Amity Shlaes: How Government Unions Became So Powerful – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Amity Shlaes of the Council on Foreign Relations explains how the American workforce became divided between vulnerable private-sector workers and protected public-sector workers.”

Review & Outlook: Postcard From the NHS – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“The Wall Street Journal on Dr. Berwick’s health-care model at work.”

Is Your University Complying With the New Textbook Law? – NYTimes.com

freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com

“University students are returning to campuses throughout the country. It is a migration that raises my spirits – seeing the energetic, eager faces tackling another course in contracts or intellectual property. But this year something is different. For the first time, a federal law has taken effect which requires “institution[s] of higher education receiving Federal financial assistance” to provide students with information on textbook pricing.”

‘Clunkers,’ a classic government folly

www.boston.com

From the Department of Unintended Consequences: This article from the Boston Globe documents the effect of last fall’s “Cash for Clunkers” program on prices in the used car market today. Apparently used car prices are now higher because “…your Uncle Sam decided last year to destroy hundreds of thousands of perfectly good automobiles as part of its hare-brained Car Allowance Rebate System …or, as most of us called it, Cash for Clunkers. That was the program under which the government paid consumers up to $4,500 when they traded in an old car and bought a new one with better gas mileage. The traded-in cars – which had to be in drivable condition to qualify for the rebate – were then demolished: Dealers were required to chemically wreck each car’s engine, and send the car to be crushed or shredded…In short, Washington spent nearly $3 billion to raise the price of mobility for drivers on a budget.”

What Kinds of Tax Cuts are Best?

jeffreymiron.com

“With just two months until the November elections, the White House is seriously weighing a package of business tax breaks – potentially worth hundreds of billions of dollars – to spur hiring and combat Republican charges that Democratic tax policies hurt small businesses, according to people with knowledge of the deliberations.”

Interest rates and the US housing boom: A call for more research

www.voxeu.org

“The debate over the cause of the US housing boom and bust is far from concluded. This column questions the explanation that low interest rates were a critical factor, arguing that it sits uneasily alongside theories of household behaviour and historical evidence. With the causes remaining uncertain, the authors call for more research in this area.”

A Lifetime of Career Changes – The Numbers Guy – WSJ

blogs.wsj.com

“Though it’s often said that the average American will have seven careers in a lifetime, there is no statistical support for that figure.”

Elaine Chao: Another Unhappy Labor Day – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In the Wall Street Journal, former U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao writes that Americans are aware of the folly of Washington’s economic policies.”

Michael Boskin: Summer of Economic Discontent – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“Stanford University’s Michael Boskin writes in The Wall Street Journal that the Obama administration’s ‘summer of recovery’ has fizzled in almost every way imaginable. The growth rate is less than half what it was at this stage after the 1974-75 and 1981-82 recessions.”

Joe Queenan: Goodbye to the Clichés of Summer – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In the Wall Street Journal, satirist Joe Queenan writes that somewhere among Julius Caesar, Edgar Degas, Lady Godiva and Lady Gaga, the word ‘legacy’ got hijacked.”

Where Columbia Beats Harvard: On the Battlefield of Curricula – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“James Piereson writes on The Wall Street Journal’s Taste page that away from the sports arena, Columbia beats Harvard on the battlefield of curricula. Excerpted from a longer version of his original article in the September issue of The New Criterion.”

Scott Brown: Want Middle East Peace? Deny Iran Nukes – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In the Wall Street Journal, Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts writes that Israeli-Palestinian talks are good, but Tehran’s nuclear drive continues.”

The Small Business Tax Hike and the 97% Fallacy

online.wsj.com

“In the Wall Street Journal, Kevin A. Hassett and Alan D. Viard of the American Enterprise Institute write that the president’s plan to raise top marginal rates is holding back the very people who should be leading the economic recovery.”

Charles Krauthammer – Our distracted commander in chief

www.washingtonpost.com

“Obama sees the war in Afghanistan as an unwanted interference with his true vocation.”

