15 October 2009
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15 October 2009
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected]
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
Wednesday Links [Cato at Liberty]
Race to the Top = Klondike Bar [Cato at Liberty]
OCT 14, 2009 05:33P.M.
OCT 14, 2009 01:55P.M.
• Why there’s no way to enforce a ban on texting while driving.
Remember the ads in which actors…er, people…would enthusiastically do demeaning things for Klondike Bars? You know, ads like this one, in which Shakespeare stoops to writing a TV sitcom in exchange for one of those chocolate-encrusted ice cream blocks?
• How onerous financial rules will only delay economic recovery and dampen long-term growth. • It’s time to start over on health care reform: “If you’re going the wrong way down a road, the answer isn’t to step on the gas, but to turn around.”
The message, of course, was that the Bard and all the other Klondikecravers took the deals for the dessert, not, obviously, for the love of what they were being bribed to do. They just wanted the reward – even the biggest idiot understood that.
• Is the current recession the worst since the Great Depression? You might be surprised…
Sadly, it seems that U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan might be hoping that the public is dumber than the biggest idiot. In a recent interview, he talked as if there might actually be states suddenly making education changes needed to get part of his $5-billion “Race to the Top” fund not because they want the money, but because the reforms are the right thing to do.
• When “history” dials the wrong number. • Podcast: Will the GOP of 2010 Be led by ideas?
“It’s really not about the money – it’s about pushing a strong reform agenda that’s going to improve student achievement,” he said. “We’re going to invest in those states that aren’t just talking the talk but that are walking the walk….If folks are doing this to chase money, it’s for the wrong reasons.”
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
Socialised Medicine in Australia [Americans for Tax Reform] OCT 14, 2009 03:29P.M.
Only in politics would you bribe people to act, then declare that they’d better not be acting just to get the bribe. But you wouldn’t want the public realizing that politicians and bureaucrats are just as selfish as corporate titans or swindlers, would you?
We hear a lot about the failings of socialised medicine in the UK and Canada, but these aren’t the only countries that have government-run health care. Australia also has a socialised health service, ...
The problem Duncan is trying to deal with, of course, is convincing the public that reforms coerced with Race-to-the-Top dollars will stay in place after the one-shot-deal bucks are gone. But as even the biggest couch potato knows, Shakespeare simply won’t write for Gary Coleman if there’s no ice cream at the end.
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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected]
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
15 October 2009
commonly used.
What Is Regulation? [Cato at Liberty]
Sheldon Richman made a similar point back in June and wrote a Facebook note on the same paragraph that caught my eye.
OCT 14, 2009 01:38P.M. The New York Times tries to spin the work of Nobel laureates Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson as not anti-regulation:
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
Technology: Debating the Pace of Progress [Cato at Liberty]
Neither Ms. Ostrom nor Mr. Williamson has argued against regulation. Quite the contrary, their work found that people in business adopt for themselves numerous forms of regulation and rules of behavior — called “governance” in economic jargon — doing so independently of government or without being told to do so by corporate bosses.
OCT 14, 2009 01:33P.M. Last night, thanks to Craigslist and a Web-enabled cell phone, I unloaded two extra tickets to tonight’s World Cup qualifying game between the U.S. and Costa Rica in under an hour. (8:00, ESPN2 “USA! USA! USA!”)
But none of us “anti-regulation” folks are against “rules of behavior that people in business adopt for themselves independently of government.” The world is full of rules, from wearing clothes in the office to customary trade practices to the rules for managing common-pool resources that Ostrom studied. Anyone who opposed such “forms of regulation” wouldn’t be a libertarian or even an anarchist — he’d be a nihilist. (Of course, one could sensibly oppose particular rules; but no one seriously wants a world without rules of behavior.)
Wanting to avoid the hassle of selling the tickets at RFK, I placed an ad on Craigslist offering them at cost, figuring I might find a taker and arrange to hand them off downtown today or at the stadium tonight. Checking email as I walked to the gym, I found an inquiry about the tickets and phoned the guy, who happened to live 100 feet from where I was walking. A few minutes later, he had the tickets and I had the cash.
David Henderson analyzes one of the misunderstandings about the laureates’ findings:
This quaint story is a single data point in a trend line—the high-tech version of It’s Getting Better All the Time. Everyone living a connected life enjoys hundreds, or even thousands, of conveniences every day because of information technology. Through billions of transactions across the society, technology improves our lives in ways unimaginable two decades ago.
