Why Capitalism Is Worth Defending - Anthony Gregory - Mises Daily

Why Capitalism Is Worth Defending - Anthony Gregory - Mises Daily: "It is simply a fact that capitalism, even hampered by the state, has dragged most of the world out of the pitiful poverty that characterized all of human existence for millennia. It was industrialization that saved the common worker from the constant tedium of primitive agriculture. It was the commodification of labor that doomed slavery, serfdom, and feudalism. Capitalism is the liberator of women and the benefactor of all children who enjoy time for study and play rather than endure uninterrupted toil on the farm. Capitalism is the great mediator between tribes and nations, which first put aside their weapons and hatreds in the prospect of benefiting from mutual exchange."

Quackery or Well-Documented Fact? – Blogs, Life Issues | CitizenLink

Quackery or Well-Documented Fact? – Blogs, Life Issues | CitizenLink: "What is closer to quackery in your mind? Selling patients a bill of goods when it comes to the promise and potential of embryonic stem cell research or doing what Perry has undertaken when he puts his beliefs into action, using an approach that has paid off for thousands of patients?

Don’t forget, embryonic stem cell research has yet to cure a single patient anywhere in the world, at any point in its ten-plus year history. Yet proponents of embryonic stem cell research continue to push for more federal and state funding – i.e., more of your tax dollars to fund research that not only has yet to prove decent chance at a cure, but that also has serious moral and ethical problems.

Contrast that with adult stem cells – the kind that Perry had injected to treat his back – they do not require the destruction of a young human life, can be supplied directly from the person who needs the treatment, and that can be taken from any number of spots in an adult (or non-embryonic waste) body. This decision lines up with the evidence from thousands of patients – suffering from dozens of different diseases and conditions – that have been successfully treated in recent years"

Steve Jobs: Beauty justifies wealth | The Economist

Steve Jobs: Beauty justifies wealth | The Economist: Rather than focus on which mosquitoes to kill in Africa (Bill Gates is already focusing on that), Jobs has put his energy into massively improving quality of life with all of his inventions.
I endorse Mr Altucher's point that charity very often does rather less to improve quality of life than selling people ever better products at ever lower prices.

Why the USPS Should Be Privatized | Tad DeHaven | Cato Institute: Commentary

Why the USPS Should Be Privatized | Tad DeHaven | Cato Institute: Commentary: "If the USPS were a private business, it might be able adapt to the rapidly changing economic landscape and evolve into a viable commercial entity. But it’s not a private business — it’s a branch of the federal government. As a result, the USPS has been hopelessly hamstrung by constant meddling from politicians, as exemplified by the difficulty the USPS faces when trying to close post offices."

"In 2009, for example, the USPS looked at closing 3,200 post offices. Following a congressional outcry, the number under consideration was reduced to a mere 140. Two years later, only 80 have actually been closed."

"The USPS cannot close a post office “solely for operating at a deficit.” That’s a problem because four out of five post offices are operating at a loss."

"While the USPS is structured like a business — revenues from the sale of postal products are supposed to cover costs and it receives virtually no federal appropriations — Congress prevents it from actually operating like a private business by inhibiting its ability to reduce costs, improve efficiency or innovate."

Education in Seven Questions - Aaron Smith - Mises Daily

Education in Seven Questions - Aaron Smith - Mises Daily: "The natural tendency for politicians and technocrats in search of solutions is to devise grandiose plans that involve more testing, regulation, and spending. However, these schemes do nothing to alleviate the root cause of problems, and indeed only serve to perpetuate them."

"Below I've highlighted seven key questions that should be asked of our education system. Interestingly, all of the problems they touch on have one common culprit: mass standardization. While left-liberals love to espouse the virtues of diversity, their actions do not follow their words. Real diversity is achieved by respecting the liberties of individuals, not by forcing conformity on them. Real educational diversity requires the freedom to define and pursue education according to one's values, interests, and aptitude. Education will be revolutionized once these liberties are afforded."

The Myth of the Voluntary Military - Jeffrey A. Tucker - Mises Daily

The Myth of the Voluntary Military - Jeffrey A. Tucker - Mises Daily: "To leave once the war begins would amount to what the government calls desertion. This word sounds ominous, but in fact it merely describes what everyone in a civilized society takes for granted: the right to quit.

