from Daniel Henninger at the WSJ Political Disorder Syndrome: Social media—a permanent marinade for the human brain—is causing a vast, mysterious transformation of how people process experience, and maybe someday a future B.F. Skinner will explain what it has done
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Depending on the measurement, inequality (rise in the % of wealth in the top 10%) has increased more under Obama- in spite of policies designed to counter this trend. These policies have been counterproductive, favoring larger industries, stock shareholders, and
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Six years from the Great Recession and the excuses for the tepid recovery are becoming worn. This time is different- well it always is. There may be an issue with structural changes that affect employment and wages, but this is
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Clinton’s utter lack of integrity is nothing new, But McGurn at the WSJ notes how we have come used to a bar so low that just her being in the race sullies the office. from Hillary’s Crooked Defense-In Clintonworld, anything
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Holman Jenkins in The Wall Srteet Journal, A Better Way to Bring the ‘Elites’ Into Line: excerpts: Business leaders. Management is a pragmatic exercise, so of course business leaders lobby for government policies that reduce their risks and hamper their competitors
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From Bret Stephens at The Wall Street Journal, The Donald and Demagogues: If by now you don’t find Donald Trump appalling, you’re appalling. And so forth and so on—a parade of semi-sophisticated theories that act as bathroom deodorizer to mask the stench
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Martin Feldstein writes in The Wall Street Journal, Piketty’s Numbers Don’t Add Up Excerpts: The second problem with Mr. Piketty’s conclusions about increasing inequality is his use of income-tax returns without recognizing the importance of the changes that have occurred in
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Science was not a strong subject for me and I am certainly not qualified to pass judgment on the hard data and the cases for or against anthropomorphic (man-made) global warming. Yet I also realize that most of the pundits
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Preaching that this is not class warfare generally precedes a volley in the self destructive attacks on the wealthy. It is like the shyster who precedes a dishonest act with “trust me.” There was some news of some of the
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Ever since Michael Douglas’s character Gordon Gekko in the movie Wall Street declared “Greed is Good” capitalism has been cast in a sinister role that it has yet to overcome. The movie speech was rumored to be taken from a
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We mortals pride ourselves as rational beings, but we act emotionally. We get attached to previous positions, and will discount or filter evidence rather than change our minds. We read the news for confirmation rather than information. We are so
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From StumblingOnTruth Keep the Casinos Open by Clifford S. Asness, Ph.D. Excerpt: Stepping back, nowadays the popular narrative is that this economic crisis was caused by Wall Street and derivatives. It was not. It was a real estate bubble caused
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“A dynamic economy will always have booms and busts. But the story of the past twenty-five years is that Washington has created a financial system that cannot withstand the destructive part of creative destruction – necessary for free markets- without
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Does the rising stock market and improving unemployment numbers support Obama’s economic solutions? It may appear so, but I remain skeptical for several reasons. The stock market is rebounding off of the low of a year ago, which was largely
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The debate of financial reform is looking eerily like the debate on health care reform. In both cases both parties clearly see the need for change, and in both cases they disagree sharply on the means. When the financial meltdown
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A thorough review of what caused the financial crisis is needed and it should be a fascinating subject. Unfortunately the hearings are weak and boring. In the Wall Street Journal’s “After the Crash, a Crashing Bore The men behind the
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While the players and regulators were struggling to get investors to commit capital to the major banks to avoid a meltdown, Warren Buffet was called upon several times. He consistently turned them down because the assets were too complicated to
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(this was published previously in the Macon Telegraph) Being in the middle of a record economic crisis presents a rare learning opportunity. Several books are worthwhile for those seeking to understand what just happened. Too Big to Fail by Andrew
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Science is a realm of discovery, skepticism, understanding, confirmation and challenge. But throughout history science has been polluted by political considerations. In the Middle Ages the church considered any theory of the universe without the earth at the center heresy.
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Economic growth hit 5.7% in the last quarter of ’09. We should be hitting a rebound at this point in the cycle, but Wall Street is still in the midst of a losing streak. What gives? First, it is always
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