Some have summarized their work by saying that institutions other than free markets often work well. But that statement can mislead you to conclude that government solutions are the answer. Free markets are only a subset of free institutions. A better way to sum up their work is that what Ms. Ostrom and Mr. Willamson really show is that voluntary associations work.
Before 1995, nobody ever traded spare soccer tickets in under an hour, on a Tuesday night, without even changing his evening routine. If soccer tickets are too trivial (you must not understand the game), the same dynamics deliver incremental, but massive improvements in material wealth, awareness, education, and social and political empowerment to everyone—even those who don’t live “online.”
The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics defines “regulation” this way: “Regulation consists of requirements the government imposes on private firms and individuals to achieve government’s purposes.” That’s the kind of regulation that is controversial among economists and often criticized by libertarians. It is entirely different from “rules of behavior that people in business adopt for themselves independently of government.” Those sorts of rules — often called “governance,” as the New York Times notes — are private and voluntary, made by the voluntary interactions of a few or many people.
Sometimes debates about technology regulation are cast in doom and gloom terms like the Malthusian arguments about material wealth. But the benefits we already enjoy thanks to technology are not going away, and they will continue to accrue. We are arguing about the pace of progress, not its existence. This is no reason to let up in our quest to give technologists and investors the freedom to produce more innovations that enhance everyone’s wellbeing even more. But it does counsel us to be optimistic and to teach this optimism to our ideological opponents, many of whom seem to look
The work of Ostrom and Williamson supports the idea of spontaneous order, an order that emerges as result of the voluntary activities of individuals and not through the commands of government. Spontaneous order can be hard to grasp, though it is the background of our entire world — language, common law, money, and the economy are all spontaneous orders (though government has intruded into some of those orders). It’s misleading to say that work of Ostrom and Williamson is somehow supportive of “regulation,” given the way that word is
ahead and see only calamity.
2
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected]
15 October 2009
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
Do We Need a Law against Texting While Driving? [Cato at Liberty]
Dow 10,000: Special Kudlow Report [Larry Kudlow’s Money Politic$]
OCT 14, 2009 01:30P.M.
OCT 14, 2009 12:46P.M.
Radley Balko exposes the politicians who play the game of enacting laws for symbolic purposes. In this game, whether the proposed law has any actual impact on the supposed problem seems entirely beside the point. Excerpt: Maryland just passed a texting ban, but state officials are flummoxed over how to enforce it. The law bans texting while driving but allows for reading texts, for precisely the reasons just mentioned. But how can a police officer positioned at the side of a highway tell if the driver of the car that just flew by was actually pushing buttons on his cellphone and not merely reading the display screen? Unless a motorist is blatantly typing away at eye level, a car would need to be moving slowly enough for an officer to see inside, focus on the phone, and observe the driver manipulating the buttons. Which is to say the car would probably need to be stopped—at which point it ceases to be a safety hazard.
Tonight at 7pm ET on CNBC:
A MARKET MILESTONE Is the rally for real?
Read the whole thing. Until this feel-good-gesture-legislation game is broken up, the number of laws will continue to multiply. And that means the sphere of government expands while the sphere of liberty recedes.
*Mario Gabelli, Gabelli Funds Chairman *Bob Doll, BlackRock Vice Chair & Global CIO of Equities *Ronald Kruszewski, Stifel, Nicolaus Chairman & CEO *Allison Deans, Fmr. Chief Investment Officer for Neuberger Berman Private Asset Management
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
How Cap and Tax Will Hurt Texas [Americans for Tax Reform]
WHAT DOES THE DOLLAR MEAN FOR STOCKS? CNBC’s Rick Santelli will weigh in with the market panel.
OCT 14, 2009 12:49P.M.
REMEMBERING LAZARD CEO BRUCE WASSERSTEIN CNBC’s David Faber will join us.
In our continuing, daily, state by state, look at the financial impact of the Waxman-Markey Cap and Trade Tax Bill, we will show you the projected
EYE ON TECH
losses in Gross State Product, Personal Income, and N...
*Bob Froehlich, The Hartford Senior Managing Director *CNBC’s Jim Goldman CAN YOU BANK ON BANKS? A look at bank bonuses & regulation *Dick Bove, Financial Strategist Rochdale Securities *Robert Albertson, Sandler O’Neill, Principal & Chief Strategist DOW 10,000: THEN & NOW
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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected]
CNBC’s Mary Thompson will take a look back.
15 October 2009
platform.
Please join us this evening at 7pm ET on CNBC. FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
Wednesday’s Daily News [The Club for Growth]
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
Dow Hits 10,000 as Storm Clouds Gather [Larry Kudlow’s Money Politic$]
OCT 14, 2009 11:59A.M. These are the people to watch in the health care debate’s next phase.
