Monthly Archives: October 2008

Archive of posts published in the specified Month

Tax The Poor

I think the focus on Obama on the calls to ‘redistribute the wealth’ or making us more socialistic misses the far more important point. We have been socialistic for decades. Redistribution of wealth has been a part of American politics

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Maimonides Plus One

The great Jewish Philosopher Maimonides lived in Spain, Morocco and Egypt between 1135 and 1205. One of his most popular teachings is the eight levels of charity. The lowest is one who gives unwillingly. Above that is one who gives

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A White Swan

One of the most influential books to my economic and political thinking is Nassim Taleb’s “Fooled by Randomness” and “The Black Swan”. These books opened an interest in randomness and probability and their application in modern affairs. In the first

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Observing the Obvious

A few months ago we screamed about high oil prices and the greedy oil companies and how they manipulated the market for their selfish gains. The left howled for an excess profits tax on their ill gotten gains. Only months

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Crazy Coverage for Mental Health

The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act included a piece of legislation that had nothing to due with rescuing us from the financial abyss we faced. It will, however, raise your and my health insurance cost. It is called the Paul Wellstone

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An Old Reality Returns

It is uncanny how rapidly the commodity markets have reversed themselves. Just two months ago prices were high for steel and scrap and everyone thought that the China and India factor would keep commodity demand high for the foreseeable future.

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Correcting Biden

In an interview Joe Biden refers to the top 1% who make over $1.4 million dollars in income. This is typical of much other misinformation from Biden. The dividing point for the top 1% is $388,806 according to the most

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The Cost of Economic Class Warfare

Early in America’s current experiment with Democracy, we were warned by Alexis de Toqueville that our seeds of destruction were sewn when the voters realized that they could simply vote themselves benefits from the public treasury. We are getting dangerously

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Old Bessie Finds Joy in the Economy

Steak houses Ponderosa and Bonanza have joined Bennigans and Steak and Ale in Chapter 11. It is a sign of the economy and belt tightening. Those very low end restaurants such as McDonalds are benefiting from people seeking cheaper food.

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Bailing Out Hollywood and Tuna

Tax breaks in bailout bill : The financial rescue measure passed by the Senate on Wednesday included a series of tax incentives benefiting specific industries or states. Wooden arrows: This tax break, backed by Oregon’s two senators, would benefit an

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Obama’s Marginal Taxes

Tax policy affects production. If you were taxed at 100%, you would not work and the government would get no tax revenues. If they taxed you 0% you would work and the government would still get no tax revenues. The

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McCain, Feingold and Pogo Again

I think it is ironic that McCain may be suffering a possible defeat partially because of his own McCain Feingold Campaign reform act. Most campaign reform acts have tried to neutralize the effect of money in a campaign and the

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Anger is a Bad Adviser

From David Frum at National Review- Those who press this Ayers line of attack are whipping Republicans and conservatives into a fury that is going to be very hard to calm after November. Is it really wise to send conservatives

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Who Regulates the Regulators

There are those who blame deregulation for our financial woes. It isn’t the cause. We all accept some sense of regulation in an economy such as ours. Regulation should enforce honesty, transparency, accuracy and compliance with the law. Regulation should

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The Upside of a Depression

from http://www.voxeu.org/The credit crunch may cause another great depressionNicholas Bloom8 October 2008 In fact the only upside of all this is that the massive slow-down in economic growth will rapidly cut the growth rates of CO2 emissions. Pollution is tightly

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Frum and Shrum

I just watched on C Span a moderated discussion between Conservative David Frum and Democratic consultant and writer Bob Shrum. Both men were intelligent and could give a historical perspective to the current political debate. There was no shouting, interrupting,

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The John Galt Effect

by Henry Oliner Atlas Shrugged is revered like a bible among the libertarians and the central character is one John Galt. He is the symbol for total liberty and the right of an individual to the fruits of his own

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Share the Poverty

Fareed Zakkaria in Newsweek writes of the good that will come from this financial debacle. We will return to sanity and common sense in our financial world. We will reduce our over reliance on debt as a country, in business

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Invest in Ammo

So if you are one of the lucky ones with cash to invest where do you put it? First- Pay off all consumer debt- ALL of it. Second – increase your 401k contribution to the max if you have not

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The Talent Myth

by Henry Oliner The outrageous bonuses paid on and off Wall Street represent our belief that there are super talented people who merit super compensation to attract them.But this “talent” is often overstated and the influence of random events on

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