The Mosque’s Lesson on Loyalty

www.thepublicdiscourse.com

“Liberal charges of xenophobia reveal more about those making them than about those at whom they are aimed. This is not to say that those charges are merely cynical, that they are used only as weapons against the left’s political enemies. These charges, though misplaced, are sincerely made. And precisely because of their sincerity they shed light on contemporary liberalism, which is powerfully inclined to see xenophobia where it does not exist—or at least to regard as xenophobic thoughts and actions that most non-liberals regard as normal and just.”

The Generation That Can’t Move On Up: The Growing Gap Between Young Working-Clas

online.wsj.com

“Andrew Cherlin and W. Bradford Wilcox write on the Wall Street Journal Taste page about new statics and surveys that show a widening gap, both economic and social, between young people from working-class families, and the middle class.”

Bret Stephens: The Paula Abdul Theory of Foreign Policy – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In the Wall Street Journal, Global View columnist Bret Stephens writes that self-esteem does not make for good policy (or singers).”

The Costs of War, Continued – NYTimes.com

economix.blogs.nytimes.com

“As the Afghanistan conflict drags on, the costs of expected veterans’ benefits become a smaller fraction of the total cost of the conflict, an economist writes.”

Incentives Work for Pigeons. Can They Motivate American College Students? — The Amer

www.american.com

“How to improve the academic atmosphere of contemporary high schools and colleges.”

How to Tell When a CEO Is Lying – NYTimes.com

freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com

“In a nifty piece of forensic analysis, two researchers claim to have figured out how to tell when executives are lying. David Larcker and Anastasia Zakolyukina analyzed 30,000 conference calls between 2003 and 2007 to see if certain “tells” during the call were associated with earnings that were later “materially restated.”

www.nber.org

Here’s an interesting research paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research which provides a detailed assessment of the extent and nature of the federal subsidy given to state and local governments in the form “Build America Bonds” that were offered as part of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: “In 2009, BABs offered an average yield of 3.69 percent. The federal subsidy brought down the cost of borrowing for states and local governments to 2.32 percent.”

How Dismal is the Fiscal Future For America and Europe? Becker – The Becker-Posner Blog

www.becker-posner-blog.com

Here’s Nobel Laureate Gary Becker’s views on the possibility of a (developed economies) debt crisis: “Posner lays out clearly many of the present and future solvency and default risks to the United States federal government. He bases some of the analysis on a valuable recent Morgan Stanley report with the provocative title “Ask Not Whether Governments Will Default, but How”.”

O’Grady: Kirchner’s Assault on the Press – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In the Wall Street Journal, Americas columnist Mary Anastasia O’Grady writes about the Argentine president’s campaign to silence the country’s two most influential daily newspapers.”

Mark Helprin: The World Trade Center Mosque and the Constitution – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In the Wall Street Journal, Mark Helprin of the Claremont Institute writes that proponents have a right to build the mosque, but no American can be forced to pour concrete or cross a picket line of grieving families.”

Robert Barro: The Folly of Subsidizing Unemployment – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In the Wall Street Journal, the economist Robert Barro of Harvard writes that his calculations suggest the jobless rate could be as low as 6.8%, instead of 9.5%, if the Obama administration hadn’t extended jobless benefits to 99 weeks.”

Paul Rubin: Ten Fallacies About Web Privacy – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In the Wall Street Journal, Paul Rubin of Emory University writes that we are not used to the Internet reality that something can be known and at the same time no person knows it.”

Life-Insurance Coverage Wanes for U.S. Households – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“Nearly a third have no policies, a combination of the financial pressures on middle-income families and a reticence to purchase insurance due to the high cost of some policies and the hardball tactics used by some agents.”

ABREAST OF THE MARKET: The Decline of the P/E Ratio – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“As investors fixate on the global forces whipsawing the markets, one fundamental measure of stock-market value, the price-to-earnings ratio, is quietly shrinking, both in size and importance.”