OCT 14, 2009 12:43P.M.
Geithner’s aides reaped millions working for banks and hedge funds.
Dow Jones 10,000 arrived on Wall Street today for the first time in a year. It’s a milestone of sorts, and it certainly represents a vote for investor confidence in economic recovery. Blowout profit reports form Intel and JPMorgan helped fuel today’s 145 point gain. So did a retail sales report that excluding Cash for Clunkers was actually quite strong.
Economist Doug Holtz-Eakins says the Baucus bill is a tax bill. The vote on the Baucus bill opens the healthcare lobbying floodgates. The Wall Street Journal editorial board looks at your Massachusetts future in healthcare.
Profits are the mother’s milk of stocks, business, and the economy. And top-line sales revenues now appear to be bolstering the corporate costcutting effort. As long as these earnings keep coming in strong, stocks will keep rising. My hunch is that we’ll move back to pre-Lehman levels — to over 11,000 on the Dow and over 1,200 on the S&P. And backed by an easy-money Fed, the economy will probably grow in a mild V-shape of something like 3 to 4 percent for the next year or so.
Here’s how you can measure the (in)effectiveness of Obama’s stimulus plan. Michigan Democrats want to tax doctors 3% in order to balance the budget. Um, yeah. John Stossel has a review of Michael Moore’s new movie.
But storm clouds are gathering. And a big one is the sinking dollar. No one in the Obama administration or at the Fed seems to care about it. In fact, they are probably applauding the lower dollar as a sort of 1970s way of boosting exports and the manufacturing heartland in the Midwest. But the falling dollar is bad for consumers. And it ultimately will cause higher inflation, as signaled by the rising gold price. There also are future tax hikes and the explosion of spending and debt. All of this is why it’s hard for me to be a long-term bull.
Megan McArdles wants to know when the obsession with GDP will end. NY-23: GOP’s Scozzafava faces cash crunch. PA-Sen: Poll shows Specter staring at ‘near fatal’ 31 percent re-election figure.
The great market boom of 1982 to 2000 was basically characterized by low marginal tax rates and King Dollar. Unfortunately, the 21st century has seen a weak dollar and more recently rising tax rates that are coming due in 2011 (if not sooner). In other words, the prosperity-inducing Mundell-Laffer supply-side model is being reversed. As Art Laffer put it to me, we are stealing demand and production from the future. So even as we get a V-shaped recovery now and into next year, 2011 may pay the piper for both low growth and higher inflation. Stocks could have another four to six months to rally. And that’s great for increasing the wealth of the investor class, and maybe even enhancing the animal spirits a bit. But the policy mix is wrong. Health-care entitlements and taxes punctuate the wrong-way policy mix. And what’s left to be seen is whether the Republicans can successfully challenge the Democrats with a true supply-side economic-growth and job-creating
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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected]
15 October 2009
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
Sound Money Essay Contest [Cato at Liberty]
Libertarianism on TV [Cato at Liberty]
OCT 14, 2009 11:16A.M.
OCT 14, 2009 10:39A.M.
Our friends at the Atlas Economic Research Foundation are offering prizes for the best essays on sound money by students and young faculty and policy analysts:
I talked with Dennis McCuistion, whose interview program appears on KERA in Dallas and other public television stations, about “libertarianism and the politics of freedom.” It’s an old-fashioned public affairs program, where the host asks intelligent questions for half an hour. No shouting, no four-minute segments, a good solid conversation. Find the video here. Other McCuistion programs with such guests as Dan
The Atlas Economic Research Foundation invites you to participate in its Sound Money Essay Contest, which has a deadline of November 24th, 2009.
Mitchell, Steve Moore, and Steve Forbes can be found here.
The contest is open to students, young faculty, and policy writers who are interested in the cause of sound money. It aims to engage you in thinking about sound money principles with relevance to today’s economic challenges.
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
Club Op-Ed in USA Today [The Club for Growth]
The overall winner will receive a cash prize of $5000. Two additional prizes of $1000 each will be given to outstanding essays written by junior faculty, graduate students, or policy writers. And three additional prizes of $500 each will be given to outstanding essays written by undergraduate students.
OCT 14, 2009 10:25A.M. Club President Chris Chocola has an op-ed in this morning’s USA Today. The newspaper’s editorial board argues that the GOP needs to elect more moderates so that DC can become a more bipartisan place. Providing the opposing view, Chocola argues that bipartisanship is highly overrated. Excerpt:
Essay topics include: · “Money and the Free Society: Can Money Exist Outside of the State?”
