Monthly Archives: October 2012

Archive of posts published in the specified Month

Collusive Capitalism

Charles Murray writes in the Review section of the weekend Wall Street Journal, July 28-29/12, Why Capitalism Has an Image Problem. Excerpt: Two important changes in objective conditions have contributed to this change in mood. One is the rise of collusive

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The New American Jew

Daniel Greenfield writes in his blog Sultan Knish, The Jewish and Post-Jewish Vote, 10/25/12 Excerpts: In 1892, Jews came to the United States as cheap labor. In 1946 they came with the remnants of communities that they were determined to rebuild.

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The Second Wave of Jewish Immigrants

Daniel Greenfield writes in his blog Sultan Knish, The Jewish and Post-Jewish Vote, 10/25/12 Excerpts: American Jews can be broken down roughly into the products of three periods of immigration. This second wave turned rigidly Democratic under the rough tutelage

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When Rights Become Entitlements

Daniel Greenfield writes in his blog Sultan Knish, Sex and the Single Socialist 10/14/12 Excerpts: Civil rights stopped being civil rights decades ago and became civil entitlements, civil privileges allotted to especially deserving groups on account of their official victim status. These civil

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The Jewish Refugees

From World Jewish Population: But there were further changes after the war. The Moslem countries emptied out, and the world Jewish population has continued to consolidate over time in fewer countries with large urban Jewish populations over time. The main

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A Seductive Economic Tool

John Cochrane writes in his blog, The Grumpy Economist, Christina Romer on Stimulus, 10/22/12 Excerpt:  I don’t think anyone disagrees with the proposition that if the government takes money from residents of state A and splashes them on state B,

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Compared to Economics, Foreign Policy is Far More Difficult

Economics is far easier to measure if you are successful. The interest rate, unemployment rate, growth in GDP, distribution of income, national debt, inflation rate, and a host of other measurements that keep economists gainfully employed can paint a relatively

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Too Rich to Kill

“You should have shot that fella a long time ago. Now he’s too rich to kill.” Seems to sum up our Middle East Policy of the last 100 years.

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Making Tax Deductions Compete

The editors of the Wall Street Journal wrote Romney’s Tax Deduction Cap- An idea to finance reform and avoid political trench warfare. 10/19/12 Excerpts: The historic challenge for tax reformers is defeating the most powerful lobbies in Washington that exist to

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Ethnocentric Diplomacy

  Foreign affairs is the most difficult area of government policy.  To be effective it requires a continuity and consistency that transcends presidential terms.  Impatience serves us well as an entrepreneurial economic growth engine, but it is our Achilles heel

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Confusing Inevitability with Bad Policy

John Cochrane writes in The Grumpy Economist, Are recoveries always slow after financial crises and why, 10/17/12 Excerpts: Here’s my tentative view: Sure, recessions are worse and longer after financial crises…because governments go completely haywire and screw things up after

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A System of Privileges and Bailouts

The war against the rich thus continues in the world’s wealthiest country.  It is a campaign now led and inspired by the declining rich, to arouse the currently poor against the insurgently successful business classes.  By their communicative skills and

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Who Are The Elite?

The elite are criticized for being out of touch from the rest of us, but they are rarely defined.  I am guilty of criticizing ‘elitist’ policies. The Tea Party and other populist groups from both sides of the isle have

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The Threat of Mediacracy

Daniel Greenfield writes in his excellent blog Sultan Knish The Rise of the Mediacracy, 10/17/12 Excerpts: A nation where governments are elected by the people is most vulnerable at the interface between the politicians and the people. The interface is

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short circuited by group interests

Daniel Greenfield write in his excellent blog,  Sultan Knish, A Debate in the Land of the Deaf, 10/3/12 Any political campaign today is short circuited by group interests. Like a broken marriage the whole thing shamelessly dissolves into a custody battle

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Intrade on Trial

Romney is gaining rapidly on the Gallup poll yet Intrade still has Obama with a better than 60% chance of winning.  What gives?  I do not recall ever seeing this big a discrepancy in prior elections. Intrade has been wrong, and it

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Individuals and Utopia

Tyranny, broadly defined, is the use of power to dehumanize the individual and delegitimize his nature.  Political utopianism is tyranny disguised as a desirable, workable, and even paradisiacal governing ideology.  There are, of course, unlimited utopian constructs, for the mind

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Quotes from Wealth and Poverty by George Gilder (new edition)

Economists ill-serve themselves by describing economics as being about the allocation of scarce resources.  It is about the creation of resources. Capitalism is more an information system than a incentive system. The key issue in economics is aligning knowledge with

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Why Higher Rates on a Weak Economy is a Disaster

Several years ago Fred had a million dollars invested in a money market fund yielding 4%. This earned him 4% per year or $40,000. His tax rate of 28% cost him $11,200 leaving him $28,800. Toady they want to nearly

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Illusory Control

Daniel Greenfield writes in his blog Sultan Knish, The Limits of Government Power, 10/14/12 Excerpts: The problems of government have never really changed in thousands of years and the obstacle to depth of control is still the human factor. And the

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