, Sharon Otterman reports how New York State is trying to curtail cheating and offers some specific instances of past cheating.”

‘Too Big to Fail’ Is Simply Too Big

professional.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Jon Huntsman writes that Dodd-Frank needs to be reformed in order to remove the government’s implicit promise to bail out financial institutions that are deemed too big to fail.”

Cain’s Stimulating ‘9-9-9’ Tax Reform

professional.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Arthur B. Laffer writes that the new sales tax in Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain’s ‘9-9-9’ tax plan could be raised in the future—but so could any other tax, and Cain’s proposal would jump-start the economy.”

Your Cash for Their Clunkers

professional.wsj.com

“The Wall Street Journal says another White House energy favorite hits financial trouble.”

Wi-Fi and the Mobile Meltdown

professional.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Business World columnist Holman Jenkins says that wireless hotspots may be the solution to the problem of a spectrum ‘shortage.'”

Lessons From and For the Class Struggle on Wall Street

www.forbes.com

“There is much to be learned from the Occupiers—and the Occupiers have much to learn …blaming “greed” for economic malaise is like blaming gravity for plane crashes”.

Two Signs that K-12 Education Monopoly is Crumbling

reason.com

“Via Reason Foundation education policy analyst Lisa Snell comes news of two great developments in the liberation of kids (and their parents) trapped in public schools.”

The Great Restoration

www.nytimes.com

“Behind the noise of our activist protest movements hums a quiet engine of determined Americans trying to repair our economic values.”

Obama’s Big Green Mess

www.thedailybeast.com

“How the White House lost its eco-mojo.”

Unions To Wall Street: Die Yuppie Scum, But Do My Homework First

blogs.the-american-interest.com

“Will Wall Street save public sector unions? The U.S. Post Office certainly hopes so. While union representatives were standing at the front door of America’s major banks, shouting about corporate greed and holding signs and blowing horns, the National Association of Letter Carriers chiefs were slipping through the back entrance for advice on restructuring their organization.”

Notable & Quotable

professional.wsj.com

“French economist Frederic Bastiat writing in 1850 on governments justifying spending only based on ‘that which is seen,’ while ignoring ‘that which is not seen.'”

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

What’s an $800 Billion Stimulus Worth?

www.bepress.com

“What’s an $800 billion stimulus worth? Negative $475 billion, according to Burton A. Abrams of the University of Delaware.”

A New Spending Record

online.wsj.com

“The Wall Street Journal says that Washington had its best year ever in fiscal 2011.”

The Euro Crisis—Lessons From Bear Stearns

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, David Skeel writes that Europe can’t afford to bail out Italy, so it might as well send the right message now by forcing Greece to restructure its debt.”

From Tehran to Tijuana

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal’s Global View column, Bret Stephens writes that it’s time to notice Iran’s decades-old infiltration of Latin America.”

The Contradictions of Harold Koh

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Main Street columnist William McGurn writes that the former Yale Law dean who hounded the Bush administration over its interrogation policies is now justifying drone strikes.”

Polling the Occupy Wall Street Crowd

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, pollster Douglas Schoen writes that in interviews, protesters show that they are leftists out of step with most American voters—yet Democrats are embracing them anyway.”

Tim Harford — Innovation works in mysterious ways

timharford.com

“Innovation works in mysterious ways.”

Streetwise Professor » Occupy This

streetwiseprofessor.com

“The Occupy [Insert Location Here] has to be the most inarticulate, inchoate, and incoherent protest movement in history. A decidedly motley collection of progressive types, heavily laden with aging Boomers pining for their Glory Days of the ’60s protests and younger clueless wannabes.”

Notable – WSJ.com

professional.wsj.com

“Mark Steyn writing in the Orange County Register, Oct. 14, on middle-class decline and what Occupy Wall Street protesters expect as their birthright.”

Why block health screening that can raise red flags for cancer, save lives?

Source: statesman.com

“Forty years ago, my mother-in-law learned from a mammogram at age 57 that she had breast cancer. We immediately sought the best available treatment.”

Obama’s latest re-election strategy: Find villains to blame

Source: statesman.com

“Charles Krauthammer hits the nail on the head…”What do you do if you can’t run on your record on 9 percent unemployment, stagnant growth and ruinous deficits as far as the eye can see?””

Occupy Wall Street’s Crony Capitalism

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Information Age columnist Gordon Crovitz explains that political extortion by New York City politicians created Zuccotti Park, and it now allows the protesters to remain there despite the noise, filth and stink.”

Three Policies That Gave Us the Jobs Economy

professional.wsj.com

“Amity Shlaes writes in The Wall Street Journal that over 25 years, Apple and other innovators yielded employment for a whole region, improved our standard of living, and led a national economic boom.”

ObamaCare Starts to Unravel

online.wsj.com

“The Wall Street Journal reports on the real story behind the Class program failure, and what to do now.”

The Exasperation of the Democratic Billionaire

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, James Freeman interviews Mortimer Zuckerman, the real-estate and newspaper mogul who voted for Obama but began seeing trouble as soon as the 2009 stimulus went into the pockets of municipal unions.”