Politics is about the battle of ideas and choices. Democrats did not win the majority in Congress or the White House by compromising. They did not oust the Republicans by helping them pass an agenda they did not agree with. They did not come into power by following advice to be more bipartisan. They did what the Republicans must now do to have any chance of gaining a sustainable majority and advancing their
· “The Ethical Implications of Monetary Manipulation” · “Monetary Policy and the Rule of Law in the United States” To be eligible, you must be a legal resident of the U.S. or engaged as a full-time student or faculty in the U.S. You must also be no more than 35 years old on the date of the contest deadline (November 24, 2009). Atlas welcomes involvement of older and non-U.S. scholars in its discussions and ongoing work on sound money, but this essay contest is targeted to the audience described above.
ideas. They fought for what they believed in.
For a list of reference materials and writing guidelines, please visit the Atlas website. And for Cato research on sound money, check here.
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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected]
15 October 2009
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
The Improving State of New York City, circa 1800-2007 [Cato at Liberty]
A Tax That Would Finance the Road to Serfdom [Cato at Liberty]
OCT 14, 2009 08:50A.M.
OCT 14, 2009 08:40A.M.
Two figures that say it all.
Michael Tanner and Michael Cannon are working nonstop to derail government-run health care, but they better figure out how to work more than 24 hours per day, because if they fail, it is very likely that politicians will then look for a new revenue source to finance all the new spending that inevitably will follow. Unfortunately, that means a value-added tax (VAT) will be high on the list. Indeed, the VAT recently has been discussed by powerful political figures and key Obama allies such as the Co-Chairman of his transition team and the Speaker of the House. The VAT would be great news for the political insiders and beltway elite. A brand new source of revenue would mean more money for them to spend and a new set of loopholes to swap for campaign cash and lobbying fees. But as I explain in this new video from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, the evidence from Europe unambiguously suggests that a VAT will dramatically increase the burden of government. That’s good for Washington, but bad for America.
Death Rates (deaths per 1,000 population), New York City, c. 18002007. Source: NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene. Summary of Vital Statistics (2008). H/T to William Briggs for making me aware of this figure.
Even if the politicians are unsuccessful in their campaign to take over the health care system, there will be a VAT fight at some point in the next few years. This will be a Armageddon moment for proponents of limited government. Defeating a VAT is not a sufficient condition for controlling the size of government, but it surely is a necessary condition.
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
The Dollar Decline Must End [Larry Kudlow’s Money Politic$] OCT 14, 2009 07:14A.M. You know I’ve been crusading to save the greenback and restore King Dollar. But new entitlements that open the door to a government takeover of the health-care sector are no way to do it. Not surprisingly, as the Baucus Bill made it out of the Finance Committee yesterday, the dollar fell once again and gold jumped (closing at $1,064). Not good. Smells like the 1970s.
Infant Mortality Rate (deaths per 1,000 live births), New York City, 1898-2007. In 1898 IMR was estimated to be 140.9 Because of incomplete reporting of early neonatal deaths, this is almost certainly an underestimate. In 2007 IMR was 5.4 deaths per 1,000 live births. Source: NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene. Summary of Vital Statistics (2008)
Just look at two ominous headlines in the news: First is the global shift out of the dollar and into commodities. Second is the dollar losing its reserve status to the yen and the euro. In the second quarter ending in June, central banks around the world
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invested 63 percent of their new cash reserves into euro and yen, and put only 37 percent into dollars. Over the past six months, the dollar has lost 15 percent while gold has climbed nearly $150. If this continues, spiking inflation and interest rates will choke off the bull market in stocks and do serious damage to the economy. It could happen fast. How to solve this problem? In supply-side terms, cut tax rates for new growth incentives. Meanwhile, the Fed must drain cash to remove dollars from the financial system and the Treasury must simultaneously buy dollars in the foreign-exchange markets. And Washington must stop its explosive spending and borrowing. Some statutory — or even constitutional — limits should be set. That the dollar is the world’s reserve currency is a tremendous asset for the United States. We must stop the fall of the dollar now. It’s a selfinflicted wound that will do great damage to American leadership and prestige globally, and to the economy here at home.
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
An Interview with Sen. John Thune [Larry Kudlow’s Money Politic$] OCT 14, 2009 06:10A.M. Last night distinguished South Dakota Sen. John Thune, chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee, joined me to discuss the $829 billion Baucus bill just passed by the Senate Finance Committee, as well as the need for a clear TARP exit strategy. He’s got the story right on both. The interview begins at the 3:50 mark.