The Emerging Markets’ Century — The American, A Magazine of Ideas

www.american.com

“Whereas public debt levels in many major industrialized countries will soon exceed 100 percent of GDP, those in the major emerging market economies generally range between 40 to 50 percent of GDP.”

Catholics and the Cosmos: Thinking About Souls and Human Origins, and What Pius XII Said About Evolution

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal’s Houses of Worship column, John Farrell writes about the 60th anniversary of Pope Pius XII’s 1950 encyclical on Christianity and the theory of evolution and asks whether advances in science call for more discussion in the church.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger: Public Pensions and Our Fiscal Future – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger challenges the State Assembly in Sacramento to bring rising pension costs under control.”

The $31 Billion Revenue Fantasy – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“The Wall Street Journal writes that those who make $200,000 a year are 3% of all taxpayers but pay 52% of all income taxes.”

Spreading Hayek, Spurning Keynes – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“Peter J. Boettke is emerging as the intellectual standard-bearer for a revival of the Austrian school of economics.”

We Just Don’t Understand – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“Americans look at the president and see a stranger, writes Peggy Noonan.”

Fiscal policy: Is economics a right-wing conspiracy? | The Economist

www.economist.com

“I’LL admit it, I am ambivalent about whether we need more fiscal stimulus and still think it’s too early to tell how effective the last one was. I dare to voice my concerns and I get labelled “a conservative economist”. But my worries are based on my professional training—my fields were public finance and macro—more than any political agenda.”

An Updated Guide to the EconoTwitterverse – Real Time Economics – WSJ

blogs.wsj.com

” An updated and expanded list of econ-related tweeps, from journalists to economists.”

Peter Berkowitz: The Death of Conservatism Was Greatly Exaggerated – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Peter Berkowitz says that liberals completely misread the election of Obama as the death knell of conservatism. Instead, the president’s progressive agenda has led to a revival of conservatism.”

Charles Krauthammer – The last refuge of a liberal

www.washingtonpost.com

“The only hope for liberals is to play the race card.”

Obama’s Illegal Stem-Cell Policy « Public Discourse

www.thepublicdiscourse.com

“A year and a half ago, when President Obama signed his executive order funding embryo-destructive stem-cell research, I argued in The Weekly Standard that he was perpetuating a needless stem-cell war, that his decision was “bad ethics, bad science, and bad politics.” Add “bad law” to the list.”

Gone 20 years, Stevie Ray Vaughan stands forever tall in Austin

www.austin360.com

“The Austin music community woke up on Aug. 27, 1990 20 years ago today with a piece of its soul gone.”

Michael P. Fleischer: Why I’m Not Hiring – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Michael P. Fleischer writes that punishing tax rates discourage job creation by businesses.”

Book review: The Five-Year Party – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“Melanie Kirkpatrick reviews The Five-Year Party: How Colleges Have Given Up on Educating Your Child and What You Can Do About It.”

Economics One: The Ryan Roadmap versus the Road to Ruin

johnbtaylorsblog.blogspot.com

“There are alternative plans of course, but at the very least the facts shown in these charts demonstrate that the Ryan Roadmap is a big improvement over the road we are on now.”

Review & Outlook: The Taliban Method and the Brutal Murder of Aid Workers – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“A Wall Street Journal editorial says that the murder of 10 aid workers in Afghanistan reveals the brutal nature of our enemy.”

Canada, the Land of Smaller Government – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Jason Clemens says that Canada’s government for the last 20 years has cut taxes and spending. It is emerging out of the recession faster than the U.S.”

Gary Hubbell: The Redneck tree hugger | AspenTimes.com

www.aspentimes.com

“Barack Obama is the best thing that has happened to America in the last 100 years. Truly, he is the savior of America’s future. He is the best thing (read more)…”

Treasury Lover Bets on Disinflation – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“The investment thesis of loyal Treasury-debt buyer Van Hoisington of Hoisington Investment Management cuts to the heart of an important question facing the global economy: Is inflation about to rise or will a chilling deflation take hold?”