Gas against wind…

www.rationaloptimist.com

Compelling essay by Matt Ridley which makes the case for natural gas versus wind as an energy source. Hat tip to my Baylor colleague, Dave VanHoose, for pointing this article out to me…

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

“But Economics is Not an Experimental Science,” C. Sims (2010)

afinetheorem.wordpress.com

“Christopher Sims, a winner of yesterday’s Nobel, wrote this great little comment in the Journal of Economic Perspectives last year that has been making the blog rounds recently.”

Free market groups: Federal earthquake insurance is a bad idea

outofthestormnews.com

“Should the federal government bail out state run disaster insurance programs? New legislation creating such a bailout is developing in Congress to strengthen earthquake insurance along the west coast.”

Peter Wallison: Wall Street’s Gullible Occupiers

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Peter Wallison says the Occupy Wall Street protesters have been sold a bill of goods—reckless government policies, not private greed, brought about the housing bubble and resulting financial crisis.”

EU: 16 Steps Forward, One Giant Leap Back?

blogs.the-american-interest.com

“We are down to the final 12 speakers of the final parliamentary session before the (hopefully) final and (probably second to the last) vote in the last parliament on the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF), the €440 billion bailout fund to hold the eurozone together.”

Racist Republicans Flocking to Cain

blogs.the-american-interest.com

“Either a lot of Democrats have been slandering millions of American voters as racist, or the Tea Party hasn’t gotten the word that Herman Cain is African American.  That is the only conclusion that can be drawn after a slew of recent polls shows that Cain is picking up the ‘teavangelical’ vote…”

The Milquetoast Radicals

www.nytimes.com

“The Occupy Wall Street movement is playing small ball with false equivalencies.”

Occupied by Government

mises.org

“Many demands are being made, but sadly, if these were ever implemented, they would make problems worse by lowering the standard of living for all — especially for the poor! I will proceed to address some of the demands in plain English, hoping to reach out to them.” (Also see my blog posting “On the Optimality of Inequality” at http://wp.me/pBo4U-sq for a thought experiment which shows that inequality is inevitable in a free society.)

Notable & Quotable – WSJ.com

professional.wsj.com

“President John F. Kennedy on tax cuts in his 1963 State of the Union address.”

David R. Henderson: A Nobel for Non-Keynesians

professional.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, David R. Henderson describes the work of Thomas J. Sargent and Christopher A. Sims, who this week won the Nobel Prize in Economics after careers that demonstrated how people’s expectations about government policy make it difficult for officials to affect the economy…”

Review & Outlook: The Return of Rational Expectations

professional.wsj.com

“The Wall Street Journal writes that Nobel Prize economics winners Thomas Sargent and Christopher Sims are out of step with the Keynesian vogue.”

Nobel for Sargent and Sims — Marginal Revolution

marginalrevolution.com

“The Nobel in Economics goes to Thomas Sargent and Christopher Sims, for empirical macroeconomics.”

The federal family is faltering

www.timesunion.com

“In societies governed by persuasion, politics is mostly talk, so liberals’ impoverishment of their vocabulary matters. Having made federal spending suspect, they advocate “investments” — for “job creation,” a euphemism for stimulus, another word they have made toxic.”

How TV Debates Have Changed the Race

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Fred Barnes notes that televised debates have dominated the GOP primary campaign, giving free publicity to marginal candidates, pitting all candidates against each other, and giving President Obama a pass.”

The Corporate Exec: Hollywood Demon

online.wsj.com

“Edward Jay Epstein writes in The Wall Street Journal that it’s no surprise protesters want to ‘occupy Wall Street,’ as Hollywood’s ubiquitous villains these days aren’t Nazis or Communists but businessmen.”

The Solyndra Economy

online.wsj.com

“The Wall Street Journal writes that Administration emails regarding the federal loan guarantee for the failed solar-panel company reveal the reality of politicized investing.”

Crovitz: Steve Jobs and the Future of Newspapers

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Information Age columnist Gordon Crovitz recalls a conversation with Steve Jobs about newspapers, which he said would soon all be online.”

Wall Street Disgruntled Utopians

www.advancingafreesociety.org

“The Occupy Wall Street protestors are looking more and more like the shock troops of the Democratic Party’s electoral tactic of class warfare.”

Report: Millions of Jobs Heading Home from China

blogs.the-american-interest.com

“Time to pop the champagne? The return of manufacturing jobs from China to the US could generate as many as three million new jobs in the US by 2020, according to a new study by the well-regarded Boston Consulting Group.”

Putin Sees His Moment

blogs.the-american-interest.com

“For the past year, the debt crisis has monopolized Europe’s attention to the extent that many forgot the EU did anything besides argue about debt levels. Apparently many in Europe feel the same way, as efforts to bolster its relationships along its Eastern periphery — once a central focus of EU policy…”

Richard Green on the Mortgage Interest Deduction

econlog.econlib.org

Quoting from Professor Green’s congressional testimony on the mortgage interest deduction, “…the Mortgage Interest Deduction is a residual of the 1913 tax code, accomplishes little that its supporters claim for it, pushes capital away from plant and equipment toward housing, and benefits high income (although perhaps not very high income) households more than the remainder of the country.”