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15 October 2009
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected]
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
Wednesday Links [Cato at Liberty]
Race to the Top = Klondike Bar [Cato at Liberty]
OCT 14, 2009 05:33P.M.
OCT 14, 2009 01:55P.M.
• Why there’s no way to enforce a ban on texting while driving.
Remember the ads in which actors…er, people…would enthusiastically do demeaning things for Klondike Bars? You know, ads like this one, in which Shakespeare stoops to writing a TV sitcom in exchange for one of those chocolate-encrusted ice cream blocks?
• How onerous financial rules will only delay economic recovery and dampen long-term growth. • It’s time to start over on health care reform: “If you’re going the wrong way down a road, the answer isn’t to step on the gas, but to turn around.”
The message, of course, was that the Bard and all the other Klondikecravers took the deals for the dessert, not, obviously, for the love of what they were being bribed to do. They just wanted the reward – even the biggest idiot understood that.
• Is the current recession the worst since the Great Depression? You might be surprised…
Sadly, it seems that U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan might be hoping that the public is dumber than the biggest idiot. In a recent interview, he talked as if there might actually be states suddenly making education changes needed to get part of his $5-billion “Race to the Top” fund not because they want the money, but because the reforms are the right thing to do.
• When “history” dials the wrong number. • Podcast: Will the GOP of 2010 Be led by ideas?
“It’s really not about the money – it’s about pushing a strong reform agenda that’s going to improve student achievement,” he said. “We’re going to invest in those states that aren’t just talking the talk but that are walking the walk….If folks are doing this to chase money, it’s for the wrong reasons.”
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
Socialised Medicine in Australia [Americans for Tax Reform] OCT 14, 2009 03:29P.M.
Only in politics would you bribe people to act, then declare that they’d better not be acting just to get the bribe. But you wouldn’t want the public realizing that politicians and bureaucrats are just as selfish as corporate titans or swindlers, would you?
We hear a lot about the failings of socialised medicine in the UK and Canada, but these aren’t the only countries that have government-run health care. Australia also has a socialised health service, ...
The problem Duncan is trying to deal with, of course, is convincing the public that reforms coerced with Race-to-the-Top dollars will stay in place after the one-shot-deal bucks are gone. But as even the biggest couch potato knows, Shakespeare simply won’t write for Gary Coleman if there’s no ice cream at the end.
1
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected]
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
15 October 2009
commonly used.
What Is Regulation? [Cato at Liberty]
Sheldon Richman made a similar point back in June and wrote a Facebook note on the same paragraph that caught my eye.
OCT 14, 2009 01:38P.M. The New York Times tries to spin the work of Nobel laureates Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson as not anti-regulation:
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
Technology: Debating the Pace of Progress [Cato at Liberty]
Neither Ms. Ostrom nor Mr. Williamson has argued against regulation. Quite the contrary, their work found that people in business adopt for themselves numerous forms of regulation and rules of behavior — called “governance” in economic jargon — doing so independently of government or without being told to do so by corporate bosses.
OCT 14, 2009 01:33P.M. Last night, thanks to Craigslist and a Web-enabled cell phone, I unloaded two extra tickets to tonight’s World Cup qualifying game between the U.S. and Costa Rica in under an hour. (8:00, ESPN2 “USA! USA! USA!”)
But none of us “anti-regulation” folks are against “rules of behavior that people in business adopt for themselves independently of government.” The world is full of rules, from wearing clothes in the office to customary trade practices to the rules for managing common-pool resources that Ostrom studied. Anyone who opposed such “forms of regulation” wouldn’t be a libertarian or even an anarchist — he’d be a nihilist. (Of course, one could sensibly oppose particular rules; but no one seriously wants a world without rules of behavior.)
Wanting to avoid the hassle of selling the tickets at RFK, I placed an ad on Craigslist offering them at cost, figuring I might find a taker and arrange to hand them off downtown today or at the stadium tonight. Checking email as I walked to the gym, I found an inquiry about the tickets and phoned the guy, who happened to live 100 feet from where I was walking. A few minutes later, he had the tickets and I had the cash.
David Henderson analyzes one of the misunderstandings about the laureates’ findings:
This quaint story is a single data point in a trend line—the high-tech version of It’s Getting Better All the Time. Everyone living a connected life enjoys hundreds, or even thousands, of conveniences every day because of information technology. Through billions of transactions across the society, technology improves our lives in ways unimaginable two decades ago.
