Author: Dave

Tyler Cowen notes the odd treatment of Arab dictators’ wives, in this instance Asma Assad. Hey, it’s all fun and shopping until her husband starts shelling Homs. Maybe a reality show? Unfortunately, as we’re seeing in Libya, Egypt, etc., the area’s pathology and Obama’s apathy are such that the revolutions in the Mideast are not…

Here’s an interesting exit poll from the MI primary: Santurom wins decisively among those who strongly support the Tea Party… and those who strongly oppose the Tea Party. The explanation, of course, is that Santorum is winning self-described Democrats by 3:1. Romney is up by 4.4% with 63% in, so it looks like he’s going…

A lot of people were surprised by this NASA video. More here, and here, and here. I’m been saying keep an eye on Rossi for a while.  Skepticism still very warranted, but starting to look more and more like maybe there’s some there there. (Just for fun, I also ordered a small home e-cat from…

Can you spot what’s missing in this NYT article?  But his latest budget proposal made clear that California has not emerged from what has proved to be the most difficult and destructive fiscal storm in its history. Even if voters approve the taxes Mr. Brown proposed as part of the $92 billion budget for 2012…

In the wake of the bund auction failure, there is woe. The problem is, no one believes the PIIGS will keep their promises.   They’ve broken too many already.  The new “stability pact” is a joke — oh, they’re suddenly going to start abiding by debt/deficit rules because… ? Meanwhile, the Krug-eynesians keep insisting the PIIGS…

This RCP video of Janeane Garofalo perfectly illustrates a bothersome point about our national political conversation: “Or ‘I’m not armed this time,’ they had signs that would say that,” Garofalo said while recalling news reports she saw on the Tea Party. “So, how is linking arms on a college campus an act of aggression, but…

Tyler Cowen on the lack of economic growth in Italy: At the risk of sounding like a broken record player, we are not sufficiently thinking through what it means for an advanced society to have basically zero net economic growth for a ten to twenty year period. It can’t be said often enough imho. It’s…

Former editor of the NYT Howell Raines (who, to the shock of absolutely no one, turns out to be an unabashed lefty ideologue) repeats the myth about Buffett’s secretary paying less taxes than he does: As Warren Buffet points out, middle-income Americans ought to be protesting a system in which billionaires like him pay a…

Tyler Cowen and Bryan Caplan share lists.  Very interesting.  As for myself,  I am a pessimist regarding my willingness to compile such a list.

Via HotAir, an interesting essay from Marcelo Gleiser: However, there is a huge difference between simple life and complex life. Contrary to what many believe, evolution doesn’t lead to complex life forms: evolution leads to well-adapted life forms. I agree.  People tend to underestimate the power of the weak anthropic principle — no matter how…

Q: How is Social Security different than a Ponzi scheme? A: Ponzi schemes are voluntary. A Ponzi scheme generally falls apart when there aren’t enough new investors suckers for inflows to cover outflows. But when you’re the government, that’s not really a problem: you just change the rules of the game, raising the contributions of…

Megan asks whether welfare reform is working. First off, it has be pointed out that “poverty rate” is the most useless, contrived statistic in existence, other than perhaps “jobs created or saved.” This damned lie statistic says that no matter how well off you actually are on an absolute scale, you may be “in poverty”…

Addressing an argument on whether gov’t spending creates growth at all, Tyler Cowen cautions us to beware the trend towards favoring bloggers’ interpretations over the more formal literature, noting that Krugman’s use of Keynesian thinking should be distinguished from Keynesian thought generally. As for me, I’ll just bang the Rahn curve drum here again, and…

Why am I only finding out about this today?  Everyone should see this video.  The Rahn curve basically shows where economic growth peaks as a function of the size of government, about 15-25% of GDP.   This is the most crucial question facing our dmeocratic societies today. The video also makes some an excellent point about historic…

…but is it really a good idea to go out of your way to piss off the people who threw your party of the House last elections, and whose motivation level in the next election probably determines whether your party is thrown out of the White House and Senate too?

Tyler Cowen suggests the GOP needs to be more open to tax increases. I’m skeptical. Doing the math, you could impose a 100% marginal tax on income over $100K and not close the deficit. Nor does it make much sense to seize more income below $100K, as the marginal propensity to spend is much higher…

It’s done. Prediction: the endless dishonest doomsaying from the MSM and Democrats about the USA’s credit rating (revenues were always several times interest payments so default was never an issue) will end as soon as the bill is signed into law, and they will shift seamlessly into claiming the concerns of the ratings agencies are…

Hey minarchists! If you didn’t like the debt deal, I’ve got good news: the NYT hated it even more. The deal would avert a catastrophic government default, immediately and probably through the end of 2012. The rest of it is a nearly complete capitulation to the hostage-taking demands of Republican extremists. It will hurt programs for…

HotAir is reporting this is done. I’ve been following the debt limit debate pretty closely at Megan McArdle’s and Tyler Cowen’s, but haven’t said much here. A couple quick thoughts: First, the MSM coverage has been atrocious. Straight news pieces have consistently conflated reaching the debt ceiling with default, even after it was explained in various places this was…

A few things to keep in mind over the coming days and weeks, as we endure the inevitable lectures about the dangers of right wing extremism: Anders Behring Breivik was a radical environmentalist who insisted we all stop using oil and institute one-child policies, a quasi-communist who wanted to nationalize all major corporations, an anti-American…