Deuteronomy's exhortation to encourage the Israelites into battle includes an invitation to freely leave: 'What man is there that is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go and return unto his house.'[1] But there is no such right in the modern US military. If you try to leave, you face coercion, particularly if you try to leave in wartime. In this way, the military differs from the police and the ranks of prison guards, jobs from which people are free to walk away without penalty."

"Both North and South claimed they were fighting in order to abolish a form of captivity — the right to self-government in one case, and the right to not be employed against one's will in the other — but the ability of the military to imprison and kill fleeing soldiers was never questioned. It is not often questioned today."

Debt Debate: A Pox on Both Parties | Jeffrey A. Miron | Cato Institute: Commentary

Debt Debate: A Pox on Both Parties | Jeffrey A. Miron | Cato Institute: Commentary: "The Republicans are correct that raising tax rates is a terrible idea. By discouraging savings, work and investment, higher rates dampen economic productivity in the long run. By reducing disposable income and corporate profits, they reduce consumption and investment in the short run. And higher rates will not raise as much revenue as initial forecasts.

But closing tax loopholes — lowering tax expenditure — is a terrific idea. Many tax expenditures distort economic decision-making and therefore slow economic growth. Crucial examples include the home-mortgage interest deduction and the preferential treatment of employer-provided health insurance. Thus Republican skepticism about explicit expenditure should apply equally to tax expenditure, regardless of the revenue implications."

Solving the Long-Term Jobs Problem | Arnold Kling and Nick Schulz | Cato Institute: Commentary

Solving the Long-Term Jobs Problem | Arnold Kling and Nick Schulz | Cato Institute: Commentary: "The problem today is that government policy is impeding innovation and job creation in these sectors. Both education and healthcare are already heavily influenced or controlled by federal and local government. That means that the evolution of those sectors is driven by top-down command and control, rather than by bottom-up innovation.

To revitalize these sectors and revive the American job market, we must open up these industries to competition and entrepreneurial reform."

"Imagine what might happen if government involvement in education were restricted to giving school vouchers to households below the median income. Entrepreneurs would be free to redesign education completely. Perhaps the very concept of a school would ultimately be replaced by different educational components with entirely different business models. Some companies might emerge as high-quality math educators and sell their services to individuals or schools or districts. Others might emerge as high-quality developers of social skills and builders of teamwork. Still other enterprises and services would emerge that no one can yet imagine.

Most importantly, as it relates to our current job problems, entrepreneurs would not be limited to a labor force consisting of people with teaching credentials. They could instead design their operations to use the available work force most efficiently. This could even mean taking workers without college diplomas (some of those hardest hit by the economic downturn) and training them to provide services to students. Perhaps less-educated workers could be involved in helping create and deliver rich-media content, based on guidance from experts with deep, specialized knowledge."

"In the corporate world, over the past century there has been rapid turnover in the companies making up the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Many corporate giants of three decades ago are no longer in business. In contrast, every member of the elite list of colleges of 1980 is still on such a list today.

Consider that many elite universities were founded with industrial fortunes. Think Leland Stanford, James Buchanan Duke, or Cornelius Vanderbilt. The legacy enterprises that created those fortunes have been upended, transformed, or demolished by competition and new technology. But the universities those fortunes founded remain near the top of the heap, shielded from entrepreneurial disruption."

Lessons from Norway's Horror | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary

Lessons from Norway's Horror | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary: But blaming Sarah Palin for Jared Loughner, or Al Gore for the Unabomber makes about as much sense as blaming Martin Scorsese and Jodie Foster for inciting John Hinckley. There's little to be learned from the acts of "the obsessed and deranged." But these incidents ought to teach us not to use tragedy to score partisan points.

Financial Chaos Winners | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary

Financial Chaos Winners | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary: "The U.S. government holds gold worth about $400 billion at present market prices. The president has the legal authority to sell the gold plus many other government assets. So even if Congress has not completed a debt-ceiling increase by Aug. 3, the administration could sell gold and other assets to cover any short-term revenue need before it received the legal authority to sell more bonds.

In addition, Mercatus Institute research fellow Veronique de Rugy has identified an additional couple of trillion dollars of U.S. government physical and trust fund assets that could be legally sold to cover budget shortfalls."