Some have summarized their work by saying that institutions other than free markets often work well. But that statement can mislead you to conclude that government solutions are the answer. Free markets are only a subset of free institutions. A better way to sum up their work is that what Ms. Ostrom and Mr. Willamson really show is that voluntary associations work.
Before 1995, nobody ever traded spare soccer tickets in under an hour, on a Tuesday night, without even changing his evening routine. If soccer tickets are too trivial (you must not understand the game), the same dynamics deliver incremental, but massive improvements in material wealth, awareness, education, and social and political empowerment to everyone—even those who don’t live “online.”
The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics defines “regulation” this way: “Regulation consists of requirements the government imposes on private firms and individuals to achieve government’s purposes.” That’s the kind of regulation that is controversial among economists and often criticized by libertarians. It is entirely different from “rules of behavior that people in business adopt for themselves independently of government.” Those sorts of rules — often called “governance,” as the New York Times notes — are private and voluntary, made by the voluntary interactions of a few or many people.
Sometimes debates about technology regulation are cast in doom and gloom terms like the Malthusian arguments about material wealth. But the benefits we already enjoy thanks to technology are not going away, and they will continue to accrue. We are arguing about the pace of progress, not its existence. This is no reason to let up in our quest to give technologists and investors the freedom to produce more innovations that enhance everyone’s wellbeing even more. But it does counsel us to be optimistic and to teach this optimism to our ideological opponents, many of whom seem to look
The work of Ostrom and Williamson supports the idea of spontaneous order, an order that emerges as result of the voluntary activities of individuals and not through the commands of government. Spontaneous order can be hard to grasp, though it is the background of our entire world — language, common law, money, and the economy are all spontaneous orders (though government has intruded into some of those orders). It’s misleading to say that work of Ostrom and Williamson is somehow supportive of “regulation,” given the way that word is
ahead and see only calamity.
2
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15 October 2009
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
Do We Need a Law against Texting While Driving? [Cato at Liberty]
Dow 10,000: Special Kudlow Report [Larry Kudlow’s Money Politic$]
OCT 14, 2009 01:30P.M.
OCT 14, 2009 12:46P.M.
Radley Balko exposes the politicians who play the game of enacting laws for symbolic purposes. In this game, whether the proposed law has any actual impact on the supposed problem seems entirely beside the point. Excerpt: Maryland just passed a texting ban, but state officials are flummoxed over how to enforce it. The law bans texting while driving but allows for reading texts, for precisely the reasons just mentioned. But how can a police officer positioned at the side of a highway tell if the driver of the car that just flew by was actually pushing buttons on his cellphone and not merely reading the display screen? Unless a motorist is blatantly typing away at eye level, a car would need to be moving slowly enough for an officer to see inside, focus on the phone, and observe the driver manipulating the buttons. Which is to say the car would probably need to be stopped—at which point it ceases to be a safety hazard.
Tonight at 7pm ET on CNBC:
A MARKET MILESTONE Is the rally for real?
Read the whole thing. Until this feel-good-gesture-legislation game is broken up, the number of laws will continue to multiply. And that means the sphere of government expands while the sphere of liberty recedes.
*Mario Gabelli, Gabelli Funds Chairman *Bob Doll, BlackRock Vice Chair & Global CIO of Equities *Ronald Kruszewski, Stifel, Nicolaus Chairman & CEO *Allison Deans, Fmr. Chief Investment Officer for Neuberger Berman Private Asset Management
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
How Cap and Tax Will Hurt Texas [Americans for Tax Reform]
WHAT DOES THE DOLLAR MEAN FOR STOCKS? CNBC’s Rick Santelli will weigh in with the market panel.
OCT 14, 2009 12:49P.M.
REMEMBERING LAZARD CEO BRUCE WASSERSTEIN CNBC’s David Faber will join us.
In our continuing, daily, state by state, look at the financial impact of the Waxman-Markey Cap and Trade Tax Bill, we will show you the projected
EYE ON TECH
losses in Gross State Product, Personal Income, and N...
*Bob Froehlich, The Hartford Senior Managing Director *CNBC’s Jim Goldman CAN YOU BANK ON BANKS? A look at bank bonuses & regulation *Dick Bove, Financial Strategist Rochdale Securities *Robert Albertson, Sandler O’Neill, Principal & Chief Strategist DOW 10,000: THEN & NOW
3
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected]
CNBC’s Mary Thompson will take a look back.
15 October 2009
platform.
Please join us this evening at 7pm ET on CNBC. FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
Wednesday’s Daily News [The Club for Growth]
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
Dow Hits 10,000 as Storm Clouds Gather [Larry Kudlow’s Money Politic$]
OCT 14, 2009 11:59A.M. These are the people to watch in the health care debate’s next phase.
