Burma Comes in from the Cold | Doug Bandow | Cato Institute: Commentary

Burma Comes in from the Cold | Doug Bandow | Cato Institute: Commentary: 'The Burmese people need investment and trade more than official development assistance, which has a dismal record of promoting sustained economic growth. Private capital would better encourage broad-based development and job creation, so desperately needed by one of the world’s poorest nations. Trade and investment also would strengthen the Burmese private sector, not government (through which most official “assistance” flows), helping to disperse power in a system characterized for decades by the dangerous combination of political and economic power.'

Iran evades US sanctions by paying with gold - CSMonitor.com

Iran evades US sanctions by paying with gold - CSMonitor.com: 'The sanctions have drastically cut its ability to obtain euro and dollar denominated financing, forcing Tehran to find alternative ways to pay for its imports.'

The Fed's Quasi-Fiscal Policies - David Howden - Mises Daily

The Fed's Quasi-Fiscal Policies - David Howden - Mises Daily: 'The Fed is seemingly less directly concerned with maintaining output, and more with keeping banks afloat'

'as the Fed bought low-quality assets to strengthen the banking system's balance sheet, it has increased the base money supply by almost 2 trillion dollars (or 250 percent)'

'inflationary pressures will appear if the Fed realizes a loss on its assets (which it has not had to do, as they remain largely unsold)'

'The Fed currently has about $800 billion worth of mortgage-backed securities included in its assets. Add to that $100 billion of federal-agency debt securities, not all of which are guaranteed by the federal government. Include roughly $35 billion worth of AIG assets still on the books, and the Fed has a sizable holding of inarguably low-quality assets.'

Unions ask Democrats in Walker recall to make veto pledge - JSOnline

Unions ask Democrats in Walker recall to make veto pledge - JSOnline: 'Falk, the former Dane County executive, has committed to restoring collective bargaining in the next state budget and vetoing the budget if those provisions come out, while at least three other candidates including Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said they wouldn't commit to any one strategy to accomplish that.'

Attack of the Pork Hawks | Doug Bandow | Cato Institute: Commentary

Attack of the Pork Hawks | Doug Bandow | Cato Institute: Commentary: 'the Department of Defense spends most of its money to protect other nations, including those that are populous and prosperous. All together, the Europeans have a larger GDP and population than America and ten times the GDP and three times the population of Russia. South Korea has 40 times the GDP and twice the population of North Korea. Why is the U.S. taxpayer still paying for their protection, 67 years after World War II ended?

Even worse has been Washington's foray into militarized nation-building. The Balkans remains a mess nearly two decades after Washington intervened. The Iraq War weakened America and strengthened Iran. The U.S. has been trying to create a competent, honest, and democratic central government in Kabul for a decade. None of these missions advances U.S. security.'

'Like liberals spending on education, these right-wingers equate money with results. Thus bigger Pentagon budgets mean increased national security. Only it's not true: greater military spending is strategic waste on a grand scale.'

'Washington already has a thousand military installations around the world. The American navy is equivalent to that of next 13 navies combined, 11 of which belong to U.S. allies.'

'Washington spends as much as the rest of the world — and spends more, in real terms, than at any point during the Korean War, Vietnam War, or Cold War. America could spend less and still possess far larger and more capable forces than anyone else.'

'Reductions in military spending, we are told, would be "totally destructive" and "very dangerous to the survival of the country," would "destroy" the Pentagon, set America on a "perilous course," be "dangerous and irresponsible," leave America "in the greatest peril," "would decimate our military," threaten America's "national security interests," be "totally devastating," send "a very horrible message" to America's enemies, create the "threat of gutting national security," "break" the military, "invite aggression," cause "severe and irreversible impact," leave America "teetering on the precipice of disaster," cause "catastrophic damage," "put our national security on the chopping block," leave "a hollow force," "disarm the United States unilaterally," result in "American lives lost," fail "to provide for the safety and security of our country," and call "into question our nation's ability to remain a free people."

All of this from returning military outlays to 2007 levels.

The fundamental question is whether military spending should respond to the threat environment. Leading Republicans answer no: America must always and in every situation spend more.'

Intellectual And Policy Corruption | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary

Intellectual And Policy Corruption | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary: 'The United States has dropped from No. 19 to No. 24 in Transparency International’s corruption index over the past three years. Reporters Without Borders‘ index shows an enormous drop in press freedom in the U.S. over the past three years, from a ranking of No. 20 to a dreadful No. 47.'