Nature or nurture: What determines investor behavior

www.sciencedirect.com

Here’s the abstract from this fascinating article: “Using data on identical and fraternal twins’ complete financial portfolios, we decompose the cross-sectional variation in investor behavior. We find that a genetic factor explains about one-third of the variance in stock market participation and asset allocation. Family environment has an effect on the behavior of young individuals, but this effect is not long-lasting and disappears as an individual gains experience. Frequent contact among twins results in similar investment behavior beyond a genetic factor. Twins who grew up in different environments still display similar investment behavior. Our interpretation of a genetic component of the decision to invest in the stock market is that there are innate differences in factors affecting effective stock market participation costs. We attribute the genetic component of asset allocation—the relative amount invested in equities and the portfolio volatility—to genetic variation in risk preferences.”

Unions and the Obama Administration

www.becker-posner-blog.com

Here’s the latest from Gary S. Becker, 1992 Nobel economics laureate, on the topic of unions and the Obama administration: “Are the Democratic-controlled Congress and President Obama very much pro union? Unquestionably. Do the economic effects of unions on the welfare of workers as a whole justify that union bias? No. Has their pro-union orientation seriously retarded the recovery from the recession? Probably…”

Housing markets: Doomed to repeat history

www.economist.com

“Now, qualified homebuyers in the three states pioneering Affordable Advantage do not need to put down the 3.5 percent minimum down payment required by the Federal Housing Administration, or much of a down payment at all. They can get 100 percent financing — a loan as big as the purchase price of…”

Art Sales Revive From Their Swoon – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“It looks like the art market’s Blue Period is over. A year and a half after art prices plunged, the world’s chief auction houses say they have recaptured much of their pre-recession momentum.”

Daniel Henninger: The Great-Guy Theory of History – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Daniel Henninger writes that Charlie Rangel forgot that America’s voters want more than a great guy.”

GM’s Latest Nemesis: VW – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“Holman Jenkins writes in The Wall Street Journal that the real test will be whether GM can go forward and adapt successfully to a relentlessly competitive market.”

Betsy McCaughey: ObamaCare and the Constitution—An Update – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Betsy McCaughey notes that a federal court has denied the government’s motion to dismiss the challenge to the health reform law. Courts will have to take the arguments against the law more seriously.”

Dorothy Rabinowitz: Liberal Piety and the Memory of 9/11 – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Dorothy Rabinowitz says the enlightened class can’t understand why the public is uneasy about the Ground Zero mosque.”

More U.S. Children Being Diagnosed With Youthful Tendency Disorder

www.theonion.com

“REDLANDS, CA–Nicholas and Beverly Serna’s daughter Caitlin was only four years old, but they already knew there was a problem.

Obamacare Only Looks Worse Upon Further Review: Kevin Hassett

www.bloomberg.com

American Thinker: Paul Krugman Gives Up

Texas: The lone star

www.economist.com

“AMERICA’S recession has been a bad one, but it’s been much worse in some states than in others. The downturn in the West and Midwest has been long and deep. In the plains and on the East Coast, the recession was a bit milder and ended sooner. And among large states, no one matched Texas…”

Paul E. Peterson and Martin R. West: African-Americans for Charter Schools – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Paul E. Peterson and Martin R. West write that new survey data show black support for charters is on the rise. So why is the NAACP opposed?”

Virginia & the ObamaCare Legal Challenge – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“The Wall Street Journal writes that a U.S. district judge rejected the Administration’s argument that one of the key Constitutional challenges should be dismissed outright.”

Bret Stephens: Is Afghanistan Worth It? – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Global View columnist Bret Stephens writes that the U.S. cannot remain a superpower if the suspicion takes root that we are a feckless nation.”