OCT 14, 2009 12:43P.M.
Geithner’s aides reaped millions working for banks and hedge funds.
Dow Jones 10,000 arrived on Wall Street today for the first time in a year. It’s a milestone of sorts, and it certainly represents a vote for investor confidence in economic recovery. Blowout profit reports form Intel and JPMorgan helped fuel today’s 145 point gain. So did a retail sales report that excluding Cash for Clunkers was actually quite strong.
Economist Doug Holtz-Eakins says the Baucus bill is a tax bill. The vote on the Baucus bill opens the healthcare lobbying floodgates. The Wall Street Journal editorial board looks at your Massachusetts future in healthcare.
Profits are the mother’s milk of stocks, business, and the economy. And top-line sales revenues now appear to be bolstering the corporate costcutting effort. As long as these earnings keep coming in strong, stocks will keep rising. My hunch is that we’ll move back to pre-Lehman levels — to over 11,000 on the Dow and over 1,200 on the S&P. And backed by an easy-money Fed, the economy will probably grow in a mild V-shape of something like 3 to 4 percent for the next year or so.
Here’s how you can measure the (in)effectiveness of Obama’s stimulus plan. Michigan Democrats want to tax doctors 3% in order to balance the budget. Um, yeah. John Stossel has a review of Michael Moore’s new movie.
But storm clouds are gathering. And a big one is the sinking dollar. No one in the Obama administration or at the Fed seems to care about it. In fact, they are probably applauding the lower dollar as a sort of 1970s way of boosting exports and the manufacturing heartland in the Midwest. But the falling dollar is bad for consumers. And it ultimately will cause higher inflation, as signaled by the rising gold price. There also are future tax hikes and the explosion of spending and debt. All of this is why it’s hard for me to be a long-term bull.
Megan McArdles wants to know when the obsession with GDP will end. NY-23: GOP’s Scozzafava faces cash crunch. PA-Sen: Poll shows Specter staring at ‘near fatal’ 31 percent re-election figure.
The great market boom of 1982 to 2000 was basically characterized by low marginal tax rates and King Dollar. Unfortunately, the 21st century has seen a weak dollar and more recently rising tax rates that are coming due in 2011 (if not sooner). In other words, the prosperity-inducing Mundell-Laffer supply-side model is being reversed. As Art Laffer put it to me, we are stealing demand and production from the future. So even as we get a V-shaped recovery now and into next year, 2011 may pay the piper for both low growth and higher inflation. Stocks could have another four to six months to rally. And that’s great for increasing the wealth of the investor class, and maybe even enhancing the animal spirits a bit. But the policy mix is wrong. Health-care entitlements and taxes punctuate the wrong-way policy mix. And what’s left to be seen is whether the Republicans can successfully challenge the Democrats with a true supply-side economic-growth and job-creating
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15 October 2009
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Sound Money Essay Contest [Cato at Liberty]
Libertarianism on TV [Cato at Liberty]
OCT 14, 2009 11:16A.M.
OCT 14, 2009 10:39A.M.
Our friends at the Atlas Economic Research Foundation are offering prizes for the best essays on sound money by students and young faculty and policy analysts:
I talked with Dennis McCuistion, whose interview program appears on KERA in Dallas and other public television stations, about “libertarianism and the politics of freedom.” It’s an old-fashioned public affairs program, where the host asks intelligent questions for half an hour. No shouting, no four-minute segments, a good solid conversation. Find the video here. Other McCuistion programs with such guests as Dan
The Atlas Economic Research Foundation invites you to participate in its Sound Money Essay Contest, which has a deadline of November 24th, 2009.
Mitchell, Steve Moore, and Steve Forbes can be found here.
The contest is open to students, young faculty, and policy writers who are interested in the cause of sound money. It aims to engage you in thinking about sound money principles with relevance to today’s economic challenges.
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Club Op-Ed in USA Today [The Club for Growth]
The overall winner will receive a cash prize of $5000. Two additional prizes of $1000 each will be given to outstanding essays written by junior faculty, graduate students, or policy writers. And three additional prizes of $500 each will be given to outstanding essays written by undergraduate students.
OCT 14, 2009 10:25A.M. Club President Chris Chocola has an op-ed in this morning’s USA Today. The newspaper’s editorial board argues that the GOP needs to elect more moderates so that DC can become a more bipartisan place. Providing the opposing view, Chocola argues that bipartisanship is highly overrated. Excerpt:
Essay topics include: · “Money and the Free Society: Can Money Exist Outside of the State?”
