America's long-awaited fiscal train wreck is now underway

The money quote is actually the last sentence of this paragraph, "Not only will those factors steadily lower our standard of living, but they will imperil economic and financial stability. There are 'things' that happen when economic & financial stability goes down the drain. People start demanding a fix by, as the saying goes, any means necessary. In platonic terms, people call for a champion. And a champion will emerge. Think Lenin, think Mussolini, yes, think Hitler. And think of the effect on unpopular minorities when society implodes this way...
America's long-awaited fiscal train wreck is now underway. Depending on policy actions taken now and over the next few years, federal deficits will likely average as much as 6% of GDP through 2019, contributing to a jump in debt held by the public to as high as 82% of GDP by then - a doubling over the next decade. Worse, barring aggressive policy actions, deficits and debt will rise even more sharply thereafter as entitlement spending accelerates relative to GDP. Keeping entitlement promises would require unsustainable borrowing, taxes or both, severely testing the credibility of our policies and hurting our long-term ability to finance investment and sustain growth. And soaring debt will force up real interest rates, reducing capital and productivity and boosting debt service. Not only will those factors steadily lower our standard of living, but they will imperil economic and financial stability.
Morgan Stanley - Global Economic Forum

Shared via AddThis

Badges & Players - Tea Party WDC & March for Liberty Coalition

Badges & Players - Tea Party WDC & March for Liberty Coalition

Shared via AddThis

California'€™s Nightmare Will Kill Obamanomics: Kevin Hassett - Bloomberg.com

Inasmuch as GWB is my second least favorite Republican Prez, AND I find it hard to disagree with Hassett...
"The federal picture is so bleak because he Obama administration is the most fiscally irresponsible in the history of the U.S. I would imagine that he would be the intergalactic champion as well, if we could gather the data on deficits on other worlds. Obama has taken George W. Bush’s inattention to deficits and elevated it to an art form."
href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aTKrn1jUJwdE">California'€™s Nightmare Will Kill Obamanomics: Kevin Hassett - Bloomberg.com

Shared via AddThis

Statistical vs. Material Significance, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

Money quote:
"Statistical significance is not a measure of the importance of a relationship. Statistical significance is a measure of the unlikelihood that you got your results solely due to chance sampling error."
Statistical vs. Material Significance, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

Shared via AddThis

The Ten Commandments Of Microeconomics

Two notes:
1. Jodi should be the economist in the commercial
2. Here's the list:
The Ten Commandments of Microeconomics:
1. Thou shalt not idolize a social planner
2. Thou shalt not take private property in vain
3. Thou shalt honor the opportunity cost
4. Thou shalt honor the unintended consequences
5. Thou shalt not use price controls to alter market outcomes
6. Thou shalt not use taxes or subsidies to alter international trade
7. Thou shalt not ignore the power of incentives
8. Thou shalt not bear false witness against the goodness of greed
9. Thou shalt not covet fairness without honoring efficiency
10. Thou shalt not always covet government solutions to externalities
The Ten Commandments Of Microeconomics…

Shared via AddThis

A Closer Look at Adverse Selection and Mandatory Insurance, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

Bryan Caplan of -- of course! -- GMU.
A Closer Look at Adverse Selection and Mandatory Insurance, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

Shared via AddThis

Troops Told To Stop Taliban Pursuit If Civilians Are At Risk

Assuming the news media has got this right, I do believe we've just telegraphed a successful strategy to the bad guys.

[McClatchy Newspapers, mcclathchydc.com, July 1, 2009]
Beginning Thursday, U.S. troops in Afghanistan will be under orders to back down when they’re chasing Taliban fighters whenever they think that civilians might be at risk.

Hit & Run Debt and Taxes: The CBO's Dire Projections - Reason Magazine

How bad is the CBO's latest report on the country's budgetary future? The Washington Post calls the office's numbers "dire." U.S. News says they're "off the wall." And in a post about the report on his blog, the CBO's director, Douglas Elmendorf, writes that "under current law, the federal budget is on an unsustainable path."