Hurricane Neal: Cat. 5 – Barrons.com

online.barrons.com

“Rep. Richard Neal’s bill has foreign insurance companies worried.”

‘Dilbert’ Cartoonist Puts His Money Into ETFs – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“Scott Adams uses his ‘Dilbert’ strip to mock actively managed funds and their managers.”

Connecticut Probing Pricing of E-Books – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is conducting a preliminary review of digital-book deals between publishers and sellers including Amazon and Apple, noting similarity of prices.” Hmmm… I wonder if this means that the local gas stations are also colluding, since it sure seem (to me anyway) like they also offer their products at very similar prices!

We’re Still #1 (Unfortunately) « Donald Marron

dmarron.com

“The Bureau of Economic Analysis rewrote history on Friday. Along with GDP data for the second quarter, BEA also published revisions to its GDP estimates since the start of 2007…Bottom line: The recession was worse than originally thought. The economy contracted by 4.1% from peak to trough (Q2 2008 to Q2 2009), up from the 3.9% previously estimated. The Great Recession has thus solidified its position as the worst downturn since World War II…”

Report: Unemployment High Because People Keep Blowing Their Job Interviews

theonion.com

“With unemployment at its highest level in decades, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a report Tuesday suggesting the crisis is primarily the result of millions of Americans just completely blowing their job interviews.”

Number of the Week: Default Repercussions – Real Time Economics – WSJ

blogs.wsj.com/economics

“Twenty-five percent of Americans now have a credit score of less than 600. In an economy where credit plays a central role, that presents a significant obstacle to recovery.”

Book review: Higher Education? – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“Mark Bauerlein reviews Higher Education? How Colleges Are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our Kids—and What We Can Do About It, by Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus.”

Paul Rubin: A Gulf Spill Tort Primer and Why BP SHould be Fully Liable – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, economist Paul Rubin explains why BP should be held fully liable for all economic damages.”

Arthur Laffer: The Soak-the-Rich Catch-22 – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“Arthur Laffer, writing in The Wall Street Journal, says few things are so clear in economics as the fact that high tax rates don’t succeed in raising revenue or increasing the burden on the wealthy.”

Crovitz: WikiLeaks and ‘War Crimes’ – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“WikiLeaks.org founder Julian Assange says he wants to protect civilians. In fact he’s endangering them.”

UTIMCO move into gold a warning | Viewpoints, Outlook | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle

www.chron.com

“The Chronicle recently reported that The University of Texas Investment Management Company (UTIMCO) invested $500 million in gold. Normally, it’s not significant news when UTIMCO allocates 3 percent of its portfolio to a particular investment, but this particular investment decision was widely reported…”

Sand Drawings :: Jim Denevan

blog.2modern.com

“Jim Denevan is an artist based out of Santa Cruz, California who travels the globe creating large scale pieces of land art. Drawn on sand, earth, and ice, these incredible works of art are both created and destroyed by the very materials that enable their existence.”

Obama Declares Auto Bailout a Success – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“The president said last year’s $60 billion rescue of GM and Chrysler saved an estimated one million jobs… Alan Blinder of Princeton University and Mark Zandi of Moody’s, estimated that the rescue of GM during by the Bush and Obama administrations ultimately will cost taxpayers about $29 billion. They said the ultimate cost of helping Chrysler will come to $8 billion.”

If the Blinder/Zandi estimates are reasonably accurate, and if we take President Obama at his word (notwithstanding my previous critiques concerning the administration’s “jobs created or saved” metric), this comes out to a cost per job “saved” of $37,000.  It is important and quite necessary here that we distinguish between the concepts of “direct” and “indirect” costs.  The Blinder/Zandi estimates represent direct costs associated with the bailouts; i.e., actual net cash flow provided by taxpayers which can be attributed to the GM and Chrysler bailouts.  Unfortunately, we’ll have to live with the much larger “indirect” costs for many years to come. As the late economist Milton Friedman was fond of pointing out, capitalism is a profit and loss system. Profits encourage risk taking, whereas losses encourage prudence. However, when taxpayers absorb losses instead of investors, this encourages investors to engage in reckless and imprudent risk taking. For more on the corrosive effects of bailouts and crony capitalism, be sure to read Russ Roberts’ succinct (and non-technical) essay entitled “How Little We Know: The Challenges of Financial Reform” (see http://bit.ly/7dvQhT).

