Bret Stephens in the Wall Street Journal adds some nuance to Naomi Klein’s black-and-white picture of Milton Friedman’s contributions to the Chilean economy, noting how prosperity and effective enforcement of building codes have protected Chilean victims of the recent earthquake from the devastation that Haiti suffered:
“In left-wing mythology—notably Naomi Klein’s tedious 2007 screed “The Shock [...]
Tom Woods cites Pope John Paul II on the moral basis of material prosperity:
“According to John Paul II, “The moral causes of prosperity . . . reside in a constellation of virtues: industriousness, competence, order, honesty, initiative, frugality, thrift, spirit of service, keeping one’s word, daring — in short, love for work well done. No [...]
The Financial Times points out the quirks in the Chinese market that have Western companies racking their brains to stay on top of sales:
“The big spender in China, in years past and even more so today, is the state: private consumption as a percentage of gross domestic product has fallen from 60 per cent in [...]
the way the whole jim-bunning-is-shutting-down-the-federal-government thing is being played is going to bite you in the ass. the idea is that the dems can't believe their windfall: biden, reid etc all taking this big opportunity. supposedly the same thing killed the gop when they shut down the gov under gingrich etc. i don't think that these folks actually understand.
remember obama pledging pay-as-you-go, deficit reduction, fiscal responsibility etc.? the only exceptions to these principles that the administration is allowing is every piece of legislation they propose. but all bunning is doing is trying to enforce obama's supposed convictions. and if you don't think there's an anti-state-gigantism mood and a concern about trillions in deficits and debts, you haven't been watching. of course, anyone who actually was concerned about debt devouring our economy would be engaged in wacky conspiracy theories; racism; they'd be mere animals lashing out. and yet what they're saying would be true.
i feel that the people who are killing themselves here are the dems, and if it continues on like this, they'll lose both houses of congress.
the honorable joseph r. biden, vice president plenipotentiary of the united states and president of the senate llc, ph.d. (honorary), gesticulating randomly before the ruins of his party, policies, dreams
Jayant Bhandari in Liberty Unbound:
“Now, as I travel through India’s smaller towns and villages, I gather many impressions, both of change and of continuity.
I stay in rooms that cost me $2 a day, and purchase all-you-can-eat food for 50 cents. I pay my driver the princely sum of $7 a day. To Westerners, these prices [...]
A reader sent me an interesting email:
“THE BIG STORY HAS BEEN THE SPECIAL MASSACHUSSETTS ELECTION FOR TEDDY KENNEDY’S VACATED SEAT, WHICH WAS WON BY A REPUBLICAN. THAT DROVE A SILVER STAKE THROUGH THE HEART OF HEALTH CARE, CAP AND TRADE AND BAILOUTS.
I WAS PROUD OF THE TOWN HALL MEETINGS I VIEWED ON C SPAN , [...]
next time you hear geithner, or for that matter obama, throw down the "populist" anti-fatcat rhetoric, laugh in their faces. or when the thought occurs to you that the republican party represents corporate interests while the democratic party represents something else, return to that piece and read it again.
The whole inflation-deflation debate has always struck me as misbegotten. People use the terms to mean things so varied that it’s pointless to argue. But such as it is, I’m a firm believer in the deflationary thesis on the macro level… influenced in this by the economist Antal Fekete , and his theory of how [...]
New York Magazine had a piece in 2007 that sorted the hedge-fund elites into categories like “brainiacs” (like James Simon and Jim Chanos) and “bad boys” (like Daniel Loeb).
The category “Top dogs” (that is, the very best hedgies) includes SAC Capital Advisers/Steven Cohen ($12 b); Cerberus Capital/Stephen Feinberg ($19.5 b); Appaloosa Mgt/David Tepper ($5.3 b); [...]