Politics is about the battle of ideas and choices. Democrats did not win the majority in Congress or the White House by compromising. They did not oust the Republicans by helping them pass an agenda they did not agree with. They did not come into power by following advice to be more bipartisan. They did what the Republicans must now do to have any chance of gaining a sustainable majority and advancing their
· “The Ethical Implications of Monetary Manipulation” · “Monetary Policy and the Rule of Law in the United States” To be eligible, you must be a legal resident of the U.S. or engaged as a full-time student or faculty in the U.S. You must also be no more than 35 years old on the date of the contest deadline (November 24, 2009). Atlas welcomes involvement of older and non-U.S. scholars in its discussions and ongoing work on sound money, but this essay contest is targeted to the audience described above.
ideas. They fought for what they believed in.
For a list of reference materials and writing guidelines, please visit the Atlas website. And for Cato research on sound money, check here.
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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected]
15 October 2009
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The Improving State of New York City, circa 1800-2007 [Cato at Liberty]
A Tax That Would Finance the Road to Serfdom [Cato at Liberty]
OCT 14, 2009 08:50A.M.
OCT 14, 2009 08:40A.M.
Two figures that say it all.
Michael Tanner and Michael Cannon are working nonstop to derail government-run health care, but they better figure out how to work more than 24 hours per day, because if they fail, it is very likely that politicians will then look for a new revenue source to finance all the new spending that inevitably will follow. Unfortunately, that means a value-added tax (VAT) will be high on the list. Indeed, the VAT recently has been discussed by powerful political figures and key Obama allies such as the Co-Chairman of his transition team and the Speaker of the House. The VAT would be great news for the political insiders and beltway elite. A brand new source of revenue would mean more money for them to spend and a new set of loopholes to swap for campaign cash and lobbying fees. But as I explain in this new video from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, the evidence from Europe unambiguously suggests that a VAT will dramatically increase the burden of government. That’s good for Washington, but bad for America.
Death Rates (deaths per 1,000 population), New York City, c. 18002007. Source: NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene. Summary of Vital Statistics (2008). H/T to William Briggs for making me aware of this figure.
Even if the politicians are unsuccessful in their campaign to take over the health care system, there will be a VAT fight at some point in the next few years. This will be a Armageddon moment for proponents of limited government. Defeating a VAT is not a sufficient condition for controlling the size of government, but it surely is a necessary condition.
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The Dollar Decline Must End [Larry Kudlow’s Money Politic$] OCT 14, 2009 07:14A.M. You know I’ve been crusading to save the greenback and restore King Dollar. But new entitlements that open the door to a government takeover of the health-care sector are no way to do it. Not surprisingly, as the Baucus Bill made it out of the Finance Committee yesterday, the dollar fell once again and gold jumped (closing at $1,064). Not good. Smells like the 1970s.
Infant Mortality Rate (deaths per 1,000 live births), New York City, 1898-2007. In 1898 IMR was estimated to be 140.9 Because of incomplete reporting of early neonatal deaths, this is almost certainly an underestimate. In 2007 IMR was 5.4 deaths per 1,000 live births. Source: NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene. Summary of Vital Statistics (2008)
Just look at two ominous headlines in the news: First is the global shift out of the dollar and into commodities. Second is the dollar losing its reserve status to the yen and the euro. In the second quarter ending in June, central banks around the world
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invested 63 percent of their new cash reserves into euro and yen, and put only 37 percent into dollars. Over the past six months, the dollar has lost 15 percent while gold has climbed nearly $150. If this continues, spiking inflation and interest rates will choke off the bull market in stocks and do serious damage to the economy. It could happen fast. How to solve this problem? In supply-side terms, cut tax rates for new growth incentives. Meanwhile, the Fed must drain cash to remove dollars from the financial system and the Treasury must simultaneously buy dollars in the foreign-exchange markets. And Washington must stop its explosive spending and borrowing. Some statutory — or even constitutional — limits should be set. That the dollar is the world’s reserve currency is a tremendous asset for the United States. We must stop the fall of the dollar now. It’s a selfinflicted wound that will do great damage to American leadership and prestige globally, and to the economy here at home.
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An Interview with Sen. John Thune [Larry Kudlow’s Money Politic$] OCT 14, 2009 06:10A.M. Last night distinguished South Dakota Sen. John Thune, chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee, joined me to discuss the $829 billion Baucus bill just passed by the Senate Finance Committee, as well as the need for a clear TARP exit strategy. He’s got the story right on both. The interview begins at the 3:50 mark.
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15 October 2009
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