"The president has had months to present a plan to avoid the debt-increase chaos — and yet he has presented nothing on paper — only vague outlines of a plan that cannot be scored. The Republicans have passed a debt-limit increase, only to see it die in the Senate. The Senate has yet to come back with an alternative, as would be normal order. If the Senate is unhappy with the House bill, it ought to modify it and then take it to a House-Senate conference committee to work out the differences. It is fairly obvious that the Democrats see more of an advantage in market disruptions than the Republicans."

Repudiation Is an Option - Paul Cwik - Mises Daily

Repudiation Is an Option - Paul Cwik - Mises Daily: "Should we really feel bad for those who have purchased government bonds? They are the ones who have been feeding the monstrously reckless actions of the government. When they get (partially) burned, will they be willing to finance more government debt? Of course not. Suppose the Chinese decide not to lend any more to the US government. Is this really so bad? The government would have to deal with its future overspending.

Fundamentally, there is the issue of justice. Some people loaned the government their money for a return. Why should they have assumed that there was zero risk? When I invest in any other venture, there is always default risk. Why should the creditor to the government get to live under different rules?"

Government, So Five Years Ago! | The Freeman | Ideas On Liberty

Government, So Five Years Ago! | The Freeman | Ideas On Liberty: "Being able to connect your laptop to the Internet wirelessly on a citywide or even regional basis was the wave of the future – five years ago. All you needed was a $4 million investment and a private partner. If ever there were a surefire “shovel ready” infrastructure project that our elected officials believed could extend into the foreseeable future, this was it. The problem is, the future is very hard to foresee.

In this case, the project lasted two years. Then everyone starting buying iPhones and iPads and Droids and – poof! – all of a sudden you don’t need a laptop anymore to access the New York Times or email or Facebook. The superfluous Wi-Fi devices today have zero scrap value."

Contra Conventional Measures of the Growth of Government - Robert Higgs - Mises Daily

Contra Conventional Measures of the Growth of Government - Robert Higgs - Mises Daily: "That is, why should government's transfer spending increase whenever the economy's output of final goods and services increases? Indeed, such constancy would seem to betoken a kind of relative growth of government in its own right, inasmuch as people in a more productive economy presumably can get by more readily without government assistance; hence, as a rule, the ratio of transfers to GDP might be expected to fall in a growing economy rather than rise or even remain constant."

"people occupied with regulatory compliance are not truly privately employed"

Heavy Overall Expense Makes Such Rapid Transit Unfeasible | Randal O'Toole | Cato Institute: Commentary

Heavy Overall Expense Makes Such Rapid Transit Unfeasible | Randal O'Toole | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Take the Boston-to-Washington corridor, by far the densest in the nation. Amtrak's Acela may be the fastest way to get from downtown to downtown, but few people live or work downtown anymore, so the Acela carries only about 2 percent of passenger traffic in the corridor.

To cover its operating costs (but not its capital costs), Acela fares from New York to Washington begin at $139. By comparison, JetBlue fares begin at $39, while a variety of bus companies offering rides for $15 to $20 carry almost 50 percent more passenger miles than Amtrak. Buses take about 80 minutes longer than the Acela but offer free wireless Internet so travelers' time isn't wasted."

"Nor are trains particularly environmentally friendly. Intercity buses use 60 percent less energy per passenger mile as Amtrak trains, and when full life-cycle costs are counted, the difference is even greater."

E-Verify Threatens American Jobs and Liberties | Daniel Griswold | Cato Institute: Commentary

E-Verify Threatens American Jobs and Liberties | Daniel Griswold | Cato Institute: Commentary: "E-Verify sounds reasonable in principle, but a pilot program has exposed potential problems. A government-commissioned study by Westat found that the system failed to flag more than half of the unauthorized immigrants who applied to work at companies using the system.

The system also exposes too many legal workers to the risk of being falsely denied permission to work. As my Cato Institute colleague Jim Harper concluded in a study of the program, 'It would deny a sizable percentage of law-abiding American citizens the ability to work legally. Deemed ineligible by a database, millions each year would go pleading to the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration for the right to work.'"

"A 2009 study for the Cato Institute found that a 28.6 percent reduction in the number of unauthorized low-skilled immigrants in the United States through increased border and interior enforcement actually would cost U.S. households $80 billion a year. The study found that a resulting decline in immigrant labor would mean less investment, more money diverted to smuggler fees and other unproductive uses, and relatively fewer jobs further up the skills ladder."