'Now, the Justice Department is requiring the Bank of America, as part of its settlement for alleged “lending discrimination,” to make large contributions to leftist groups that are not connected to the suit, including groups that are little more than renamed ACORNs.'

'You can identify some of the most intellectually corrupt in Congress, the media and the administration. They are the ones who are most vocal in railing against tax cheats yet fall strangely silent when the IRS cheats taxpayers by forcing them pay taxes on imaginary capital gains and interest because of government-caused inflation.'

MOMENT OF CLARITY: Fun Facts

MOMENT OF CLARITY: Fun Facts: 'So after benchmark-adjusting myself, I can report with a 90% confidence interval of /- 120, that I lost 60 pounds in January.� Sure beats working out…'

A Lack of Accountability: The Real Obscenity at the SEC | Mark A. Calabria | Cato Institute: Commentary

A Lack of Accountability: The Real Obscenity at the SEC | Mark A. Calabria | Cato Institute: Commentary: 'Worse, we also know several employees spent a considerable portion of their work day visiting pornographic websites, rather than monitoring the capital markets. The most obscene part, however, is that years after these discoveries have been made, the employees in question have yet to lose their jobs.'

'This is just another example, in a long list, of why relying on the relatively weak incentives of government regulatory oversight is inferior to relying on the strong incentives contained in market participants having their own wealth on the line.'

Six Reasons Why the Wars We Wage Often Go Wrong | Jim Powell | Cato Institute: Commentary

Six Reasons Why the Wars We Wage Often Go Wrong | Jim Powell | Cato Institute: Commentary: 'war is the most costly, violent and unpredictable thing governments do. Again and again, even decisive victories can turn out to be serious mistakes, if not catastrophes, because of unintended consequences. While we might be able to control what we do, we cannot control how other people react to what we do.

Here are 6 reasons why wars go wrong:

1. Nations at war often try to avenge their suffering, which means they are likely to inflame hatreds that persist for a long time and provoke more wars.'

'2. The overwhelming stresses of war can trigger economic chaos, political crises and totalitarian regimes.'

'3. If allies have conflicting aims, a war is likely to have conflicting outcomes.'

'4. A vulnerable adversary can become unbeatable if it unexpectedly gains a big ally.'

'5. Major powers can be thwarted by people who are fighting for their homeland, know their territory well and have nowhere else to go.'

'6. People don’t want somebody else building their nation, even when they’re making a mess of it — especially during a civil war.'

Misrepresenting Inequality - Gary Galles - Mises Daily

Misrepresenting Inequality - Gary Galles - Mises Daily: 'Several huge sources of wealth are omitted from the financial measures used by those fixated on inequality. These include pension-fund assets, which largely represent the retirement funds of the nonrich; Social Security wealth (the present value of benefits qualified for but not yet received); and human capital — the knowledge, energy, and abilities embodied in working people but not yet turned into financial wealth. These represent trillions of dollars of wealth, spread far more evenly through the population than financial-wealth measures imply. The same is true of our tremendous wealth in the form of consumer durable goods, from cars to refrigerators to computers. Such omissions guarantee misunderstanding.

Wealth-inequality complaints, in their rush to justify more government redistribution, also ignore many important determinants of financial-wealth differences. A key one is demographics. Disparities in measured wealth in large part reflect age differences in the population.'

'in-kind welfare programs go uncounted in the official data, so that they do not improve the measured situations of the poor. This is a very large error. Of the over $500 billion given annually in government means-tested assistance (not including another quarter trillion or so dollars Medicare spends on the elderly), roughly three-quarters is now given in kind.

The official data further omits taxes, disguising the disproportionate burdens borne by higher-income families. It also hides the impact of the Earned Income Tax Credit. Even though the EITC is refundable, putting dollars directly into recipients' pockets, it is ignored as a "negative tax," making its $40 billion plus in annual transfers to lower-income families disappear from view.

Income studies also fail to incorporate nonsalary benefits and payments to workers, which have increased most among those not at the top of income measures. Mark Warshawsky of the Social Security Advisory Board found that recent expansions in measured earnings inequality were almost completely attributable to rising benefits costs.'

'dramatically smaller inequalities in measures of consumption — far better indicators of well-being — than of current income'

'Many people have shifted from filing as businesses under the corporate tax to filing as individuals as a result of decreasing individual tax rates, dramatically exaggerating increases in their incomes. Top managers have also moved from receiving income as stock options taxed as capital gains to nonqualified stock options, making them countable as taxable personal income.'