Are Bonds Expensive? Stocks Cheap? Or Both? – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“After consistently lagging behind bond performance this year, stocks appear historically cheap compared to bonds, offering investors reason to favor stocks, particularly if they are optimistic about the economic outlook. But stocks may be cheap because the outlook is dim, meaning bonds—from Treasurys to corporate debt—could continue to outperform for the foreseeable future.”

Alternative Ways to Gather Census Data – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“The Census Bureau combines threats of penalties with painstaking follow-up to track down census evaders and gather a complete survey of the U.S. population. Some data experts say a European-style registration system would be more accurate and cheaper.”

The Democrats Have a Concentration Problem — The American, A Magazine of Ideas

www.american.com

“Will Republicans gain the net 40 seats they need for a majority in the House? Several factors will certainly help.”

Peak Water – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“The Wall Street Journal writes that solar power mandates can reduce water supply in Southwestern states.”

Ron Radosh: Oliver Stone’s ‘Empathy’ for Hitler – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

In The Wall Street Journal, Ron Radosh writes that Oliver Stone’s new documentary on America’s ‘secret history’ will be just another far left narrative.

Afghanistan, July, 2010 – The Big Picture – Boston.com

www.boston.com

Kim Strassel: A GOP Energy Alternative – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Potomac Watch columnist Kimberley Strassel says Devin Nunes’s nuclear proposal would do more to reduce carbon emissions than any Democratic plan on the table.”

Peter Ferrara: Beware the Balanced Budget Deal – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In the Wall Street Journal, Peter Ferrara of the Institute for Policy Innovation argues that Washington’s usual approach to balancing the federal budget never works. Instead, tax cuts and major entitlement reform are required.”

Joseph R. Mason: Congress’s Hugo Chavez Bailout Bill – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In the Wall Street Journal, Joseph Mason writes that proposed changes to the tax code would cost U.S. jobs and strengthen foreign competitors like China and Venezuela.”

Peggy Noonan: Try a Little Tenderness – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“Peggy Noonan argues in The Wall Street Journal that Chris Christie, not the Tea Party, is the model for the Republicans.”

Newt Gingrich and David Merritt: Who Decides on Health Care Value? – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In the Wall Street Journal, Newt Gingrich and David Merritt report that new rules to micromanage insurance companies could cost patients.”

Charitable Giving in a Recession – Freakonomics Blog – NYTimes.com

nytimes.com

“A new report, based on the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy’s Individual Giving Model (IGM), estimates that individual charitable giving was down 4.9% percent in 2009.”

Faithless Lawmakers – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“James Taranto on why the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact should die.”

Doctors fleeing faster | medicare, doctors, patients – Opinion – The Orange County Register

www.ocregister.com

Quoting from this article’s conclusion: “The solution? Putting doctors and patients, not government bureaucrats, in charge of medical decisions. Congress must restructure Medicare to allow seniors more choice and control over their health spending, including allowing them to continue to join private plans with incentives for doctors to provide more efficient care, and to get paid enough to continue seeing patients.” The approach to reform outlined in this article is logically consistent with the approach that I outlined on my blog in August 2009 (see “My preferred approach for reforming health care…“).