Greek Bailouts, Free Speech Impediments and a Faux Debt-Ceiling Wrestling Match | Edward H. Crane | Cato Institute: Commentary

Greek Bailouts, Free Speech Impediments and a Faux Debt-Ceiling Wrestling Match | Edward H. Crane | Cato Institute: Commentary: "the Greek government owns so much private industry (and monopoly industries) that it could cover its debt obligations simply by creating a free enterprise system."

US War Debt Dances on the Ceiling | David Isenberg | Cato Institute: Commentary

US War Debt Dances on the Ceiling | David Isenberg | Cato Institute: Commentary: To grasp the bill US taxpayers will eventually have to pay try multiplying Nordhaus' 2002 estimate 30 to 40 times. That is the preliminary bottom line in a study released June 29 by the Watson Institute of Brown University, a new multi-author study of the costs of the post-September 11, 2001 wars.

The End of Progress? | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary

The End of Progress? | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary: "it takes some time to figure out how to regulate new industries. Old industries, such as energy production, transportation and education, are heavily regulated. Accordingly, the people do not get the benefits of lower costs and better products in these industries that would be possible if the regulators were not outlawing innovations. The United States and other governments are now in the process of destroying the global financial industry through misguided and destructive regulations. Few medical advances come from countries that have nationalized medicine, and if Obamacare is allowed to continue in the United States, it is almost a certainty that medical progress will be stifled and millions will die unnecessarily early.

The government has not figured out how to destroy the Internet and advances in computers. So the struggle goes on between those who try to innovate faster than the government can find ways to outlaw the future. It is no surprise that as governments grow, the rate of technological progress in those countries slows down and vice versa.

There is a titanic struggle now going on in Washington over the size of the U.S. government. Those who want a smaller government are, in effect, saying they want to unleash the future with all of its benefits by removing many of the regulatory and tax restrictions that impede human progress, while those who seek a bigger government are, in reality, pushing for a less prosperous and less kind future."

Real Journalism

Real Journalism: "According to most news sources, Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, and Michelle Bachmann are the frontrunners. So what qualifies them as such, and what sets them apart from the rest of the group?

I wasn't exactly sure myself. So, in order to answer this question, I have produced a simple calculation method for picking the frontrunners."

Hutt's Crushing Blow to Keynes - Hunter Lewis - Mises Daily

Hutt's Crushing Blow to Keynes - Hunter Lewis - Mises Daily: "the real source of unemployment is some disturbance in the price-and-profit system. Government cannot possibly help matters by intervening in ways that further distort and disturb that system."

"To grow, an economy must change. To change, assets and workers must be shifted from where they are less needed (less productive) to where they are more needed (more productive). These shifts will inevitably produce temporary unemployment. If there had never been unemployment, and thus no economic change, we would all still be living in caves, and there would be far fewer of us, because hunting and gathering would only support a small fraction of the present population."

"Is it more productive for a highly trained but unemployed engineer to bag groceries for pay or to invest time without pay in looking for an engineering job? If he or she took the grocery-bagging job, Keynes would presumably be satisfied; we would be closer to full employment. But the economy would clearly not be more productive, which it must be to create new jobs. We should also keep in mind that an employment-agency employee job searching for the engineer would be considered gainfully 'employed,' while the engineer doing the same work would still be 'unemployed.'"

"For the period 2002–2008, out-of-control Federal Reserve money printing and a host of other government policies and programs blew up the bubble. Millions of people not especially suited for construction were pulled into this sector and put to work building homes that, in the end, no one wanted. When the bubble burst, even the most highly trained construction workers suddenly found themselves unable to get any construction work at all."

"higher wages earned by unions actually come out of the pockets of other workers, not out of employers' profits, a point that is now well established but still little understood. This is true, in simple terms, because high wages reduce employment in unionized sectors, thereby increase labor supply in other sectors, which increased supply reduces nonunionized labor rates. In addition, workers are also consumers and may have to pay more for unionized-sector goods."

"free markets, without aiming for equal outcomes, produce both more equal opportunity and more equal outcomes than any other system."

Nelson Mandela and Volunteerism - Robert P. Murphy - Mises Daily

Nelson Mandela and Volunteerism - Robert P. Murphy - Mises Daily: "If someone is actually getting paid to do work, he or she knows that at least one person values it. In contrast, volunteer work may or may not be useful, because it lacks the feedback of market prices."

