How the government fudges job statistics | Analysis & Opinion | Reuters

Ye flippin' stars, this is from Felix Salmon!
In the Marketplace letters segment yesterday, Representative Peter DeFazio (D-Oregon) took issue with me saying that infrastructure investment is an extremely expensive way of creating jobs and “costs a good $200,000 per job”. Just as well I didn’t use the $1 million figure here, which I stand by, and which was fact-checked by the Atlantic!
How the government fudges job statistics | Analysis & Opinion | Reuters

Greg Mankiw: Thoughts about the Fiscal Commission

Here is a question I have been pondering. If you were a member of the fiscal commission, what would you try to achieve?

The answer for liberals is easy: They want to raise taxes to fund the existing, and even an expanded, social safety net, while politically insulating the Democrats as much as possible from the charge of being the "tax and spend" party. President Obama can then campaign in 2012 that he did not break his no-taxes-on-the-middle-class pledge, but rather a bipartisan group broke it. That is, the President wants to take credit for fixing the fiscal situation but duck responsibility for having imposed higher taxes.

But what if you are conservative? This is harder. You can try to stick to your no-tax-increase position. The problem is that doing so would require spending cuts larger than are politically realistic. If I were king, I bet I could find sufficient spending cuts. But I am not expecting to be anointed any time soon. If the fiscal commission is going to succeed, tax increases will have to be part of the deal.
the rest is here:
Greg Mankiw's Blog: Thoughts about the Fiscal Commission

McDonnell puts down a marker

Let’s see what the Legislative Branch does. I think he’s giving the legislature – especially the Ds – some potential cover: “I got back x% or the governor’s cuts”. But there’s got to be some serious cuts somewhere.

Another potential: "Sell the ABC stores and we can restore X.
McDonnell's Deep Cuts Send Shock Waves in Virginia | NBC Washington

Niall Ferguson - How to take Moral Hazard out of Banking

Finally, slowly, the issue is coming to the fore. Pity it didn't happen in 1974. Be a greater pity if it doesn't happen now.
Taxpayers are entitled to ask for a radical reform of banking regulation to ensure they will never again have to foot huge bills for financial folly. So far, there is only one credible proposal.

In a recent speech in Edinburgh, Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, called for “utility banking”, which would limit banks to their legitimate purpose – financial intermediation and payment facilitation – as opposed to gambling with taxpayers’ money.
Niall Ferguson - How to take Moral hHzard out of Banking

Big Government's Big Shortfall

Blow the trumpet louder. They're not listening
Big Government's Big Shortfall

Honesty thru a lack of grammar

one of the candidates for Frank Wolf's seat in the 10th congressional district (of Virginia) drops a comma and creates a level of honesty that's probably not intended:
Julien Modica (D) - Brain Injury Survivor, Navy Veteran, Felon & '08 US Sen. Candidate
Now I'm willing to bet that Modica doesn't think that US Senatorial Candidates are all felons, but...

State of The Union Address/GOP Response Word Cloud

http://www.bermanpost.com/2010/01/obamas-state-of-union-address-word.html

GOP reply word cloud:
http://www.bermanpost.com/2010/01/gops-response-to-obamas-state-of-union.html

Why the U.S. is Ungovernable, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

From Dr Arnold Kling: "The theory is that there is a discrepancy between trends in knowledge and power. Power in the United States is remarkably concentrated. We are creating increasingly specialized knowledge, which means that the information needed to make good decisions is located outside of Washington, D.C. And yet we have a central government attempting to do for 300 million people what governments in places like Singapore, Hong Kong, Denmark, and Switzerland do for many fewer people.

I do not wish to contend that government is better in those countries than in the U.S. But if there were scale efficiencies in government services beyond the level of 10 million people, then we would expect governments in small countries to be much, much worse than in the U.S. The fact that Singapore, Hong Kong, Denmark, and Switzerland function at all is proof that a 300-million scale polity is not necessary to run an effective social insurance system, an effective education system, etc."

Why the U.S. is Ungovernable, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

change *I* can believe in!

Fishersville Mike: Best of the year - the Boob Czar

Sean Connaughton Chosen to be Virginia Transportation Secretary ::

There are a whole bunch of people who are expecting me to make a comment about Secretary-designate Connaughton's lamentable choice of undergraduate education. So I won't.
The Maritime Executive Magazine :: Sean Connaughton Chosen to be VA Transportation Secretary ::

Health Care Nation

Wisdom from Samuelson (no, not that Samuelson!): President Obama's critics sometimes say that he is engineering a government takeover of health care or even introducing "socialized medicine" into America. These allegations are wildly overblown. Government already dominates health care, one-sixth of the economy. It pays directly or indirectly for roughly half of all health costs. Medicine is pervasively regulated, from drug approvals to nursing home rules. There is no "free market" in health care. What's actually happening is just the reverse, which is more interesting and alarming: Health care is taking over government.
Health Care Nation

Why Computers Can't Mimic The Brain - Forbes.com

Why Computers Can't Mimic The Brain - Forbes.com

Up Against a Wall of Debt

Seems I was wrong when I told my classes that we can:
1. Raise Taxes; or,
2. Cut benefits; or,
3. Inflate the currency to get rid of debt.
There's another alternative, repudiate the debt: the US Govt defaults.
Quoth the maven:

"Governments of rich countries are borrowing so much that it's conceivable that one day the twin assumptions underlying their burgeoning debt (that lenders will continue to lend and that governments will continue to pay) might collapse. What happens then?"

read the rest:
Up Against a Wall of Debt

Every Time Congress Promises Future Savings, Its Nose Grows a Little Longer - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine

Every Time Congress Promises Future Savings, Its Nose Grows a Little Longer - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine

Nobel Economics Prizes

Ostrom & Williamson. Good choices
Cafe Hayek: where orders emerge

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Let's hear it for the 9th & 10th Amendments!

Here's the 10th!
Enumerated Powers of States�|�Tenth Amendment Center

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Instapundit � Blog Archive � WELL, AFTER ALL, BUSH ISN?T PRESIDENT ANY MORE: ?Code Pink? rethinks its call for Afghanistan pullo?

Instapundit � Blog Archive � WELL, AFTER ALL, BUSH ISN?T PRESIDENT ANY MORE: ?Code Pink? rethinks its call for Afghanistan pullo?

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Information Dissemination

Information Dissemination

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President Obama Fudges Truth on Medicare - WSJ.com

Includes one of the world's great analogies:
It's like a variation on the old Marx Brothers routine: "The soup is terrible and the portions are too small."

It sure as hell is!
President Obama Fudges Truth on Medicare - WSJ.com

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Memorial post: America Attacked 9 1 1

America Attacked 9 1 1

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