Debate Heats Up Over Stimulus Spending – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“Eighteen months after Obama administered a massive dose of spending increases and tax cuts, a fight has broken out about whether fiscal-stimulus medicine is curing the illness or making it worse.”  For a page 1 story of a major newspaper, I was pleasantly surprised by how well the reporter (Jon Hilsenrath) was able to summarize the empirical academic literature which assesses the relative efficacy of fiscal policy instruments such as deficit spending and tax cuts…

Robert M. Kimmitt and Matthew J. Slaughter: The Foreign Investment Solution for American Jobs – WSJ.

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Robert M. Kimmitt and Matthew J. Slaughter write that the Obama administration can spur job growth for Americans by making it easier for foreign companies to do business in the United States.”

Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete and Yoweri Museveni: Free Trade and the Fight Against Malaria – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“Tanzanian President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni write in the Wall Street Journal that removing tariffs would be good for African health and for African entrepreneurs.”

Stephens: From WikiLeaks to the Killing Fields – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Global View columnist Bret Stephens says that liberals contemplate withdrawal from Afghanistan with no thought of the consequences.”

The Patriarch’s Will – a game theory puzzle – Mind Your Decisions

mindyourdecisions.com

“Here is a scenario which occurred many millennia ago: The patriarch of a wealthy family was on his deathbed and wanted to divide his gold among his eight sons who were all very, very greedy. Wishing to favor the oldest son (as tradition would have it) but also to reward the more cunning of his progeny, he made the following decree…”

The Costs of War – Freakonomics Blog – NYTimes.com

nytimes.com

“A new paper reviews war costs in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

McGurn: Giving Lousy Teachers the Boot – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Main Street columnist William McGurn on bad teachers in D.C. who were booted by school chancellor Michelle Rhee.”

Science Turns Authoritarian — The American, A Magazine of Ideas

american.com

“Science is losing its credibility because it has adopted an authoritarian tone, and has let itself be co-opted by politics.”

The American Spectator : America’s Ruling Class — And the Perils of Revolution

online.wsj.com

My friend Kevin Stuart (Ph.D. student in UT-Austin’s Department of Government) brought this very compelling essay to my attention the other day…

2010 Tour de France – part II – The Big Picture – Boston.com

boston.com

The Cop on the Banks of the Nile – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

Fouad Ajami writes in The Wall Street Journal that no great upheaval has taken place in the Egypt of Hosni Mubarak. But the country has stagnated, and some of its children have blamed the U.S. and embraced terror.”

Fan and Fred and the Problem of Narrative – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Brian Carney notes that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s blunders don’t fit the left’s story about how greedy bankers caused the financial crisis. That’s why they haven’t been reformed.”

ATMs in Antarctica: An Interview With Wells Fargo’s David Parker

needcoffee.com

“I was fascinated when I learned that there was an ATM on Antarctica, specifically at McMurdo Station. Just because, you know, it’s not like your local ATM that they can zip a service tech out to. So to sate my curiosity, I gave a ping to Wells Fargo, who manages that ATM–and got a chance to chat with David Parker. All shall be explained.”

Mike Huckabee on politics, Christianity, Israel : The New Yorker

www.newyorker.com

Interesting New Yorker article about former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee…

Will the U.S. Hand Chavez a License to Kill?

www.american.com

“Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez’s record of providing money, arms, political support, and, yes, safe haven to groups waging a murderous war against a sovereign state openly violates international law.”

The Government’s Role in the Housing Bubble – National – The Atlantic

www.theatlantic.com

“I never would have guessed that years in, we’d still be debating the role of the government in the housing bubble.”

New Blood for Social Security

www.american.com

“Should public-sector pensions shift their workers to Social Security?”

Are We Naturally Lazy?

freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com

“We’re happier when busy, but inclined to laziness.”