It's Time to Kick Farmers Off the Federal Dole | Doug Bandow | Cato Institute: Commentary

It's Time to Kick Farmers Off the Federal Dole | Doug Bandow | Cato Institute: Commentary: "But despite their rhetoric politicians do not spend much time worrying about those in poverty. The two biggest domestic programs provide middle class welfare: Social Security and Medicare. The Pentagon mostly provides welfare for populous and prosperous allies throughout Asia and Europe.

The rest of the federal budget is filled with outrageous special interest pay-offs."

"The system doesn't help consumers. Reducing supplies and imposing price floors obviously are bad deals for the hungry. Paying off farmers might lower some prices, but steals back through taxes any benefits received by consumers. Agricultural subsidies are designed by farmers for farmers."

"During the Reagan administration the government paid farmers to add cows for milking. Then it paid farmers to kill cows so they couldn't be milked. Along the way the government accumulated huge cheese surpluses that had to be given away, but only in a manner that did not reduce public demand for cheese."

A Beacon for US Trade Policy | Daniel J. Ikenson | Cato Institute: Commentary

A Beacon for US Trade Policy | Daniel J. Ikenson | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Using domestic reform as a bargaining chip in [trade] negotiations is akin to an athlete refusing to get fit for an event unless and until other competitors also agree to get fit."

"The concept of indivisibility reinforces the fact that domestic economic reform — rather than market liberalisation abroad — is the most effective trade policy. If governments wish their countries' industries to be internationally competitive, the focus should be on reducing home-grown frictions, removing superfluous domestic regulations and encouraging more competition at home, before looking to clear bottlenecks abroad."

"the primary focus of the Obama administration's National Export Initiative has been the reduction of foreign barriers to trade — the premise being that the most significant obstacles to US export success are foreign-made. But that's wrong. US exporters, like Australian exporters, are not born as exporters. They are first manufacturers, service providers, employers, importers, taxpayers and emitters of carbon, compelled in those capacities to comply with a growing web of mandates, regulations and restrictions that are often redundant or at cross purposes, impeding competitiveness at home and abroad. That is where the reform focus should be."

"a World Trade Organisation dispute settlement panel sided with the US government in its challenge of restraints imposed by the Chinese government on China's exports of nine crucial raw materials. US Trade Representative Ron Kirk was right to characterise the export restraints as harmful to downstream US industries that rely on those industrial inputs to compete effectively. But he failed to mention that the US government itself imposes import restrictions under the anti-dumping law on some of those raw materials, devastating firms in the same industries."

Jettison Those Musty Jobless Benefit and Union Rules | Chris Edwards | Cato Institute: Commentary

Jettison Those Musty Jobless Benefit and Union Rules | Chris Edwards | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Harvard University's Robert Barro estimated last year that recent expansions in [unemployment insurance] benefits pushed up the U.S. employment rate by about 2.7 percentage points."

"In 2002, the nation of Chile created personal UI savings accounts funded by payroll contributions. When workers lose their jobs, they draw on their UI accounts, giving them a strong incentive to find a job quickly and not deplete their funds. A detailed study of the Chilean system found that, indeed, workers using the new accounts had shorter spells of unemployment. A side benefit of Chile's system is that when workers retire, they have an additional pot of savings to enjoy."

"Collective bargaining is out of step with today's individualistic culture. The system is inconsistent with the right to freedom of association, and it effectively silences workers who disagree with union heads. Collective bargaining also creates rigid work structures in companies, which is damaging to firms competing in the dynamic global economy."

How Sweden Profits from For-Profit Schools | Andrew J. Coulson | Cato Institute: Commentary

How Sweden Profits from For-Profit Schools | Andrew J. Coulson | Cato Institute: Commentary: "The best teachers attract tens of thousands of students as news of their effectiveness spreads, sometimes becoming national celebrities. One such celebrity teacher is Woo Hyeong-cheol whose math classes attracted 50,000 on-line students last year, earning him $4 million — more than most of the nation's top professional athletes."

"So investors have a powerful incentive to pick only the best for-profit schools, and the for-profit schools have a powerful incentive to grow. My research on California's charter school networks suggests that philanthropists, who expect no financial return on their investment, are less careful in their choices.

To date, the profit motive has proven to be the only reliable way of ensuring that top schools and teachers routinely reach mass audiences, crowding out inferior services. Nations that exclude the profit motive from education have reduced the best schools to floating candles: beautifully illuminating their immediate vicinities, but doomed never to ignite a wider blaze."