What's the problem? In a word, debt: The Post's editorial board summarizes the CBO's findings as follows:

Debt is growing faster than gross domestic product. Under the CBO's most realistic scenario, the publicly held debt of the U.S. government will reach 82 percent of GDP by 2019 -- roughly double what it was in 2008. By 2026, spiraling interest payments would push the debt above its all-time peak (set just after World War II) of 113 percent of GDP. It would reach 200 percent of GDP in 2038.
Hit & Run Debt and Taxes: The CBO's Dire Projections - Reason Magazine

Shared via AddThis

Instapundit Blog Archive U.S. DEBTOR STATUS WORSENS DRAMATICALLY

Instapundit Blog Archive U.S. DEBTOR STATUS WORSENS DRAMATICALLY:Over the years, Americas status as a creditor or debto

Shared via AddThis

Global Warming - John Stossel's Take

Good rule: when the reply to a question is "Shut up", more questions need to be asked.
Global Warming - John Stossel's Take

Shared via AddThis

Fixing the Health Care System, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

I cannot improve on Dr Kling's observation:
"I love it when people who have never managed anything more than a government grant are convinced they can manage one sixth of the economy."
Fixing the Health Care System, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

Shared via AddThis

Instapundit on IDB on Waxman-Malarkey

And recall that Smoot-Hawley knocked over European banks like ten-pins. Specifically, German banks. And the resulting social unrest led to a government led by and evil genie -- arguably the evilest genie -- that was very expensive, in both blood and bucks, to stuff back into the bottle.

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY ON WAXMAN-MARKEY: “The House of Representatives is preparing to vote on an anti-stimulus package that in the name of saving the earth will destroy the American economy. Smoot-Hawley will seem like a speed bump.”

The Fundamental Economic Problem

The fundamental economic problem is related to scarcity. Humanity has limited resources and infinite demands. Who decides. My fellow bureaucrats? God? Philosopher Kings?
Economics Essays: The Fundamental Economic Problem

Shared via AddThis

Instapundit» Blog Archive » HEY WAIT, DIDN'€™T HE SLAM MCCAIN OVER THIS? Obama not closing door on possible health care tax.

There's still no such thing as a free lunch. Kudos to the CBO for their yeoman attempt to score this properly!
Instapundit » Blog Archive » HEY WAIT, DIDN’T HE SLAM MCCAIN OVER THIS? Obama not closing door on possible health care tax. W…

Shared via AddThis

quality adjusted life year (QALY)

There is always a cost for a QALY. Heck, there's always a cost for everything. Who decides what a QALY is worth?
Marginal Revolution

Shared via AddThis

I'm Guessing Rush Limbaugh Didn't Move To Maryland

I'm Guessing Rush Limbaugh Didn't Move To Maryland

Shared via AddThis

I'm Guessing Rush Limbaugh Didn't Move To Maryland

Gosh... a decrease in income after a tax increase. Who'da thunk.
I’m Guessing Rush Limbaugh Didn't Move To Maryland

Shared via AddThis

Robert J. Samuelson - Both Corporate, Public Welfare Are Endangered - washingtonpost.com

The U.S. welfare state is weakening; insecurity is rising. The sensible thing would be to decide which forms of public welfare are needed to protect the vulnerable and to begin paring others. Our inaction poses another dreary parallel with GM. It was obvious a quarter-century ago that GM the auto company could not support GM the welfare state. But the union wouldn't surrender benefits, and the company acquiesced. Inertia prevailed, and the reckoning came.
Robert J. Samuelson - Both Corporate, Public Welfare Are Endangered - washingtonpost.com

Shared via AddThis

Mobilizing World Opinion Against the Government: How the Irish Did It and Won

From the History News Network (HNN) comes an interesting post on the role of the Press in the 1919-1921 Irish revolution, along with a very timely query:

In his preface to Michael Massing's pamphlet on the American press and Iraq, Now They Tell Us, Orville Schell asks "what had happened to the press's vaunted role as skeptical 'watchdog over government power'?"

There is, however, a rather puzzling assertion:

"The Anglo-Irish war of 1919-1921 was an international historical landmark: the first successful revolution against British rule..."

Really? I coulda swored our late-18th-century dust-up with the Brits counts as a successful revolution.
Mobilizing World Opinion Against the Government: How the Irish Did It and Won

Shared via AddThis

My Way News - Lawmakers clash over cost of health care overhaul

Conrad retires the "Attorney's who can't add trophy:
Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said that proposed changes that sweetened government subsidies to the uninsured had unexpectedly boosted the cost, and now lawmakers must trim back.
My Way News - Lawmakers clash over cost of health care overhaul

Shared via AddThis