Crisis Economics

nationalaffairs.com

This is the clearest “plain English” explanation that I have seen anywhere which explains the conditions under which fiscal policy instruments such as government spending and tax cuts may or may not have particularly “stimulative” effects on the economy. The author (Harvard Professor N. Gregory Mankiw) also provides some interesting anecdotes concerning the absurdity of the Obama Administration’s famous “jobs created or saved” metric (also see Three Million Imaginary Jobs II); e.g., how some employers have counted federal government stimulus money which was used to provide pay raises to existing employees as “creating” jobs, and the story about a shoe-store owner in Kentucky who sold boots to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (for work on a project made possible by stimulus funds) who claimed to have created nine jobs with $889 (“…after all, a soldier could not go to work… without a pair of boots”).

Stormy skies – The Big Picture – Boston.com

www.boston.com

Robert McDowell: The U.N. Threat to Internet Freedom – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In the Wall Street Journal, Robert McDowell writes that the FCC’s move to treat broadband providers like phone company monopolies could spur international efforts to regulate the Web.”

Kim Strassel: Obama’s Other Chicago Problem – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“Kim Strassel writes in The Wall Street Journal that the president’s support for Illinois senatorial hopeful Alexi Giannoulias is an unwanted reminder of the Windy City’s unsavory politics.”

Review & Outlook: Liberal Tax Revolt – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“The Wall Street Journal writes that even many Democrats don’t want the Bush cuts to expire.”

Charles Krauthammer – Beware the lame duck

www.washingtonpost.com

“To pass major legislation in a lame-duck session would be a violation of democratic norms.”

Taking apart the federal budget

www.washingtonpost.com

“(Graphically) Explore the various facets of the government’s budget and see how revenues and spending have changed over time.” Basically, this is a lesson in real world public finance in only 5 slides!

Michael Boskin: Obama’s Economic Fish Stories – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“Michael Boskin writes in The Wall Street Journal that when it comes to unemployment, the president claims that the stimulus bill was several times more potent than his chief economic adviser estimates. Such statements hurt his credibility.”

Beware Greedy Relatives If You Hope to See 2011

www.businessweek.com

Thanks to a quirk in the federal tax law, the estate tax this year is zero, but starting on Jan. 1 all taxable estates exceeding $1 million will be taxed at the rate of 55 percent. The author of this article notes that the perverse incentives may mean that “Plugs get unplugged, do-not-resuscitate orders are placed. Maybe worse.” Furthermore, there is an empirical literature which shows that monetary incentives influence death rates; specifically, “…a 2003 paper in the Review of Statistics and Economics by Joel Slemrod of the University of Michigan and Wojciech Kopczuk of the University of British Columbia…examined the number of estate-tax returns immediately following changes in the law since 1916 and found that death rates change with the estate tax.”

Economics One: Government Policy and the Slowdown

johnbtaylorsblog.blogspot.com

Professor Taylor on the causes of (and the cure for) the slowing economy: “Like many economists, I am concerned about the slowdown in the economy which prolongs the high unemployment rate. I think uncertainty about the growing federal debt and the increased government interventions-from health care to financial markets…-is the cause of the slowdown. In my view the best stimulus right now would be a clear and credible plan to reduce the deficit and bring down the growing debt.”

Labor Pains — The American, A Magazine of Ideas

www.american.com

“Europe’s taxes punish working outside the home, so Europeans don’t work as much as they would otherwise.”

Martin Feldstein: The ‘Tax Expenditure’ Solution for Our National Debt – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Harvard economist Martin Feldstein says that the credits and subsidies that make the tax code so complicated cost big bucks. Reduce them by third and the debt will be 72% of GDP in 2020 instead of 90%.”

Bret Stephens: Why Hasn’t Israel Bombed Iran (Yet)? – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Global View columnist Bret Stephens says the military risks of a raid on Iran are large, but the political risks could be even bigger.”

Notable & Quotable – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“Reuel Marc Gerecht discusses how conversations about Islam in the U.S. have become boring, lightweight, and sometimes inane under the Obama administration.”

Michio Kaku: What We’ve Learned from the Gulf Spill – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In the Wall Street Journal, Michio Kaku writes that in the future, relief wells should be drilled simultaneously with the main well.”