Harris Interactive: Harris Polls > President Obama Would Lose if Mitt Romney or Rudy Giuliani Was the Nominee

Harris Interactive: Harris Polls > President Obama Would Lose if Mitt Romney or Rudy Giuliani Was the Nominee: "it seems there are three possible candidates who could give President Obama a difficult time. President Obama would lose his re-election if Rudy Giuliani (53% to 47%) or Mitt Romney (51% to 49%) was the Republican nominee. Each candidate would receive 50% of the vote if the President was running against Ron Paul. Right now, President Obama would win re-election against the 10 other candidates presented."

Two Trillion Isn't Enough | Tad DeHaven | Cato Institute: Commentary

Two Trillion Isn't Enough | Tad DeHaven | Cato Institute: Commentary: "On one side we have a president whose surrogates warn of economic Armageddon if the debt ceiling isn't raised, despite the fact that he himself voted against raising the limit in 2006 as the junior senator from Illinois. On the other side are congressional Republicans, tasked with negotiating spending cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling — the same guys who happily voted for big-spending legislation when it was their guy in the White House."

Fueling Freedom | Randal O'Toole | Cato Institute: Commentary

Fueling Freedom | Randal O'Toole | Cato Institute: Commentary: "the prospect of 'free' federal money from a program called New Starts led cities to plan outrageously expensive rail projects that provide little real improvement in transit service. Transit agencies often cannibalize their bus systems to provide local matching funds. The result is that after hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies, there is less per-capita urban transit ridership today than in 1980."

Lower the Debt Ceiling - Mark Thornton - Mises Daily

Lower the Debt Ceiling - Mark Thornton - Mises Daily: "reducing the debt ceiling would force the government to stop borrowing so much money from credit markets. This would leave significantly more credit available for the private sector. The shortage of capital is one of the most often cited reasons for the failure of the economy to recover."

Was the Space Shuttle Worth It? - Timothy D. Terrell - Mises Daily

Was the Space Shuttle Worth It? - Timothy D. Terrell - Mises Daily: "One NASA estimate — on the low end, because it does not account for inflation — is $115.5 billion, or around $860 million per launch. That's still far higher than NASA's original projection of $7 million per launch, predicated as it was on far more frequent launches. Two more recent estimates are $193 billion (in 2010 dollars) and $211 billion. For the program's 135 launches, that's $1.43 billion and $1.56 billion per launch, respectively."

Subsidized Grief - Mark A. Pribonic - Mises Daily

Subsidized Grief - Mark A. Pribonic - Mises Daily: "The repair of one house destroyed by violent winds is the responsibility of the homeowner and the insurance company. But if the same house is flattened along with hundreds of others in close proximity, it now becomes the responsibility of the taxpayers, even though the personal loss is no greater than for the stand-alone home."

"A family crouched in their basement awaiting the arrival of a destructive storm must hope that, if their house is destroyed, many others will be too. Similarly, if one is facing a potentially deadly situation, one may hope that numerous others will meet their fate at the same time and place, because then one's heirs will receive greater benefits."

Beneficiaries of Trade: You and Me | Daniel Griswold | Cato Institute: Commentary

Beneficiaries of Trade: You and Me | Daniel Griswold | Cato Institute: Commentary: "So, when the BEA reports that imports 'subtracted' two percentage points from economic growth in the past quarter, that doesn't mean that GDP would have grown that much faster without those pesky imports. It only means that other components — private and government expenditures, investment, and exports — were overstated by that amount. The subtraction reduces the overstatement, not real gross domestic product."

"Civilian employment expanded at a healthy 1.4% a year during periods of rising trade deficits, while job growth was virtually zero during stretches when the deficit was shrinking. The jobless rate declined an average of 0.4 percentage points per year when the trade gap was on an upward trend, and jumped a painful one point per year when the deficit was trending down. Apparently, the only thing worse for the U.S. economy than a rising trade deficit is a falling one."

Ode to the Warehouse - Jeffrey A. Tucker - Mises Daily

Ode to the Warehouse - Jeffrey A. Tucker - Mises Daily: "every item stored in a warehouse is seemingly idle in an economic sense, not currently employed in consumption or production. Everything is held here on the presumption that at some point someone will purchase it. This cannot be known for sure. It is a speculation, an entrepreneurial judgment that could be right or wrong.

If there were perfect information about the future, the warehouse wouldn't exist at all. All goods would be manufactured on a need-be basis only, with no storage needed or necessary. Despite its stillness and orderly calm, then, the warehouse embodies a wild leap into the unknown — a physical monument to the human capacity to imagine a future we cannot see."

Why U.S. Leaders Deceive Their Own People | Ted Galen Carpenter | Cato Institute: Commentary

Why U.S. Leaders Deceive Their Own People | Ted Galen Carpenter | Cato Institute: Commentary: "officials in democratic political systems are more likely to deceive their own people — even engaging in outright lies — than officials in autocratic systems. His reasoning on that point is solid, and he provides compelling evidence to support his case. Mearsheimer's thesis is that democratic leaders are much more dependent than autocrats on public support for foreign policy initiatives, especially when an initiative includes going to war. If the available evidence is weak that a major security threat exists, but political leaders believe that taking military action is in the national interest, a powerful incentive exists to inflate the threat to gain badly needed public support."

"political leaders are much more inclined to lie involving wars of choice rather than wars of necessity"

Gettysburg: Saving the Union at What Cost? | Doug Bandow | Cato Institute: Commentary

Gettysburg: Saving the Union at What Cost? | Doug Bandow | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Today U.S. officials criticize, and sometimes even bomb, other governments which forcibly prevent secession. The majority of Americans have come to believe that political arrangements should be voluntary. Thus, the fact that some people want to break away is no cause for war.

That was not the view in 1861, however."

Defaults, Debt Ceilings and the 14th Amendment | Robert A. Levy | Cato Institute: Commentary

Defaults, Debt Ceilings and the 14th Amendment | Robert A. Levy | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Congress and the president would be compelled either to reduce spending, raise taxes, sell the Treasury's mortgage-backed securities ($100 billion) or gold ($389 billion), delay principal and interest on debt held by the Federal Reserve (16% of total debt) or simply revalue the Treasury's gold certificates at the current market price (a gain of $378 billion) by amending the Par Value Modification Act. The choices to avoid default are numerous, notwithstanding a debt ceiling."

Oregon's Verdict on Medicaid | Michael F. Cannon | Cato Institute: Commentary

Oregon's Verdict on Medicaid | Michael F. Cannon | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Americans may be surprised to learn that little solid evidence exists to support the claim that expanding health insurance will improve the health and financial security of the uninsure"

"Medicaid coverage led to higher medical consumption"

"medical consumption was no higher in the first half of the year, suggesting there was no 'pent-up demand' for medical care"

"no discernible difference in ER use between Medicaid enrollees and the control group."

"The likelihood of having out-of-pocket medical expenses fell from 56 percent to 36 percent, while the likelihood of having to borrow money or skip paying other bills to pay for medical care fell from 36 percent to 21 percent. Enrollees' likelihood of having any type of unpaid bill sent to collection fell from 50 percent to 45 percent."

"no evidence that Medicare (which covers a much older and sicker population) saved any lives even ten years after its introduction."

"the likelihood of screening positive for depression fell from 33 percent to 25 percent, and the share reporting their health to be good or better rose from 55 percent to 68 percent. However, two-thirds of the improvement in self-reported health occurred almost immediately after enrollment, before any increases in medical consumption."

"despite being eligible for Medicaid, 13 percent of the control group had private health insurance — suggesting that on some dimension, Medicaid's eligibility rules are already too broad."

"For a century, the Left has advocated universal health insurance despite not knowing what benefits it might bring. In 2010, Congress and President Obama vastly expanded Medicaid without waiting for the results of the one study that might tell them what taxpayers would get in return for their half a trillion dollars. As the law's supporters seek to cajole doctors into practicing evidence-based medicine, it is no small irony that they themselves dove head-first into evidence-free policymaking."

How Pakistani minutemen are fighting the Taliban 'false Muslims' - CSMonitor.com

How Pakistani minutemen are fighting the Taliban 'false Muslims' - CSMonitor.com: "But three years ago Shahabuddin Khan, a farmer and the leader of the Salarzai tribe, called his men to arms to counter the Taliban, a group he calls “false Muslims.” That show of strength, together with the militants’ partiality for kidnapping and looting, helped shift public opinion here.

“Earlier people were fooled when they [the Taliban] played the Islam card. They carried out suicide attacks in our funeral prayers. They didn’t leave mosques alone. They can’t be Muslims, and the people now realize this,” he says."